Linguistic Structure of Mosuo Village Names in Ninglang, Yunnan
This article analyzes the linguistic structure of Mosuo-language village names in Ninglang County, Yunnan, a region where Mosuo people have lived for over 1,500 years. Since Ninglang lacks a published gazetteer, the author compiled 157 village names through fieldwork, textual verification, and historical sources—especially the 1933 "Complete Regional Map of Yunnan Counties"—including both current Mosuo names and villages once named in Mosuo but later changed to Chinese names. The study examines phonological features (syllable length, tones, initials, and finals, revealing voiced initials, nasalized vowels, and consonantal finals), lexical features (place names formed from words and phrases referring to mountains, water, terrain, and historical events, distinguishing generic and specific terms, and original versus derived vocabulary), and grammatical structure. The analysis demonstrates how village-naming patterns reflect broader phonological, lexical, and grammatical characteristics of the Mosuo language, offering a valuable reference for understanding Mosuo toponymic culture and language given the absence of a complete Mosuo writing system.
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