Ethnolinguistic groups in Yunnan Province (1971)

The Lolo-Burmese languages (also Burmic languages) of

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

and

Southern China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

form a coherent branch of the Sino-Tibetan family.

Names

Until ca. 1950, the endonym ''Lolo'' was written with derogatory characters in Chinese, and for this reason has sometimes been avoided. Shafer (1966–1974) used the term "Burmic" for the Lolo-Burmese languages. The Chinese term is ''Mian–Yi'', after the Chinese name for Burmese and one of several words for Tai, reassigned to replace ''Lolo'' by the Chinese government after 1950.

Possible languages

The position of Naxi (Moso) within the family is unclear, and it is often left as a third branch besides Loloish and Burmish. Lama (2012) considers it to be a branch of Loloish, while

Guillaume Jacques Guillaume Jacques (, b. 1979) is a French linguist who specializes in the study of Sino-Tibetan languages: Old Chinese, Tangut, Tibetan, Gyalrongic and Kiranti languages. He also performs research on the Algonquian and Siouan language families ...

has suggested that it is a Qiangic language. The Pyu language that preceded Burmese in Burma is sometimes linked to the Lolo-Burmese family, but there is no good evidence for any particular classification, and it is best left unclassified within Sino-Tibetan. Löffler (1966) and Bradley (1997) consider the

Mru language Mru, also known as Mrung (Murung), is a Sino-Tibetan language of Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is spoken by a community of Mrus (Mros) inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh with a population of 22,000 according to the 1991 census, ...

to be closely related to or part of Lolo-Burmese, while Matisoff includes Mruic in the

Northeast India , native_name_lang = mni , settlement_type = , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , motto = , image_map = Northeast india.png , ...

n areal group.

Pai-lang Bailang or Pai-lang () is the earliest recorded Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman language, known from three short songs, totalling 44 four-syllable lines, recorded in a commentary on the ''Book of the Later Han''. The language is clearly ei ...

, attested from the 3rd century, is Lolo-Burmese, perhaps Loloish.

External relationships

& Alexis Michaud (2011) argue for a Burmo-Qiangic branch with two primary subbranches, Na- Qiangic (i.e. Naxi-Qiangic) and Lolo-Burmese. Similarly, David Bradley (2008) also proposes an Eastern Tibeto-Burman branch that includes the two subbranches of Burmic ( Lolo-Burmese) and Qiangic.

Internal classification

Bradley (1997, quoted in Peiros 1997) gives the following classification for the Lolo-Burmese languages. In later publications, in place of ''Loloish'', David Bradley instead uses the term ''Ngwi'' based on a conservative

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

in the Sanie language. *Lolo-Burmese ** Mru **Core Lolo-Burmese ***Ugong–Burmish **** Ugong **** Burmish ***

Loloish The Loloish languages, also known as Yi in China and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of fifty to a hundred Sino-Tibetan languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of China. They are most closely related to Burmese and its relat ...

(Ngwi) Lama (2012), in a study of 36 languages, finds the Mondzish cluster ( Mondzi– Maang, Mantsi–Mo'ang) to be divergent. He did not include Mru or Ugong. *Lolo-Burmese (Niso-Burmic) ** Mondzish **Core Lolo-Burmese *** Burmish (Burmic) ***

(Nisoic, Ngwi) Lama (2012) recognizes 9 unambiguous coherent groups of Lolo-Burmese languages, whereas Bradley considers there to be 5 groups (Burmish, Southern Ngwi, Northern Ngwi, Southeastern Ngwi, and Central Ngwi). # Mondzish # Burmish # Hanoish # Lahoish # Naxish # Nusoish # Kazhuoish # Lisoish # Nisoish

References

Bibliography

* * * *Huang, Bufan ��布凡 ed. (1992). ''A Tibeto-Burman Lexicon'' (''TBL'') ��缅语族语言词汇 Beijing: Minzu University Press ��央民族学院出版社 * *Satterthwaite-Phillips, Damian. 2011. ''Phylogenetic inference of the Tibeto-Burman languages or On the usefulness of lexicostatistics (and "Megalo"-comparison) for the subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman''. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University. * *Yunnan Province Geography Gazetteer Committee ��南省地方志编纂委员会(1998). ''Yunnan Province Gazetteer, volume 59: ethnic minority languages and orthographies gazetteer'' ��南省志卷59: 少数民族语言文字志 Kunming: Yunnan People's Press ��南人民出版社 *''Zangmian yuyin he cihui'' (''ZMYYC'') ��缅语语音和词汇(1991). Beijing: Social Sciences Press ��国社会科学出版社 {{Lolo-Burmese languages Languages of India Languages of Myanmar