[4] It is important to the reconstruction of the hypothetical macrofamily Austro-Tai as it retains the disyllabic roots characteristic of Austronesian languages.
[5] The Buyang (布央) dialect cluster is spoken by a total of around 2,000 people living mostly in the Gula (谷拉) River valley of southeastern Yunnan Province.
It is spoken in at least eight villages[6] in Gula Township 谷拉乡, Funing County 富宁县, Wenshan Zhuang–Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan.
The following are the sounds of the Funing dialects: Pre-Buyang, the stage in the evolution of the language that can be reconstructed from internal evidence, appears to have had a slightly different phonemic inventory than the modern dialects: a voiced stop *ɢ paired with *q,[18] as well as voiced *ɦ alongside *h,[19] and a pair of sibilants *s, *z.
[20] In addition, it doesn't appear to have had a series of aspirated consonants, a condition still found in the Ecun dialect.