Choyo language

Queyu (Choyo, Choyu) is a Qiangic language of Yajiang County and Xinlong County, Sichuan. It is similar with and shares a name with Zhaba, but the two languages are distinct from each other.

Choyo
Queyu, Choyu
Native to	China
Native speakers	(7,000 cited 1995)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Qiangic Zhaba–Queyu Choyo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	qvy
Glottolog	quey1238
ELP	Queyu

Dialects

The four dialects of Choyo are those of:^[2]

• Youlaxi Township 尤拉西乡, Xinlong County (Wang 1991; Huang ed. 1992)^[3][4] (which also has Western Horpa speakers^[5])
• Rongba Township 绒坝乡, Litang County (Nishida 2008)^[6]
• Tuanjie Township 团结乡, Yajiang County (Lu 1985; Sun ed. 1991)^[7][8]
• Xiala Township 呷拉乡, Yajiang County (Prins & Nagano 2013)^[9] (which also has Dao speakers^[10])

Suzuki & Wangmo (2016)^[2] consider the Lhagang Choyu language to be similar to but not part of Choyu proper, which consists of the four dialects listed above.

Huang & Dai (1992)^[4] document the Queyu dialect spoken in Youlaxi Township 尤拉西乡, Xinlong County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan.

Lhagang Choyu

Lhagang Choyu (Chinese: Tagong Queyu 塔公却域語) is a Qiangic language similar to Choyu recently described by Suzuki & Wangmo (2018).^[11] It is spoken in Tage [Thabs-mkhas] Hamlet, southwestern Tagong [lHa-sgang] Town, Kangding [Dar-mdo] Municipality, Sichuan Province, China. It used to be spoken in Xiya 西雅 Hamlet of the same township (Suzuki & Wangmo 2016:63). Lhagang Choyu is an endangered language with about 100 speakers.

Phonology

Consonants^[12]

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	oral	p b	t d			k g
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ
Affricate	oral		ts dz	ʈʂ ɖʐ	tʃ dʒ
	aspirated		tsʰ	ʈʂʰ	tʃʰ
Fricative	oral	(f) v	s z	ʂ ʐ	ʃ ʒ	x ɣ
	aspirated		sʰ	ʂʰ	ʃʰ
Nasal		m̥ m	n̥ n			(ŋ̊) ŋ
Approximant		w	l̥ l	r̥ r	j

• /f/ and /ŋ̊/ are only observed in one word each.

Vowels^[12]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid-high	e eˤ	ɘ	o oˤ
Mid-low		ə əˤ
Low	ɛ	ɜ ɜˤ	aˤ

Choyo also has three tones;^[12] high, low, and rising.