Southern Qiang language
Southern Qiang | |
---|---|
Region | Sichuan Province |
Ethnicity | Qiang people |
Native speakers | 81,000 (1999)[1] |
Language family | Sino-Tibetan
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | qxs |
Glottolog | sout2728 |
ELP | Southern Qiang |
Southern Qiang is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Qiangic branch spoken by approximately 81,300 people along the Minjiang (Chinese: 岷江) river in Sichuan Province, China.
Unlike its close relative Northern Qiang, Southern Qiang is a tonal language.
Southern Qiang dialects[]
Southern Qiang is spoken in Li County (in Taoping Chinese: 桃坪, etc.), Wenchuan County (in Longxi 龙溪, 萝卜寨, Miansi 绵虒, etc.), and parts of Mao County. It consists of seven dialects: Dajishan, Taoping, Longxi, Mianchi, Heihu, Sanlong, and Jiaochang, which are greatly divergent and are not mutually intelligible.
Names seen in the older literature for Southern Qiang dialects include Lofuchai (Lophuchai, Lopu Chai), Wagsod (Wa-gsod, Waszu),[2] and Outside/Outer Mantse (Man-tzŭ).[3] The Southern Qiang dialect of Puxi Township has been documented in detail by Huang (2007).[4]
Liu (1998) adds Sānlóng (Chinese: 三龍) and Jiàocháng (較場) as Southern subdialects.[5]
Sims (2016)[6] characterizes Southern Qiang as the perfective agreement suffixes innovation group. Individual dialects are highlighted in italics.
- Southern Qiang
- 'inward' *ji innovation subgroup
- North Wenchuan: Longxi 龙溪乡
- South Wenchuan: Miansi 绵虒镇
- 'downward' *ɚ innovation subgroup
- Western Lixian: Puxi 蒲溪乡, Xuecheng 薛城镇, Muka 木卡乡, Jiuzi 九子村
- Eastern Lixian: Taoping 桃坪乡, Tonghua 通化乡
Phonology[]
The consonants of Southern Qiang are presented in the table below:[7]
Labial | Dental | Retroflex | Palato- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | q | |||
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | qʰ | ||||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɢ | ||||
Affricate | voiceless | ts | ʈʂ | tʃ | tɕ | |||
aspirated | tsʰ | ʈʂʰ | tʃʰ | tɕʰ | ||||
voiced | dz | ɖʐ | dʒ | dʑ | ||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʂ | ʃ | ɕ | (x) | χ |
voiced | z | ʐ | ʒ | ʑ | (ɣ) | ʁ | ||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
Lateral | l | |||||||
Semivowel | j, ɥ | w |
- /χ ʁ/ are heard as velar [x ɣ] before front vowels.
- /f/ is also heard as a bilabial [ɸ].
The vowels of Southern Qiang are presented in the table below:[7]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i y | u | |
Mid | e | ə ə˞ | o |
Open | a | ɑ | |
Syllabic | ɹ̩ |
- Vowels /e u/ can also be heard as [ɛ ʉ].
Southern Qiang has six tones as represented below:[8]
Name | Pitch | Symbol |
---|---|---|
Mid or Low-falling | 33 | ˨˥ |
High | 55 | ˦ |
Low (falling) rising | 31 | ˨˩ |
Mid-rising | 241 | ˧˩ |
High-falling | 13 | ˦˥ |
Status[]
As with many of the Qiangic languages, Southern Qiang is becoming increasingly threatened. Because the education system largely uses Standard Chinese as a medium of instruction for the Qiang people, and as a result of the universal access to schooling and television, most Qiang children are fluent or even monolingual in Chinese while an increasing percentage cannot speak Qiang.[9]
See also[]
- Qiang people
- Qiangic languages
References[]
- ^ Southern Qiang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ McCoy, John, ed. (1986). Contributions to Sino-Tibetan Studies. Leiden: E.J. Brill. pp. 40, 65. ISBN 90-04-07850-9.
- ^ Sun, Jackson T.-S. (1992). "Review of Zangmianyu Yuyin He Cihui "Tibeto-Burman Phonology and Lexicon"" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 15 (2): 76–77.
- ^ Huang, Chenglong 黄成龙 (2007). Púxī Qiāngyǔ yánjiū 蒲溪羌语研究 [Studies on Puxi Qiang] (in Chinese). Beijing shi: Minzu chubanshe. ISBN 978-7-105-08977-2.
- ^ Liu, Guangkun 刘光坤 (1998). Máwō Qiāngyǔ yánjiū 麻窝羌语研究 [Studies on Mawo Qiang] (in Chinese). Chengdu: Sichuan minzu chubanshe. ISBN 7-5409-2116-1.
- ^ Sims, N. (2016). "Towards a More Comprehensive Understanding of Qiang Dialectology" (PDF). Language and Linguistics. 17 (3): 351–381. doi:10.1177/1606822X15586685.
- ^ a b Sun, Hongkai 孙宏开 (1981). Qiāngyǔ jiǎnzhì 羌语简志 (in Chinese). Minzu chubanshe.
- ^ Evans, Jonathan P. (2001). Contact-Induced Tonogenesis in Southern Qiang. Michigan State University and Oakland University. pp. 65–67.
- ^ LaPolla, Randy J. (2003). A Grammar of Qiang: With Annotated Texts and Glossary. with Chenglong Huan. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 5. ISBN 3-11-017829-X.
Bibliography[]
- Bradley, David (1997). "Tibeto-Burman Languages and Classification" (PDF). In Bradley, D. (ed.). Papers in South East Asian Linguistics No. 14: Tibeto-Burman Languages of the Himalayas. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 1–72. ISBN 0-85883-456-1.
- Chang, Kun 張琨 (1967). "A Comparative Study of the Southern Ch'iang 蒐 Dialects". Monumenta Serica. 26 (1): 422–444. doi:10.1080/02549948.1967.11744974.
- Evans, Jonathan P. (2001a). Introduction to Qiang Lexicon and Phonology: Synchrony and Diachrony. Tokyo: ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
- Qiangic languages
- Tonal languages
- Qiang people
- Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages
- Sino-Tibetan language stubs