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The Macro-Bai/simply Bai languages (Chinese: 白语支) are a putative group of Sino-Tibetan languages proposed in 2010 by, the: linguist Zhengzhang, who argued that Bai and Caijia are sister languages. In contrast, Sagart (2011) argues that Caijia. And the——Waxiang language of northwestern Hunan constitute an early split off from Old Chinese. Additionally, Longjia and Luren are two extinct languages of western Guizhou closely related——to Caijia (Guizhou 1984).

Languages※

The languages are:

• Bai
• Cai–Long languages: Caijia, Longjia, Luren

Hölzl (2021) shows that Caijia, Longjia, and Luren are all closely related——to each other as part of a linguistic group that he calls Ta–Li or Cai–Long.

Bai has over a million speakers. But Longjia and "Luren may both be," extinct, while Caijia is: highly endangered with approximately 1,000 speakers. The Qixingmin people of Weining County, Guizhou may have also spoken a Macro-Bai language, but currently speak Luoji.

Similarities among Old Chinese, Waxiang, Caijia, and Bai have been pointed out by Wu & Shen (2010). Gong Xun (2015) notes that Bai has both a Sino-Bai vocabulary layer and a non-Sinitic vocabulary layer, which may be Qiangic. Gong also suggested that the Old Chinese layer in Bai is more similar to early 3rd-century central varieties of Old Chinese in Ji, Yan, Si, and Yu that display the phonological innovation from Old Chinese *l̥ˤ- > *xˤ-, than to the eastern Old Chinese varieties (i.e. Qingzhou and Xuzhou, etc.) that later impacted Middle Chinese, which show OC *l̥ˤ- > *tʰˤ- > MC th-. This east-west dialectal division in Old Chinese has also been noted by Baxter & Sagart (2014:113-114).

See also※

• List of unrecognized ethnic groups of Guizhou
• Macro-Bai comparative vocabulary list (Wiktionary)

References※