Standard Zhuang (autonym: , , (pre-1982: ; Sawndip: ); ) is the official standardized form of the Zhuang languages, which are a branch of the Northern Tai languages. Its pronunciation is based on that of the Yongbei Zhuang dialect of Shuangqiao Town in Wuming District, Guangxi with some influence from Fuliang, also in Wuming District, while its vocabulary is based mainly on northern dialects. The official standard covers both spoken and written Zhuang. It is the national standard of the Zhuang languages, though in Yunnan a local standard is used. Phonology The following displays the phonological features of the Wuming and northern dialects of Zhuang: Consonants Among other northern dialects of Zhuang, may be heard as a or sound. Absent consonant produces . An unusual and rare feature that Zhuang possesses is the lack of /s/, which is a common fricative among most languages that have them (one other notable exception is in the Australian languages), and yet Zhuang has five fricatives and no /s/. Vowels [] only occurs in diphthong or triphthong sounds. can occur in recent Chinese loanwords. Among other northern Zhuang dialects, // have shortened allophones of []. Tones Standard Zhuang has six tones, reduced to two (numbered 3 and 6) in checked syllables: The sentence () "Teach thee to climb on a horse to cross a river" is often used to help people remember the six tones. Tones for open syllables (not terminated by a closing consonant) are written at end of syllables. Grammar Pronouns Syntax Zhuang uses an SVO word order. Words Zhuang words can be made up of one, two, or three syllables - one and two-syllable words (e.g. ) cannot be broken down into morphemes, but trisyllabic words can be. Compound words also exist - for example, . Prefixes and suffixes are also frequently used, such as "-" (borrowed from ). Reduplication is also used. Orthography Classification Standard Zhuang is an artificial mixture of several Zhuang languages. The lexicon is based almost entirely on various Northern Zhuang dialects. The phonology is essentially that of Shuangqiao, with the addition of ny, ei, ou from Fuliang, both located in Wuming County. Zhang (1999), along with other Chinese scholars, classifies Shuangqiao dialect as Northern Tai (Northern Zhuang). Shuangqiao was chosen for the standard pronunciation in the 1950s because it was considered to be Northern Zhuang but with characteristics of Southern Zhuang. Domains of use Standard Zhuang