Ersu

Abstract

The Ersu language (/é-svxò/, ěrsu¯yǔ, ISO-639 code ers) is spoken by approximately 16,800 people who reside in five counties in Sichuan Province in the People's Republic of China: (i) Ganluo, and (ii) Yuexi counties of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, (iii) Shimian and (iv) Hanyuan counties of Ya'an Municipality, and (iv) Jiulong, Written Tibetan, hereafter WT brgyad zur) county of Ganzi (WT dkar mdzes) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Ersu has two closely related sister languages: Lizu (/li55 -zu55-h͡55/ or /ly55 -zu55-h͡55/,liruyu lìsu¯yu and Duoxu (/do33-6u33-na 31/, dou¯xùyu or Lizu is spoken in the neighbouring counties of (i) Muli Tibetan Autonomous County (WT smi li rang skyong rdzong), (ii) Mianning, and (iii) Jiulong; whereas Duoxu is spoken in the county of Mianning, all in Sichuan province (see the map in Figure 1).(Figure Presented).