Chinese Loanwords and Their Native Correspondences in the Naxi Language of Lashi Town, from the Perspective of Interethnic Contact, Exchange, and Blending
Based on 2024 field research among 107 informants in Lashi Town, Yulong Naxi Autonomous County (Lijiang, Yunnan), this study catalogs Chinese loanwords among 2,000 basic Naxi vocabulary items. Of these, 404 words (20.20%) are Chinese loanwords or native correspondences: 289 Modern Chinese loanwords (71.53%, borrowed mainly after 1949 via transliteration, predominantly nouns), 100 Middle Chinese loanwords (24.75%, borrowed roughly between the 3rd and 10th centuries, showing systematic loss of Middle Chinese nasal and stop codas), and 15 words corresponding to Old Chinese reconstructions (3.71%). The author documents detailed initial-, final-, and tone-correspondence patterns between Naxi and both the historical Chinese strata and the modern Lijiang Mandarin dialect. The findings are presented as linguistic evidence that the Naxi people's contact, exchange, and blending with neighboring ethnic groups began in antiquity and has deepened continuously since 1949, accelerating further with tourism, urbanization, and informatization.
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