Contact and attrition in Sun Hongkai’s Anong:Complementary sources of changeGraham Thurgood and Fengxiang LiCalifornia State University Chico0.0 IntroductionAnong, a Tibeto-Burman language of Yunnan, is in its lastgeneration—in 1999, there were 62 fluent speakers left, allover 50. The descriptive material on Anong is quite limited;what there is all comes from the work of Sun Hongkai,particularly 1988, 1999a, and a preliminary, but still usefulwordlist (Sun ms.); a little additional data can be found in SunHongkai 1999b and Sun and Li 2001. Cf. also the beginning ofThurgood 2003, which describes the language setting morefully.In Sun 1999a, Sun makes a number of observations aboutthe path of decline being followed by Anong, a language hehas been documenting off and on since 1960. This pieceaugments that work, providing data to substantiate many ofthose observations and teasing out, where plausible, whichchanges represent largely internally-motivated attrition, whichchanges represent external contact with Lisu (and, secondarily,Chinese), and where and how the two mutually reinforce oneanother. In doing so, we draw on data from the Nungishlanguages (Trung (Dulong), Nujiang, and Rawang), thelanguages most-closely related to Anong and on data from Lisuand secondarily Chinese, the languages Anong speakers aremost intimately in contact with.0.1 Contact and attritionAnong language contact is primarily with Lisu andsecondarily with Chinese. In a 1999 survey only 62 of theroughly six thousand ethnic Anong were still fluent in Anong.The majority have shifted to Lisu, with a handful of othershaving shifted to Chinese and a still smaller number havingshifted to Bai. Our own examination of the vocabulary agreeswith Sun’s assessment: there are a significant number of loansfrom Chinese and from Lisu, but thus far no discernible bodyof loans from Bai, nor any evidence of Bai influence onAnong.The evidence for intense contact is particularly evident intwo areas: The replacement of a great deal of native vocabularyby Lisu and Chinese loanwords and the fact that even amongthe most fluent Anong speakers, most Anong speak Lisu betterthan Anong.1. Loss of native vocabularyIn passing, Sun notes (1999a:354) that Anong speakersfrequently used Lisu words in place of common Anong, givingas an example his language consultant using the Lisu adverb[a£¡kæ∑∞∞] in place of the Anong equivalent [ba£¡®Ω£¡] ‘very,extremely, particularly’. Sun further notes that the numeralsystem had begun to disappear; some fluent speakers couldcount to a hundred, but the less fluent could only count up toten. Even less skilled speakers only used Anong for numbersbelow ten, using Lisu for numbers above