Muya language

Munya or Muya (simplified Chinese: 木雅语; traditional Chinese: 木雅語; also Manyak 曼牙科,^[2] Menia 么呢阿;^[3] Tibetan: མི་ཉག, Wylie: Mi nyak, THL: Minyak^[4]) is one of the Qiangic languages spoken in China. There are two dialects, Western and Eastern, which are not mutually intelligible. Most research on Munya has been conducted by Ikeda Takumi. There are about 2,000 monolinguals.

Muya
Munya
Native to	China
Region	Sichuan
Native speakers	Eastern: 2,000 (2020)[1] Western: 12,000 (2020)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Qiangic Northern Muya
Dialects	East West
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: emq – Eastern Minyag wmg – Western Minyag
Glottolog	muya1239
ELP	Muya
Muya is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Names

The language has been spelled in various ways, including Manyak, Menya, Minyag, and Minyak. Other names for the language are Boba and Miyao.

Dialects

Ethnologue (21st edition) lists two Muya dialects, namely Eastern (Nyagrong) and Western (Darmdo). Muya is spoken in

• Shimian County, Ya'an
• Jiulong County
• Kangding

Sun (1991) documents Muya (木雅) of Liuba Township (六坝乡), Shade District (沙德区), Kangding County (康定县), Sichuan.^[5]

Phonology

Consonants^[6]

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	oral	p b	t d			k g	q ɢ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ	qʰ
	prenasalized	ᵐpʰ ᵐb	ⁿtʰ ⁿd			ᵑkʰ ᵑg	ᶰqʰ ᶰɢ
Affricate	oral		ts dz	ʈʂ ɖʐ	tɕ dʑ
	aspirated		tsʰ	ʈʂʰ	tɕʰ
	prenasalized		ⁿtsʰ ⁿdz	ⁿʈʂʰ ⁿɖʐ	ⁿtɕʰ ⁿdʑ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʂ ʐ	ɕ ʑ	x ɣ	χ ʁ	h ɦ
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Approximant		w	l		j

• /ʑ/ can sometimes be heard as [r].

Vowels^[6]

	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded
High	i ĩ	y	ɯ ɯ̰	u ũ
Mid-high	e ẽ	ø		o õ
Mid-low	ɛ ɛ̃			ɔ
Low	æ æ̰		ɐ ɐ̰	ɑ ɑ̃

Additionally, the following diphthongs have been observed: /yi/, /ui/, /ie/, /ye/, /ue/, /uø/, /iɛ̃/, /yɛ/, /yɛ̃/, /uɛ/, /uæ/, /uæ̰/, /yɐ/, /yɐ̰/, /uɐ/, /yɯ/, /uɯ/, /yɑ/, /yɑ̃/, /uɑ/.

Muya also has four tones:^[6]

• [ ˥ ] - high, level
• [ ˥˧ ] - high-falling
• [ ˧˥ ] - high-rising
• [ ˧ ] - mid, level

Popular culture

In 2008, Bamu, a singer with the Jiuzhaigou Art Troupe in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, recorded an album of Muya songs (木雅七韵).^[7]