Northern Qiang language

Northern Qiang
Region Sichuan Province
Ethnicity Qiang people
Native speakers
58,000 (1999)[1]
Sino-Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 cng
Glottolog nort2722[2]

Northern Qiang is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Qiangic branch spoken by approximately 130,000 people in north-central Sichuan Province, China.

Unlike its close relative Southern Qiang, Northern Qiang is not a tonal language.

Northern Qiang dialects

Northern Qiang is composed of several different dialects, many of which are easily mutually intelligible. Sun Hongkai is his book on Qiang in 1981 divides Northern Qiang into the following dialects: Luhua, Mawo, Zhimulin, Weigu, and Yadu. These dialects are located in Heishui County as well as the northern part of Mao County. The Luhua, Mawo, Zhimulin, and Weigu varieties of Northern Qiang are spoken by the Heishui Tibetans. The Mawo dialect is considered to be the prestige dialect by the Heishui Tibetans.

Names seen in the older literature for Northern Qiang dialects include Dzorgai (Sifan), Kortsè (Sifan), Krehchuh, and Thóchú/Thotcu/Thotśu. The last is a place name.[3]

Northern Qiang consonants

Labial Dental Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Palato-
alveolar
Retroflex Alveolo-
palatal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t k q
aspirated
voiced b d ɡ
Affricate voiceless ts
aspirated tsʰ tʃʰ tʂʰ tɕʰ
voiced dz
Fricative voiced β z ʐ ʑ ɣ ʁ
voiceless ɸ s ʂ ɕ ɸ χ h
Trill voiced ɲ
voiceless
Lateral voiced l
voiceless l
Approximant ɻ j w

Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony exists in the Mawo (麻窝) dialect. For example, the realization of the word "one" (a) is influenced by the classifiers:[4]

See also

References

  1. Northern Qiang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Northern Qiang". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. UC Berkeley, 1992, Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, vol. 15, pp. 76–77.
  4. "羌语简志" by 孙宏开

Bibliography


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