Introduction

 

The Nong Zhuang language, also known as the Yan-Guang Vernacular of the Southern Zhuang dialect, is spoken by around half a million Zhuang nationality people most of whom live in the Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of southeastern Yunnan Province in China. This is the first attempt to compile a trilingual lexicon for the Nong Zhuang. Over more than a decade of research over four thousand words have been collected in the course of several different research projects as well as personal language study by the editor. The words in this dictionary come from a variety of Nong Zhuang areas and subdialects, but the majority of the data is from the Zhetu District of Guangnan County. There are many mistakes in this draft lexicon and still much work to do, but we have decided to publish this work-in-progress, in order to facilitate more Nong Zhuang speakers learning to use their language in written form and to encourage their own research into their language and culture. Our ambition is to publish early and often.

The Editor