An Analysis of He Jiren's Research on Ethnic Minority Languages and His Scholarly Thought
This article profiles He Jiren (1921-), a pioneering first-generation Naxi linguist trained by New China, surveying his contributions across five areas: classification of Naxi dialects (Eastern/Western, with six sub-dialects) through phonological, lexical, and grammatical comparison; his 1956-58 design and later revision of the Latin-based Naxi romanized script; his etymological research on Naxi ethnonyms (Naxi, Moxie, Namuyi, etc.) tracing self-designations versus exonyms; his development of translation principles ("accuracy, fluency, comprehensibility") for Dongba scripture and minority-language texts, including a challenge to the claim that "Ji'a" in Dongba texts means India (he argued it means Qinghai); and his work on ethnic identification (Kucong, Mallimasa/Mosuo) and language-affiliation questions (Kazhuo, Bai). The article, by Xu Yi, presents He as a foundational, still-active figure in Chinese ethnolinguistics who also researched Lahu, Yi, Bai, Nu, and Mongol (Kazhuo) languages.
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