Yanan

See also: yanan, Yan'an, Yán'ān, yán'àn, and yàn'ān

English

Etymology 1

From Yana +‎ -an.

Noun

Yanan (plural Yanans)

1. (rare) Synonym of Yana (“(member of) a particular North American Indian people”).
   • 1891, Daniel Garrison Brinton, The American Race, page 109:

     Yanan or Nozi, Lassen Butte and Round Mountain. Pujunan or Maidu, east bank of Sacramento river.

   • 1901, T. Ranga Rao, “The Yánádis of the Nellore District”, in Madras Government Museum: Bulletin, volume 4, number 1 (Anthropology), Madras: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Press, page 88:

     Sixthly, the Editor of the Baptist Mission Review, commenting on the last theory, suggests a probable connection between the Yánádis of Southern India and the Yanans of North California. The latter are a North American tribe, who differ from the other Indian tribes of California in physique and language, and who, according to tradition, went from the far east to California. […] Nor is there any similarity between them and the Yanans.

   • 1902 July–September, “Notes and Queries: Folk-Lore of Anthropology”, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, volume 15, number 58, →JSTOR, page 190:

     The Yanans of northern California are among the latest of the Amerinds to be connected with the peoples of southern Asia by would-be ethnologists. In his account of the Yánádis of Nellore in the “Bulletin of the Madras Government Museum” (1901, iv. 88), Mr. T. Ranga Rao observes that “the editor of the ‘Baptist Mission Review’ . . . suggests a probable connection between the Yánádis of southern India and the Yanans of north California.”

   • 1948, A. Aiyappan, “XI: Criminal Tribes. Yenadi and Irula”, in Report on the Socio-economic Conditions of the Aboriginal Tribes of the Province of Madras, Madras: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Press, page 155:

     Based on this tradition, a foolish suggestion has been made that the Yenadis are negritos from the Malay Peninsula or Africa or Australia who were ship-wrecked on these shores. Even a connexion with the Yanans of North California has been suggested!

Proper noun

Yanan

1. (rare) Synonym of Yana (“extinct language of the Yana people”).
   • 2002, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, page 38:

     ( […] a Yanan-like system specifically could develop), the bias in a diachronic analysis of the Yanan system should probably be that it developed from an original three-vowel system. (Though other five-vowel systems will be […]

   • 2013, Thomas Sebeok, Native Languages of the Americas, volume 2, page 207:

     When Yanan is followed by Hokan-Siouan in the directory, no claim is made that a supposed Hokan-Siouan entity ever existed. All that is claimed is that if a scholar specializes in Yanan he will be more inclined to study languages […]

Adjective

Yanan (not comparable)

1. (rare) Of or pertaining to the Yana people of California or their language.
   • 1920, The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge, page 611:

     […] Yanan (or Noje, or Nozi) linguistic stock of North American Indians, whose former habitat was bounded on the east by a mountain range a little west of Lassen Butte, […]

   • 1951, Charles Haywood, “The California Area: Tribes. Yana”, in A Bibliography Of North American Folklore And Folksong, Book Two: The American Indians North of Mexico. Part Two: Bibliography of the Various Culture Areas, New York, N.Y.: Greenberg: Publisher, page 1040:

     The Yahi or Deer Creek Indians is the most southerly division of the Yanan stock.

   • 1988, Otis Tufton Mason, American Indian Basketry, page 528:

     Yanan or Nozi basketry

   • 2013 [2003], William Brandon, “Notes”, in The Rise and Fall North American Indians: From Prehistory through Geronimo, Lanham, MD: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, →ISBN, page 562:

     Nine Yanan persons appeared in the census of 1930: John R. Swanton, The Indian Tribes of North America (Washington 1953), 523.

   • 2014, Herbert W. Luthin, “Two Stories from the Yana (Yana)”, in Brian Swann, editor, Sky Loom: Native American Myth, Story, and Song, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 258:

     By most accounts, Sam Batwi was a lively but crotchety old man. He was also a natural-born storyteller, and the texts he gave Sapir in 1907 are full of detail, humor, suspense, and wisdom—stories that convey both the essential rhythms of Yana life and the fullest, freest swing of Yanan verbal art.

Etymology 2

延安服务区
YANAN SERVICE AREA

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of 延安 (Yán'ān), without syllable-dividing mark (隔音符號／隔音符号 (géyīn fúhào)).

