Nùng is a Kra–Dai language spoken mostly in Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn provinces in Vietnam and also in China and Laos. It is also known as Nong, Tai Nùng, Tay, and Tày Nùng. Nùng is the name given to the various Tai languages of northern Vietnam that are spoken by peoples classified as Nùng by the Vietnamese government. The Nùng were originally Zhuang people who migrated into Vietnam in the 16th and 18th centuries.
Speakers
In the 1999 census, it had about 856,000 speakers. It had about 968,800 speakers in the 2009 census.
In China, Nùng is spoken in the Wenshan Prefecture of Yunnan and neighbouring parts of Guangxi. Speakers of the Nùng language in China are classified as Zhuang.
Nùng Inh is spoken in western Lạng Sơn Province. It is identical with William J. Gedney's Western Nùng of Mường Khương, Lào Cai Province.
Nùng An is spoken in and around Quảng Uyên, Quảng Hòa District, Cao Bằng. Like the Long'an (隆安) speakers of Guangxi, it has a mixture of Northern and Central Tai features.
Nùng Vên (En), a language formerly undistinguished from surrounding Central Tai (Nùng) dialects, was discovered to be a Kra language by Hoàng Văn Ma and Jerold A. Edmondson in 1998. Its speakers are classified as Nùng by the Vietnamese government.
References
^Nùng at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^Saul, Janice E.; Wilson, Nancy Freiberger (1980). Nung Grammar. Publications in Linguistics, 62. Dallas: The Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. pp. 5–13.
^Edmondson, Jerold A., Solnit, David B. (eds). 1997. Comparative Kadai: the Tai branch. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics 124. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
Freiberger, Nancy (1976b). Thòi củ cưhn Nohng Fạn Slihng: Phong tục tập quán của người Nùng Phạn Slinh (Culture and Folklore of the Nung Fan Slihng). Series 64 E16. Summer Institute of Linguistics (Viện Chuyên Khảo Ngữ Học), Mainland Southeast Asia Branch.
Vy Thị Bé; Janice E. Saul; Nancy Freiberger Wilson (1982). Nung Fan Slihng - English Dictionary. Manila: Summer Institute of Linguistics (Viện Chuyên Khảo Ngữ Học).