The language is well preserved in the communities of dʑa⁵³qa⁵³tu¹¹, dʐə¹¹qu¹¹, and ʂa⁴⁴pa⁵³ –– particularly so in dʑa⁵³qa⁵³tu¹¹, where only residents under the age of twenty who have attended primary school can speak Chinese. In dʐə¹¹qu¹¹ and ʂa⁴⁴pa⁵³, Namuyi residents speak Namuyi among themselves and fluent Nuosu and passable Chinese to people who prefer to speak those languages. Namuyi is less well preserved in ɕa¹¹ma¹¹kʰu⁵³, where almost all Namuyi people also speak Nuosu and Chinese: residents born before 1955 speak Namuyi to each other, but while younger people understand a great deal of Namuyi, they prefer to converse in Nuosu or Chinese.

EXCERPT FROM SOURCE (p. 241): When [the first author's family] was asked why they insisted on speaking Nuosu to family members, they replied, "It is stupid to speak such a useless language as Namuyi these days. We have to communicate with our Nuosu friends in Nuosu. There are only a very few people who speak Namuyi. It's just like walking off a cliff with your eyes closed if you only speak Namuyi and refuse to speak Nuosu." When the author asked why their two seven year-old children only spoke and understood Chinese, they replied, "Who doesn't want their kids to find a good job, settle down, and have a comfortable family life? We should have our kids learn Chinese to help them find a job, shouldn't we?"

The form 'Namuyi' is a transliteration of a Chinese-character rendering of the word na⁵³mʑi⁵³ (Namuyi 納木依, Namuyi 納木義, or Namuzi 納木兹).

In dʐə¹¹qu¹¹, only about 10 percent of the population reads Chinese, two percent reads Nuosu, and only one reads Tibetan.

Included in the Tibetan nationality. Follow Tibetan Buddhism.