Proper noun

Yanan

1. Alternative form of Yan'an
   • 1985, Jia You, “GENERAL ASPECTS OF STREET-LANES IN SHANGHAI”, in Min Dayong, transl., Anecdotes of Old Shanghai‎^[1], 1st edition, Shanghai Cultural Publishing House, →OCLC, page 137:

     Some of the famous inns like the Taian Inn and the Qianyi Inn located in the Jiaji Long (lane) to the north of Yangjingbang (the present Yanan Road, East) started their business in a lane.

   • 1987, Kevin Sinclair, “The Middle Reaches”, in The Yellow River: A 5000 Year Journey through China‎^[2], London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 87:

     But Shaanxi also commands attention from scholars of more modern times. It was into the unremarkable small market town of Yanan, a drab, inhospitable, inaccessible settlement, that in 1936 tramped a procession of weary peasant soldiers. These were troops of the Red Peasants’ and Workers’ Army, and at their head was a disgruntled intellectual named Mao Zedong. It was the end of the Long March, and it was to Yanan that Mao had led those few of his men who survived with him and tramped and fought their way across China. If Xian and other ancient capitals along the Huanghe and its tributaries are places of pilgrimage for those curious about the imperial past, then Yanan is likewise a magnet for those wishing to visit the cradle of the New China. Here, hacked into the loess cliff face, is the cave home where Mao lived for most of the eleven years that Yanan was headquarters of the communists.

   • 1997, Donald J. Marion, The Chinese Filmography: The 2444 Feature Films Produced by Studios in the People's Republic of China from 1949 through 1995‎^[3], McFarland & Company, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 212:

     After the Red Army sets up headquarters at Yanan in north Shanxi^{[sic – meaning Shaanxi]} province, he accepts a frontline post in repelling the Japanese invasion, and becomes commander of the New Fourth Army.

   • 2020 November 8, Harrison Smith, “Seymour Topping, high-powered foreign correspondent and editor, dies at 98”, in The Washington Post‎^[4], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 November 2020, Obituaries:

     While at Chinese Communist Party headquarters in Yanan, Mr. Topping watched peasant folk dances with Mao Zedong’s wife, Jiang Qing, who was later a driving force in the murderous purge dubbed the Cultural Revolution.

   • 2021 May 25, Martin Pollard, “Chinese visit 'red' sites ahead of 100th Communist Party anniversary”, in Reuters‎^[5], archived from the original on 25 May 2021:

     The idea of the motherland also featured in Yanan, the city in northwest China mythologised in party history as the birthplace of the revolution where Mao cemented his authority as party leader. Students were seen being asked to recite the patriotic song "Ode to the Motherland" by a tour guide.[...]
     Among the adult visitors, many, such as Zhang Zhaoyang from Hunan province, said they were in Yanan as part of a "red tourism" or party-building trip organised by their party unit or employer.[...]
     The push to study the party's history this year is a boon to tourism in red tourist hot spots like Yanan and Xibaipo, say officials. But the trend is not new.
     Before the pandemic, tourism in Yanan grew consistently, officials said, from 40.25 million visitors in 2016 to 73.08 million in 2019.[...]
     At Yanan's China Executive Leadership Academy, one of several across the country where senior officials study the party and its history, academy Vice Director Li Guoxi explained the chief aim of their courses.

   • 2022 January 2, Jack Lau, “Covid-19 in China: Xian cases edge down on New Year’s Day after worst week of 2021”, in South China Morning Post‎^[6], archived from the original on 02 January 2022:

     In Shaanxi, there was one other case apart from the 122 in Xian in Yanan, about 260km (162 miles) north of the provincial capital.

Usage notes

Yanan can be considered a misspelling of Yan'an. In theory, a syllable-dividing mark (隔音符號／隔音符号 (géyīn fúhào)) should be added before a non-initial syllable beginning with a, o, or e. Hence, Yanan could only ever refer to a word made up of ya and nan since a word made up of yan and an would be spelled as Yan'an (cf. Yan'an). In practice, syllable-dividing marks are often added or omitted at will.

Translations

prefecture-level city

• French: Yanan

Further reading

• “Yanan”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• Yan'an, Yanan at Google Ngram Viewer
• “Yanan” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.

French

Proper noun

Yanan ?

1. Alternative spelling of Yan’an (A prefecture-level city in Shaanxi, China)
   • 2013 August 1, Brice Pedroletti, “Comment les Chinois partent en vacances”, in Le Monde‎^[7], archived from the original on 05 August 2013:

     Il y a le tourisme rouge, qui vous entraîne sur les pas de Mao, comme à Yanan, dans le Shaanxi, l’ancien bastion révolutionnaire des communistes avant leur arrivée au pouvoir en 1949.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)