The Lolo-Burmese languages (also Burmic languages) of

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

and

Southern China Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions that display certain differences in terms of their geography, demographics, economy, and culture. Extent The Qinling–Daba Mountains serve as the transition zone between ...

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 (, born 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 fam ...

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 languages, Sino-Tibetan language of Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is spoken by a community of Mru people, Mrus (Mros) inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh with a population of 22 ...

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

Northeast India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political Administrative divisions of India, administrative division of the country. It comprises eight States and ...

n areal group. Three Bailang songs were reportedly recorded in Chinese characters in the 1st century, and survive in quotations from the 7th century. The transmission through Chinese makes interpretation difficult, but most authors believe the language to be Lolo-Burmese or a close relative.

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 Sanie (autonym: ' or ') is a Loloish language of Yunnan, China. It is similar to Samataw. There were 17,320 ethnic Sanie in 1998, but only about 8,000 spoke the Sanie language fluently. The Sanie are also known as the ''White Yi'' (白彝) (Brad ...

. *Lolo-Burmese ** Mru **Core Lolo-Burmese ***Ugong–Burmish **** Ugong ****

Burmish The Burmish languages are a subgroup of the Sino-Tibetan languages consisting of Burmese (including Standard Burmese, Arakanese, and other Burmese dialects such as the Tavoyan dialects) as well as non-literary languages spoken across Myanmar an ...

***

Loloish The Loloish languages, also known as Yi (like the Yi people) and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of 50–100 Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of Southwestern China. They are most closely related to Burm ...

(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 ***

(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 #

# 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