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Qiangic
Qiangic (''Ch'iang, Kyang, Tsiang'', Chinese: 羌語支, "''Qiang'' language group"; formerly known as Dzorgaic) is a group of related languages within the Sino-Tibetan language family. They are spoken mainly in Southwest China, including Sichuan, Tibet and Yunnan. Most Qiangic languages are distributed in the prefectures of Ngawa, Garzê, Ya'an and Liangshan in Sichuan with some in Northern Yunnan as well. Qiangic speakers are variously classified as part of the Qiang, Tibetan, Pumi, Nakhi, and Mongol ethnic groups by the People's Republic of China. The extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia is considered to be Qiangic by some linguists, including Matisoff (2004).Matisoff, James. 2004"Brightening" and the place of Xixia (Tangut) in the Qiangic subgroup of Tibeto-Burman/ref> The undeciphered Nam language of China may possibly be related to Qiangic. Lamo, Larong and Drag-yab, or the Chamdo languages, a group of three closely related Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burmo-Qiangic Languages
The Burmo-Qiangic or Eastern Tibeto-Burman languages are a proposed family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Southwest China and Myanmar. It consists of the Lolo-Burmese and Qiangic branches, including the extinct Tangut language. Classification Guillaume Jacques & Alexis Michaud (2011)Jacques, Guillaume, and Alexis Michaud. 2011.Approaching the historical phonology of three highly eroded Sino-Tibetan languages" ''Diachronica'' 28:468–498. argue for a Burmo-Qiangic branch of Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) with two primary subbranches, Qiangic and Lolo-Burmese. Similarly, David Bradley (2008) proposes an Eastern Tibeto-Burman branch that includes Burmic ( Lolo-Burmese) and Qiangic. Bradley notes that Lolo-Burmese and Qiangic share some unique lexical items, even though they are morphologically quite different; whereas all Lolo-Burmese languages are tonal and analytical, Qiangic languages are often non-tonal and possess agglutinative morphology. However the position of Naic is u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rgyalrongic Languages
The Gyalrongic languages (also known as Rgyalrongic or Jiarongic) constitute a branch of the Qiangic languages of Sino-Tibetan, although some propose that it may be part of a larger Rung languages group, and do not consider it to be particularly closely related to Qiangic, suggesting that similarities between Gyalrongic and Qiangic may be due to areal influence. However, other work suggests that Qiangic as a whole may in fact be paraphyletic, with the only commonalities of the supposed "branch" being shared archaisms and areal features that were encouraged by contact. Jacques & Michaud (2011) propose that Qiangic including Gyalrongic may belong to a larger Burmo-Qiangic group based on some lexical innovations. Geographical distribution The Gyalrongic languages are spoken in Sichuan in China, mainly in the autonomous Tibetan and Qiang prefectures of Karmdzes and Rngaba. These languages are distinguished by their conservative morphology and their phonological archaisms, which ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naic Languages
The Naic or Naxish languages are a group of Sino-Tibetan languages that include Naxi, Na (Mosuo), Shixing (Xumi), and Namuyi (Namuzi). They have been variously classified as part of the Loloish or the Qiangic branch of Sino-Tibetan. The name "Naic" is derived from the endonym ''Na'' used by speakers of several of the languages. Classification Lama (2012) Lama (2012) lists the following languages in his Naxish clade, which he places in the Loloish branch. * Namuzi (') * Naxi (') ** Na: Mali Masa, Na (Moso) **etc. ***Naru ***Naheng, Naxi proper Lama (2012) lists the following sound changes from Proto-Loloish as Naxish innovations. * *sn > * *pw- > Jacques & Michaud (2011), Chirkova (2012) The Naic group (corresponding to Lama's Naxish clade) is classified as Qiangic and not Loloish by Guillaume Jacques & Alexis Michaud (2011).Jacques, Guillaume, and Alexis Michaud. 2011.Approaching the historical phonology of three highly eroded Sino-Tibetan languages: Naxi, Na and La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guiqiong Language
