Southern Qiang language

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.

Southern Qiang
RegionSichuan Province
EthnicityQiang people
Native speakers
81,000 (1999)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3qxs
Glottologsout2728
ELPSouthern Qiang

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, Luobozhai 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
  • '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]

Southern Qiang consonants
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]

Southern Qiang vowels
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]

Southern Qiang tones
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

References
  1. Southern Qiang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. McCoy, John, ed. (1986). Contributions to Sino-Tibetan Studies. Leiden: E.J. Brill. pp. 40, 65. ISBN 90-04-07850-9.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Sims, N. (2016). "Towards a More Comprehensive Understanding of Qiang Dialectology" (PDF). Language and Linguistics. 17 (3): 351–381. doi:10.1177/1606822X15586685.
  7. Sun, Hongkai 孙宏开 (1981). Qiāngyǔ jiǎnzhì 羌语简志 (in Chinese). Minzu chubanshe.
  8. Evans, Jonathan P. (2001). Contact-Induced Tonogenesis in Southern Qiang. Michigan State University and Oakland University. pp. 65–67.
  9. 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.


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