Nu Culture What is the history of the Nu language?

The ancestors of the Nu people did not have a written language, and there are very few records of the Nu people in Chinese historical books. Nu language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family, and from the perspective of language branches, due to the complex origin of the Nu people, coupled with the constraints of transportation and other factors in history, the language of each branch is not comprehensible. So far, the linguistic community has not been able to make a clear division of the genus of Nu.

As a result of living in harmony with other ethnic groups, the Nu usually speak one or more languages such as Lisu, Dulong, Chinese, Tibetan, Lemo and Naxi, and some can master four or five languages.

Gongshan Nu and Fugong Nu and Dulong can talk partially, and the grammar is basically the same. According to the experts' comparison of 459 words in Nuyu and Dulong languages, about 10% of them have the same phonetic meaning, and about 25% have the same meaning and similar phonetics, and some of them can talk. The grammatical phenomena of Fugong Nu and Dulong are generally the same, but the vocabulary is quite different, and the two languages cannot communicate with each other.

The Nu language is passed from parents to children, and the inheritance is good. The Nu language has been passed down well on both sides of the Nu River, and it is widely spread, and 98% of the local Nu people can speak the Nu language fluently.

The languages of each branch of the Nu tribe do not have corresponding scripts, and the dialects of different villages are also different. People have used spoken language for generations to pass on the history and culture of their own people, conduct interpersonal interactions, and exchange thoughts and feelings. Historically, the original methods of "knotting rope counts" and "carving wood records" have been followed in ancient times to record and transmit information.

1. The languages used by the four ethnic groups all belong to the Tibeto-Burman language group in Sino-Tibetan. Moreover, among these four ethnic groups, the language of the Nu Su and the language of the Nu are very similar to the language of the Yi people in Yunnan Province. However, the languages of the Gongshan Nu and Anu are 108,000 miles different from those of the Yi.

So today's Nu languages are mainly divided into two main categories. Those that are similar to the Yi language are in one category, and those that are not similar to the Yi language are in the other category.

The ancestors of the Nu nationality did not have a written language, they have been following the ancient "knotted rope counting", "carved wood records" of the original method, mixed with other ethnic groups, only to master and learn the words of other ethnic groups, but it is also very complicated, and there is no unity, divided into Gongshan Nu language and Fugong Nu language, Dulong language.

There are about 27,000 Nu people, mainly living in Gongshan, Bijiang and Fugong counties in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, and a small number in Lanping County and Weixi County in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The Nu people have lived on both sides of the Nu and Lancang rivers for generations, and their ancestors can be traced back to the inhabitants of the ancient Gongshan area who called themselves "dragons" or "dragons", so they should be related to the Dulong people. The Nu people in the Bijiang area in the south may have originated from a branch of the ancient "Luluman", so they have a close relationship with the Yi people.

Nu language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family, and there are three dialect areas of Gongshan, Bijiang and Fugong, and the difference is so great that it is even impossible to communicate with each other. Due to the different languages, ** and settlements, the Nu folk ** form two style areas in the south and the north. About 40 years ago, some Nu people still had many remnants of the primitive commune system, and in recent years, the productive forces have developed greatly.

The Nu people are based on farming, believe in multiple gods, worship totems, and some Nu people believe in Tibetan Buddhism and Catholicism. The Nu tradition** belongs to the East Asian music system.