Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County


Jinxiu is a county of eastern Guangxi, China, located in an area of relatively high concentrations of the Yao people. It is administered as the Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County of Laibin City. Established in 1952, with the name of Dayaoshan Autonomous Zone, in 1966, it was renamed as Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County. It has an area of, much of it mountainous, and a population in 2004 of approximately 150,000.

Administrative divisions

The county administers 3 towns and 7 townships:
Towns:
Townships:
Practically isolated from the outside world until the 1930s, Jinxiu was inhabited by five different branches of Yao: Chashan 茶山, Ao 坳, Hualan 花蓝, Pan 盘, and Shanzi 山子. The first three branches were considered the owners of the lands, as the dates of their first arrivals are estimated at around 1,000 years ago. They lived in settled villages and enjoyed some economic stability. The Pan 盘 and Shanzi 山子 are more recent arrivals, and they lived as tenants of the other established Yao people, living a nomadic life that did not allow them to accumulate many material possessions.

Languages

The languages spoken by each five Yao groups are as follows. Unless indicated otherwise, all locations are in Jinxiu County.
Additionally, Jiongnai is spoken in Liuxiang 六巷乡, and Longhua 龙化村 of Changdong 长垌乡. Mao Zongwu notes that Jiongnai speakers are also given the exonym "Hualan Yao" 花蓝瑶.
L.-Thongkum proposes the following classification scheme for the languages of the four Mienic-speaking groups, which go back to what she calls the Proto-Mjuenic language.