Luoji language


Luoji is a moribund Loloish language of Weining County, Guizhou, China that is spoken by the Qixingmin people. There are a few semi-fluent elderly speakers in Shejie Village 蛇街村, Yangjie Town 羊街镇, Weining County, with no fluent speakers remaining.

Classification

The Qixingmin speak a language closely related to the local Yi language, which is intermediate between the Western and Eastern Yi dialects of Weining County. Some vocabulary items differ, such as the word for 'chili pepper', which is "zi 自" in the Western Yi dialect, "shapo 傻迫" in the Eastern Yi dialect, and "boji 薄几" in Qixingmin.
However, the Qixingmin claim that they are distinct from the Yi, and that their ancestors spoke a non-Yi language that had become extinct centuries ago.
Qixingmin is geographically located between the Western Yi and Eastern Yi areas. These languages are spoken in: