The Structure and Origin of Naxi Month Names
He Jiren traces the structure and etymology of the twelve Naxi lunar-month names, comparing the eastern (Yongning) and western (Lijiang) dialects. He argues the eastern dialect preserves older forms, including a name for the eleventh month meaning 'pastoral-deity month' that reflects the Naxi's descent from nomadic ancient Qiang herders. Comparing Naxi with sister languages of the Yi branch (Yi, Hani, Lisu, Lahu, Jino), he shows most languages form 'moon/month' from two morphemes ('month' + 'bright'), and reconstructs how Naxi's own compound for 'moon' lost its original 'bright' morpheme's initial consonant, leaving it usable only within month names. He further shows the Lijiang word for 'second month' encodes a reference to the Naxi patron deity Sanduo's birth month, corroborated by ritual calendar practice, and argues on structural and historical grounds that the words for 'third month' and 'twelfth month' were borrowed directly from the Bai language, reflecting centuries of Naxi-Bai coexistence and intermarriage.
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