Lakkia language


The Lakkia language, also spelled Lakkja, is a Kra–Dai language spoken in Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County, Laibin, east-central Guangxi, China.
Lakkia speakers are thought to have migrated from further east, possibly from the Biao-speaking areas of northwestern Guangdong province. Today, they live mostly in the Dayaoshan region of Jinxiu County.

Names

Lakkia people are also known as the Cháshān Yáo 茶山瑶, meaning "Tea Mountain Yao", since they were traditionally considered by neighboring peoples to be ethnic Yao people. The name Lakkia is an autonym that means "mountain people". All Lakkia dialects have 5 tones.

Classification

There is currently no consensus on the classification of Lakkia within the Kra–Dai family. Solnit and Hansell classify Lakkia as a sister of the Kam–Sui branch. Additionally, Solnit classifies Biao and Lakkia together as part of a Biao-Lakkia branch that is coordinate to Kam-Sui. However, L.-Thongkum considers Lakkia to be most closely related to the Tai branch, based on the large number of shared lexical items.

Dialects

Dialects of Lakkia include :
The Lingzu dialect still preserves /kl-/ initial clusters, which corresponds to /kj-/ in most other dialects. Additionally, Changdong 长洞 and Jintian 金田 tone corresponds to Jinxiu 金秀 tone . Also, L.-Thongkum reports that Jintian 金田 is a less conservative dialect.

Distribution

Lakkia is spoken in the following locations.