Burmo-Qiangic languages


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.

Classification

& Alexis Michaud argue for a Burmo-Qiangic branch of Sino-Tibetan with two primary subbranches, Qiangic and Lolo-Burmese. Similarly, David Bradley proposes an Eastern Tibeto-Burman branch that includes Burmic 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, but as Qiangic by Jacques & Michaud and Bradley.
Sun also proposed a similar classification that grouped Qiangic and Lolo-Burmese together.
Jacques' & Michaud's proposed tree is as follows.
Bradley's proposal is as follows. Note that Bradley calls Lolo-Burmese Burmic, which is not to be confused with Burmish, and calls Loloish Ngwi.
However, Chirkova 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.
Lee & Sagart argue that Bai is a Tibeto-Burman language that has borrowed very heavily from Old Chinese. Lee & Sagart note that words 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.

Branches

Yu lists the following well-established coherent branches that could likely all fit into a wider Burmo-Qiangic group, in geographical order from north to south.
  2. Qiang
  3. rGyalrong
  4. Lavrung
  5. Ergong
  6. Choyo
  7. nDrapa
  8. Guiqiong
  9. Minyak
  10. Ersuic
  11. Namuyi
  12. Shixing
  13. Naish
  14. Prinmi
  15. Lolo-Burmese
Additionally, Tangut, now extinct, is generally classified as a Qiangic language.
Yu 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:
  • Proto-Rma
  • Proto-Prinmi
  • Proto-Ersuic
  • Proto-Naish
  • Proto-Lolo-Burmese
  • Proto-Bai

    Lexical evidence

Jacques & Michaud list the following lexical items as likely Burmo-Qiangic lexical innovations.
GlossrGyalrongTangutNaProto-NaishBurmeseAchangHani
copulaŋuŋwu2ŋi˩˧?hnang2–ŋɯ˧˩
starʑŋgrigjịj1kɯ˥*krikray2khʐə˥a˧˩gɯ˥
forgetjmɯtmjɨ̣2mv̩.phæL+MH*mime1ɲi˧˥ɲi˥
be illngo < *ngaŋŋo2gu˩*go--
flintʁdɯrtsa–tse.miH*tsa---
to hidenɤtsɯ–tsɯ˥ *tsu---
to swallowmqlaʁ–ʁv̩˥*NqU < *Nqak---
dryspɯ-pv̩˧*Spu---
thickjaʁlaa1lo˧˥*laC2---
jumpmtsaʁ–tsho˧*tshaC2---
winterqartsɯtsur1tshi˥*tshuchoŋ3tɕhɔŋ˧˩tshɔ˧˩ga̱˧
kneetə-mŋɑ ŋwer2ŋwɤ.koH*ŋwa---
sunʁmbɣibe2bi˧ *bi---