ten. Other speakersused Lisu for all numbers.In terms of specific numbers, Sun (1999a:354) recorded2,600 words in 1960, of which some 5% were Chinese loansand some 8% from Lisu. In 1999, he both rechecked theoriginal words and elicited many more. In 1999, the lexiconwas now around 8% Chinese loans, with the percentage of Lisuloans more than doubled to around 17%.TABLE 1. Chinese and Lisu loans in Anongyear total wordsChineseloansLisuloans1960 2,600 5% 8%1999 4,900 8% 17%The numbers in Sun’s 1999a article were not accompaniedby any data, but the two tables below, Table 2: Lisuborrowings in Anong and Table 3: Chinese borrowings inAnong, support Sun’s assessment: there are roughly twice asmany Lisu borrowings as Chinese borrowings.1.1 Lisu loansTABLE 2. Lisu borrowings in AnongLisu Anong PinyinTrung Nujiangn‰¢¢tsæΩ¢¡ n‰∞∞tsæΩ£¡ y\ao --- --- medicinetæ壡 tæ壡 bi|e--- --- don’tlu£¡ lu£¡ l|ong --- --- dragonl壡så∞∞ l壡m∑∞∞du£¡ b\aozi --- --- leopardtsæe£∞ tsæe∞£ l\u˚∑£¡wå∞∞˚u£¡wå∞∞ deer≥uå∞∞l壡 ≥uå∞∞l壡 shu«it«as∑£¡%”åm∞£ s∑£¡%”åm∞£ otter≥uå∞∞ -t ≥uå∞∞ y|u≥å∞∞pl”å÷n”åm£¡pl”å÷∞∞fishlå£∞dz∑¢¡ lå£∞dzi÷£¡ l\aji—ao b%å∞∞ci∞∞b壡t˚i∞∞ peppern墢do¢¢ n壡do∞∞ ti—anhu—ab∑‰£∞ --- smallpoxtæo£¡ då∞∞t®æå∞∞ p|engyou --- --- friendm‰∞∞vu££ m‰∞∞vu£¡ n«Ÿuxu --- --- son-in-lawz墡m∑¢¡ t˚æ‰∞∞÷m∑£¡ nŸ«ur|en --- --- daughterl壡tæå∞∞ l壡tæå∞∞ m\o--- --- a millmo£¡gu壡 mu∞∞kuå∞∞ g—ekø∞∞ kø∞∞ songp扢¡ p扣∞ q|izi --- --- flag;bannerdÔΩ£¡li£¡ di£¡li∞∞ d|izi --- --- bambooflute©∑££≥o£¡ ©∑∞∞ y«ingzi --- --- shadowtsæΩ∞∞ t˚æi∞∞m∑∞∞ b\i--- --- close(eyes)nå∞∞ ß≥∞∞nå∞∞xo£¡ sh\an --- --- castratexu墢 ¬åu£ x|unzh«ao lå∞∞(løn∞∞) lå∞£ look forli∞∞ †æi£¡‚i£¡ hu|an --- --- pay back,returnlo∞∞ lu≥∞∞ f\ei g%u∞£ g%u∞£ to barkpæu¢¢ pæu∞∞ b|ai --- --- white;silverbi¢¡le¢¢ ˚im∞∞b∑£¡ m«an --- --- fullpæu£¡kæå£∞ 壡pæ∑£∞‰£∞gu\i--- --- expensive壡kæ∑∞∞ 壡kæ∑∞∞ h«en g∑£¡m”åi∞£ --- veryx∑£¡∆Ω£¡ h‰£¡t®æΩ∞∞ h\anz|uÇå∞∞ då∞£ Hankæ∑£¡x∑¢¢-l墡m墢kæ∑£¡x∑∞∞-lå∞∞må∞∞w|ugong x%∑∞∞-d∑n∞£w”e÷∞∞g∑£¡-en∞£wet∞∞centipedex壡 ˚å÷∞∞b%∑n£∞ gu\o--- --- cross overtæe££ tæi£¡mu∞∞ shu—o--- --- speak; talkmi‰£¡kæu壡 n‰∞∞kæu壡 li|anji—e--- --- join; linkdÔΩ¢¢ dÂΩ∞£ m\o--- --- grind(rice)sΩ£¡pæu£¡ b墢pæu£¡ p|anggu—ang--- --- bladderm∑£¡tsΩ¢¢ m∑£¡tsΩ∞£ h|uzi --- --- beardbu£¡ bu∞∞g壡m∑∞∞ ch|ouzi --- --- silkpo¢¢lo¢¢ pu∞∞lu∞£ z«id\an --- --- bulletn‰¢¢tsæΩ¢¡-∆å£∞su¢¢n‰∞∞tsæΩ£¡%∑£¡-m∑n∞∞su∞∞y—ish—eng --- --- doctoro∞∞©o£¡m壣 au∞£m壡 g—um«u--- --- aunt (1)墢©o££au∞£pæ壡 sh—uf\u--- --- uncle (1)po£¡dÔ壣壡då∞∞u£¡ gu«anl«i--- --- to managemi‰¢¢b壣 n‰∞∞bå∞∞ j\ingzi --- --- mirrort∆æi¢¢l‰¢¡ t®æΩ∞∞kæ∑£¡ xi\uzi --- --- sleevedÔe££hi££ di£¡hi≥∞∞ f—eij—i--- --- airplane墢t扣¡t扣¡ kæå∞∞tæ壡- ch|ang --- frequentlyxo¢¢tsΩ¢¢ xo£¡tsΩ∞∞ d—ing ti≥∞∞ts∑∞£ --- a nailkæo¢¡∆Ω¢¡ kæo£¡®Ω£¡ gu\oni|an