Laze, rendered in Chinese as Lare (拉热) and Shuitianhua (水田话), is a language of the Naish subbranch of the Naic group of languages, spoken in Muli County, western Sichuan, China.
Laze is spoken by less than 300 fluent speakers in Xiangjiao Township 项脚乡 within Muli County (Michaud & Jacques 2012).
Name
The name Laze (IPA: [lɑ33ze33]) is likely to be a place name.
Recordings in Laze are available from the Pangloss Collection (an online archive of languages).
References
12Michaud, Alexis, and Guillaume Jacques. 2012. "The Phonology of Laze: Phonemic Analysis, Syllabic Inventory, and a Short Word List." Yuyanxue Luncong 语言学论丛 (45): 196–230.
12Guo Dalie, and He Zhiwu. 1994. Naxizu Shi (A History of the Naxi People). Chongqing: Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe.
↑Michaud, Alexis. 2009. [hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00436463/en “The Prosodic System of Muli Shuitian (Laze) (Muli Shuitianhua Shengdiao Xitong Yanjiu 木里水田话声调系统研究).”] Minority Languages of China (Minzu Yuwen 民族语文) 6: 28–33.