Wikipedia / Qiang language
Wikipedia / Qiang language
Qiang (also Qiangish languages or Rma languages), called Rma (尔玛) or Rme by its speakers, and formerly spelled Kʻiang, is a Sino-Tibetan language cluster of the Qiangic branch spoken by approximately 140,000 people in north-central Sichuan Province, China.
Qiang consists of:
Northern Qiang language (a non-tonal language)
Southern Qiang language (a tonal language)
Writing systems
Qiang Phonetic Alphabet Scheme
There have been two phonetic writing systems for Qiang commissioned by PRC authorities, both based on the Latin-script alphabet. The first design was commissioned centrally in 1958 following early PRC work on distinguishing minority ethnic groups in China, but was never officially promoted. The second system, known as the Qiang Phonetic Alphabet Scheme (羌族拼音文字方案; Qiāngzú Pīnyīn Wénzì Fāng'àn) was commissioned by the local government of Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture and the provincial Ethnic Affairs Commission (EAC) of Sichuan in 1989. The Qiang Phonetic Alphabet Scheme uses the 26 standard English alphabet letters, and is a standardised form based on the Qugu Qiang dialect, which belongs to the Northern dialect area but roughly situated at the linguistic middle point between the two dialects.
The Qiang Phonetic Alphabet Scheme was completed in late 1990 and was approved for trial operation by the Sichuan provincial government in 1991, in tandem with recommending the Scheme for official approval by the National Ethnic Affairs Commission (NEAC) in 1991. In 1993, the NEAC requested the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to organise an academic review, which concluded favourably, but the NEAC only informed their approval of the scheme to the provincial EAC by telephone. The Qiang Phonetic Alphabet Scheme never ended up being officially published by the NEAC or other national authorities thereafter, although the Scheme was acknowledged as legitimate in one written report from the NEAC to the central government in 1999.
In 2015, the Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County government commissioned a Qiang language graded reader for schools, which uses the Qiang Phonetic Alphabet Scheme.
In 2019, a local TV station at Mao County started a weekly news programme using the Qiang language and the Latin-based alphabet.
Rma script
In 2017, Wei Jiuqiao () finalised their design of the Rma script. There is no published information as to whether the script is compatible with both the Northern Qiang language and the Southern Qiang language or if it is only compatible with one of the languages. In 2022, preliminary proposal was made to encode this system in the Universal Character Set of Unicode.
Consonants
Vowels
Classification
Sims (2016)
Sims (2016) gives the following classification for the "Qiangish" (or "Rma") languages, which include Northern Qiang and Southern Qiang. Individual dialects are highlighted in italics.
Qiangish
Northern Qiang ('upstream' *nu- innovation group)
NW Heishui: Luhua 芦花镇
Central Heishui
Qinglang 晴朗乡
Zhawo 扎窝乡
Ciba 慈坝乡
Shuangliusuo 双溜索乡
uvular V's innovation group: Zhimulin 知木林乡, Hongyan 红岩乡, Mawo 麻窝乡
SE Heishui: Luoduo 洛多乡, Longba 龙坝乡, Musu 木苏乡, Shidiaolou 石碉楼乡
North Maoxian: Taiping 太平乡, Songpinggou 松坪沟乡
South Songpan: Xiaoxing 小姓乡, Zhenjiangguan 镇江关乡, Zhenping 镇坪乡
West Maoxian / South Heishui: Weigu 维古乡, Waboliangzi 瓦钵乡梁子, Se'ergu 色尔古镇, Ekou, Weicheng 维城乡, Ronghong, Chibusu 赤不苏镇, Qugu 曲谷乡 [basis for written language], Wadi 洼底乡, Baixi 白溪乡, Huilong 回龙乡, Sanlong 三龙乡
Central Maoxian: Heihu 黑虎乡
SE Maoxian (reflexive marker innovation): Goukou 沟口乡, Yonghe 永和乡
Southern Qiang (perfective agreement suffixes innovation group)
'inward' *ji innovation subgroup
'downward' *ɚ innovation subgroup
Sun, Liu & Huang (2024)
Sun, Liu & Huang (2024) list the following dialects of Southern Qiang and Northern Qiang.The following Qiang dialects are documented in the comparative vocabulary table section of Sun, Liu & Huang (2024).
Daqishan (大岐山)
Taoping (桃坪); Zengtou (曾头)
Longxi (龙溪)
Miansi (绵虒); Suoqiao (索桥)
Goukou (沟口); Heihu (黑虎); Longchi (龙池)
Sanlong (三龙)
Qugu (曲谷)
Yadu (雅都)
Weigu (维古); Longba (龙坝); Musu (木苏)
Cimulin (茨木林)
Zhawo (扎窝); Mawo (麻窝)
Luhua (芦花); Yangrong (羊茸)
Songpan (松潘)
Vocabulary
Autonyms (自称) by Qiang dialect, as well as the word for 'person, human being' (人):A few basic body part words:
Reconstruction
Sims (2017) reconstructs tones for Proto-Rma (alternatively called Proto-Qiangish), proposing that the lack of tones in Northern Qiang is due to Tibetan influence. High tones and low tones are reconstructed for Proto-Rma, as well as for Proto-Prinmi.
References
Bibliography
Huáng, Chénglóng; Wáng, Bǎofēng; Máo, Míngjūn; Zhāng, Xī [黄成龙，王保锋，毛明军，张曦] (2019). Sìchuān Sōngpān Qiāngyǔ [四川松潘羌语]. Beijing: Commercial Press [商务印书馆].
Further reading