Guiqiong (autonym: '; ) is a poorly attested Qiangic language of Sichuan and Tibet. There are differences in the phonology of the dialects, but communication is possible. Two or three varieties have low mutual intelligibility with the rest. It may be the same language as ''Sötati-pö'' in early editions of ''Ethnologue''. Sun (1991) documents Guiqiong of Maiben Township 麦本乡, Yutong District 鱼通区, Kangding County 康定县, Sichuan (Sun 1991:227). The Qiangic languages are split into two language clusters. Guiqiong is categorized into a specific Qiangic cluster based on its vocabulary. This Qiangic language cluster also includes Zhaba, Queya, Ersu, Shixing, and Namuzi. Outside their villages, speakers communicate utilizing the Chinese language. Guiqiong is heavily influenced by the Chinese language, as it contains many loanwords.Hongkai, S. (1990). ''Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area'' (Vols. 13 - 1, pp. 11). (J. T, Trans.). The Guiqiong language utilizes four ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sino-Tibetan Languages
Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. Other Sino-Tibetan languages with large numbers of speakers include Burmese (33 million) and the Tibetic languages (6 million). Other languages of the family are spoken in the Himalayas, the Southeast Asian Massif, and the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Most of these have small speech communities in remote mountain areas, and as such are poorly documented. Several low-level subgroups have been securely reconstructed, but reconstruction of a proto-language for the family as a whole is still at an early stage, so the higher-level structure of Sino-Tibetan remains unclear. Although the family is traditionally presented as divided into Sinitic (i.e. Chinese) and Tibeto-Burman branches, a common origin of the non-Sinitic languages has n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qiang People
The Qiang people ( Qiangic: ''Rrmea''; ) are an ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approximately 310,000 in 2000. They live mainly in a mountainous region in the northwestern part of Sichuan (Szechwan) on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Names The modern Qiang refer to themselves as Rma ( or , , ''erma'' in Chinese or ''RRmea'' in Qiang orthography) or a dialect variant of this word. However, they did not define themselves with the Chinese term "Qiang ethnicity" ( zh, 羌族) until 1950, when they were officially designated ''Qiāngzú''. History People called " Qiang" have been mentioned in ancient Chinese texts since 3,000 years ago when they first appeared in oracle bone inscriptions. However, this term was applied to a variety of groups that might not be the same as the modern Qiang. Many of the people formerly designated as "Qiang" were gradually removed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tangut Language
Tangut (Tangut: ; ) is an extinct language in the Sino-Tibetan language family. Tangut was one of the official languages of the Western Xia dynasty, founded by the Tangut people in northwestern China. The Western Xia was annihilated by the Mongol Empire in 1227. The Tangut language has its own script, the Tangut script. The latest known text written in the Tangut language, the Tangut dharani pillars, dates to 1502, suggesting that the language was still in use nearly three hundred years after the collapse of Western Xia. Classification Since the 2010s, more Tangutologists have classified Tangut as a Qiangic and/or Gyalrongic language. On the basis of both morphological and lexical evidence, Lai et al. (2020) classify Tangut as a West Gyalrongic language. Rediscovery Modern research into the Tangut languages began in the late 19th century and early 20th century when S. W. Bushell, Gabriel Devéria, and Georges Morisse separately published decipherments of a number of Tangu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pumi Language
The Pumi language (also known as Prinmi) is a Qiangic language used by the Pumi people, an ethnic group from Yunnan, China, as well as by the Tibetan people of Muli in Sichuan, China. Most native speakers live in Lanping, Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi and Muli. The autonym of the Pumi is ' in Western Prinmi, ' in Central Prinmi, and ' in Northern Prinmi with variants such as ' and '. In Muli Bonist priests read religious texts in Tibetan, which needs to be interpreted into Prinmi. An attempt to teach Pumi children to write their language using the Tibetan script has been seen in Ninglang. A pinyin-based Roman script has been proposed, but is not commonly used. Dialects Earlier works suggest there are two branches of Pumi (southern and northern), and they are not mutually intelligible. Ding (2014) proposes three major groups: Western Prinmi (spoken in Lanping), Central Prinmi (spoken in southwestern Ninglang, Lijiang, Yulong and Yongsheng) and Northern Prinmi (spoken in northern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Choyo Language
