Burmo-Qiangic languages
Proposed family of Sino-Tibetan languages From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
| Burmo-Qiangic | |
|---|---|
| Eastern Tibeto-Burman | |
| (proposed) | |
| Geographic distribution | China, Burma |
| Linguistic classification | Sino-Tibetan
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | burm1265 |
Classification
Summarize
Perspective
Guillaume Jacques & Alexis Michaud (2011)[1] argue for a Burmo-Qiangic branch of Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) with two primary subbranches, Qiangic and Lolo-Burmese. Similarly, David Bradley (2008)[2] proposes an Eastern Tibeto-Burman branch that includes Burmic (a.k.a. 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 unclear, as it has been grouped as Lolo-Burmese by Lama (2012), but as Qiangic by Jacques & Michaud (2011) and Bradley (2008).
Sun (1988) also proposed a similar classification that grouped Qiangic and Lolo-Burmese together.
Jacques' & Michaud's (2011) proposed tree is as follows.
Bradley's (2008) proposal is as follows. Note that Bradley calls Lolo-Burmese Burmic, which is not to be confused with Burmish, and calls Loloish Ngwi.
| Eastern Tibeto‑Burman | |
However, Chirkova (2012)[3] doubts that Qiangic is a valid genetic unit, and considers Ersu, Shixing, Namuyi, and Pumi all as separate Tibeto-Burman branches that are part of a Qiangic Sprachbund, rather than as part of a coherent Qiangic phylogenetic branch. This issue has also been further discussed by Yu (2012).[4]
Lee & Sagart (2008)[5] argue that Bai is a Tibeto-Burman language that has borrowed very heavily from Old Chinese. Lee & Sagart (2008) note that words relating to rice and pig agriculture tend to be non-Chinese, and that the genetic non-Chinese layer of Bai shows similarities with Proto-Loloish.
Branches
Yu (2012:206–207)[4] lists the following well-established coherent branches (including individual languages, in italics below) that could likely all fit into a wider Burmo-Qiangic group, in geographical order from north to south.
Additionally, Tangut, now extinct, is generally classified as a Qiangic language.
Yu (2012:215–218)[4] notes that Ersuic and Naic languages could possibly group together, since they share many features with each other that are not found in Lolo-Burmese or other Qiangic groups.
Proto-language reconstructions for some of these branches include:
Lexical evidence
Jacques & Michaud (2011)[1][11] list the following lexical items as likely Burmo-Qiangic lexical innovations.
| Gloss | rGyalrong | Tangut | Na | Proto-Naish | Burmese | Achang | Hani |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| copula | ŋu | ŋwu2 | ŋi˩˧ | ? | hnang2 | – | ŋɯ˧˩ |
| star | ʑŋgri | gjịj1 | kɯ˥ | *kri | kray2 | khʐə˥ | a˧˩gɯ˥ |
| forget | jmɯt | mjɨ̣2 | mv̩.phæL+MH | *mi | me1 | ɲi˧˥ | ɲi˥ |
| be ill | ngo < *ngaŋ | ŋo2 | gu˩ | *go | |||
| flint | ʁdɯrtsa | – | tse.miH | *tsa | |||
| to hide | nɤtsɯ | – | tsɯ˥ (Naxi) | *tsu | |||
| to swallow | mqlaʁ | – | ʁv̩˥ | *NqU < *Nqak | |||
| dry | spɯ | - | pv̩˧ | *Spu | |||
| thick | jaʁ | laa1 | lo˧˥ | *laC2 | |||
| jump | mtsaʁ | – | tsho˧ | *tshaC2 | |||
| winter | qartsɯ | tsur1 | tshi˥ | *tshu | choŋ3 | tɕhɔŋ˧˩ | tshɔ˧˩ga̱˧ |
| knee | tə-mŋɑ (Situ) | ŋwer2 | ŋwɤ.koH | *ŋwa | |||
| sun | ʁmbɣi | be2 | bi˧ (Naxi) | *bi |
See also
References
External links
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