The linguistic situation in Guangxi is poorly known among Western linguistic circles. This book is a reference grammar of Pinghua - the oldest Sinitic language in Guangxi - as spoken in the suburbs of Nanning, the capital of Guangxi.
Guangxi is linguistically diverse; Guangxi sits on the periphery of both the Sinitic world and Mainland Southeast Asia. The city of Nanning is itself dissected by various linguistic frontiers: other than with the indigenous Zhuang languages, Nanning Pinghua also interacts with Nanning Cantonese and Nanning Mandarin. Through investigating the linguistic structures of Nanning Pinghua, and comparing them with those in the other Nanning languages, one sees a complex contact situation: Pinghua and Zhuang have influenced each other a great deal, but sometimes Nanning Cantonese - the newest language in Nanning - can resemble the indigenous Zhuang more than Pinghua does. In this reference grammar we see that the phonology and grammar of Nanning Pinghua is mostly Far Southern Sinitic in nature: it resembles Cantonese, with influences from Zhuang. However, there are also some surprising grammatical traits in Nanning Pinghua which show its relatively deeper interactions with Mandarin.