Queyu (Choyo, Choyu) is a poorly attested Qiangic language of Yajiang County and Xinlong County, Sichuan, as well as Tibet. It is similar with and shares a name with Zhaba, but the two languages are distinct from each other. Dialects The four dialects of Choyo are those of:Suzuki, Hiroyuki and Sonam Wangmo. 2016. “Lhagang Choyu: A first look at its sociolinguistic status”''Studies in Asian Geolinguistics II: Rice'' pp.60–69. *Youlaxi Township 尤拉西乡, Xinlong County (Wang 1991; Huang ed. 1992) (which also has Western Horpa speakersSun, Jackson T.-S. 2018. The Ancestry of Horpa: Further Morphological Evidence'. Taipei: Academia Sinica.) *Rongba Township 绒坝乡, Litang County (Nishida 2008) *Tuanjie Township 团结乡, Yajiang County (Lu 1985; Sun ed. 1991) *Xiala Township 呷拉乡, Yajiang County (Prins & Nagano 2013) (which also has Dao speakers) Suzuki & Wangmo (2016) consider the Lhagang Choyu language to be similar to but not part of Choyu proper, which consis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ersu Languages
The Ersuic languages (, ''Ersu''; also called Duoxu or Erhsu) are a Qiangic language cluster of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Ersu languages are spoken by about 20,000 people in China as reported by . Muya (alternatively Menia or Menya) is reported to be related, but it is not known how it fits in. Ersuic speakers live in the western part of China's Sichuan province (several counties within the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, and the prefecture-level city of Ya'an). Most of them are classified by the Chinese government as members of the Tibetan ethnic group, although some also are registered as Han Chinese. Older adults mostly use Ersu, but younger people also use Chinese or Yi. The Ersu Shaba script of the ''shābā'' religious books is a pictographic system of proto-writing. The system, in which the color of the characters has an effect on the meaning, was inspired by Chinese writing and was created in the 11th century. Langu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baima Language
Baima ( autonym: ') is a language spoken by 10,000 Baima people, of Tibetan ethnicity, in north-central Sichuan Province and Gansu Province, China. Baima is passed on from parents to children in Baima villages. It is spoken within the home domain and is not used in any media of mass communication. Baima uses subject–object–verb (SOV) word order, word-initial consonant clusters and is tonal. It is unclassified within Sino-Tibetan; there are multiple layers of borrowings from Amdo, Khams, and Zhongu Tibetan, as well as lexical and grammatical connections with Qiangic languages. Basic vocabulary is about 85% Tibetic and 15% Qiangic, and the Tibetic words do not link to any established group of Tibetic languages. Chirkova (2008) suggests that the Qiangic vocabulary "might be a retention from the language originally spoken by the Báimǎ before their shift to a form of Tibetic in the 7th century." She accepts Baima as Tibetan, but as an isolate within the Tibetic languages. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qiang Language
Qiang language, referred as Rma (尔玛) or Rme by its speakers, is a Sino-Tibetan language cluster of the Qiangic branch spoken by approximately 140,000 people in north-central Sichuan Province, China. Qiang consists of: *Northern Qiang language (a non-tonal language) *Southern Qiang language (a tonal language) Writing system In 2017, the Rma script, invented by Wei Jiuqiao (), was officially finalized and has been accepted by many Qiang people as the first ever official writing system for their language. There is no published information regarding to whether the script is compatible for both the Northern Qiang language and the Southern Qiang language or if it is only compatible for one of the languages. The writing system has also been given a preliminary proposal to encode it to the Universal Character Set of Unicode. Consonants Vowels Classification Sims (2016) gives the following classification for the "Qiangish" (or "Rma") languages, which include Northern Qia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
