Burmo-Qiangic | |
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Eastern Tibeto-Burman | |
(proposed) | |
Geographic distribution | China, Burma |
Linguistic classification | Sino-Tibetan
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Subdivisions | |
Glottolog | burm1265 |
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.
Guillaume Jacques & Alexis Michaud (2011) argue for a Burmo-Qiangic branch of Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) with two primary subbranches, Qiangic and Lolo-Burmese. Similarly, David Bradley (2008) 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.
Burmo‑Qiangic |
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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 |
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However, Chirkova (2012) 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).
Lee & Sagart (2008) argue that Bai is a Tibeto-Burman language that has borrowed very heavily from Old Chinese. Lee & Sagart (2008) note that word 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.
Yu (2012:206–207) 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) 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:
Jacques & Michaud (2011) list the following lexical items as likely Burmo-Qiangic lexical innovations.
Gloss | rGyalrong | Tangut | Na | Proto-Naish | Burmese | Achang | Hani |
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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 |
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
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Western Himalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim) |
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Eastern Himalayas (Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal) | |||||
Myanmar and Indo-Burmese border |
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East and Southeast Asia |
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Dubious (possible isolates) (Arunachal) |
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Proposed groupings | |||||
Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. |
Na-Qiangic languages | |||||||||||||||||||
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Naic |
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Ersuic | |||||||||||||||||||
Qiangic |
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Cross (†) and italics indicate extinct languages. |
Lolo-Burmese languages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mondzish |
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Loloish (Yi) (Ngwi) |
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Burmish |
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Pai-lang | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(Proto-languages) |