Naish languages

Last updated
Naish
Geographic
distribution
Yunnan and Sichuan
Linguistic classification Sino-Tibetan
Subdivisions
Glottolog nais1236

The Naish languages are a low-level subgroup of Sino-Tibetan languages that include Naxi, Na (Mosuo), and Laze.

Contents

Classification

The Naish languages are:

In turn, Naish together with Namuyi and Shixing constitutes the Naic subgroup within Sino-Tibetan.

Arguments for relatedness include irregular morphotonology: tone patterns of numeral-plus-classifier phrases that constitute shared structural properties. Since these similarities are phonetically nontransparent, they cannot be due to borrowing. [1]

Names

Note that in Mainland China, the term "Naxi" is commonly used for the entire language group, e.g. by the influential linguistic introduction by He and Jiang (2015). [2] [3] The terms "Naish" and "Naic" are derived from the endonym Na used by speakers of several of the languages. These concepts were initially proposed by Guillaume Jacques & Alexis Michaud (2011). [4] Phylogenetic issues are summarized in the entry about the Naic subgroup. For a review of the literature about Naish languages, see Li (2015). [5]

Tentative Sino-Tibetan family tree proposed by Jacques & Michaud (2011) TentativeSinoTibetanFamilyTreebyJacquesEtAl2011.jpg
Tentative Sino-Tibetan family tree proposed by Jacques & Michaud (2011)

Lexical innovations

Jacques & Michaud (2011) list the following words as Naish lexical innovations.

Gloss Naxi Na Laze Proto-Naish
to stumblepe˧khɯ.piM*(S)pa
cloudki˩tɕi˧tɕi˩sɯ˥*ki
villagehi˧mbe˧fv̩.biLɖɯ˧bie˧*mba
Bai people le˧bv̩˧ɬi.bv̩M*Sla
noblesɯ.phiMsɯ˩phie˩*si pha
medicine
(2nd syllable)
ʈʂhɚ˧ɯ˧ʈʂhæ.ɯHtshɯ˧fi˧*rtshi Swri

Reconstruction

Proto-Naish, the proto-language ancestral to the Naish languages, has been reconstructed by Jacques & Michaud (2011).

See also

Related Research Articles

Qiangic is a group of related languages within the Sino-Tibetan language family. They are spoken mainly in Southwest China, including Sichuan and northern Yunnan. Most Qiangic languages are distributed in the prefectures of Ngawa, Garzê, Ya'an and Liangshan in Sichuan with some in Northern Yunnan as well.

Naxi, also known as Nakhi, Nasi, Lomi, Moso, Mo-su, is a Sino-Tibetan language or group of languages spoken by some 310,000 people, most of whom live in or around Lijiang City Yulong Naxi Autonomous County of the province of Yunnan, China. Nakhi is also the ethnic group that speaks it, although in detail, officially defined ethnicity and linguistic reality do not coincide neatly: there are speakers of Naxi who are not registered as "Naxi" and citizens who are officially "Naxi" but do not speak it.

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The Nung or Nungish languages are a poorly described family of uncertain affiliation within the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Yunnan, China and Burma. They include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lolo-Burmese languages</span> Sino-Tibetan language group of Southeast Asia

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The East Bodish languages are a small group of non-Tibetic Bodish languages spoken in eastern Bhutan and adjacent areas of Tibet and India. They include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guillaume Jacques</span> French linguist of Breton descent

Guillaume Jacques is a French linguist who specializes in the study of Sino-Tibetan languages: Old Chinese, Tangut, Tibetan, Gyalrongic and Kiranti languages. He also performs research on the Algonquian and Siouan language families, and publishes about languages of other families such as Breton. His case studies in historical phonology are set in the framework of panchronic phonology, aiming to formulate generalizations about sound change that are independent of any particular language or language group.

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Naruo 纳若 is a Loloish language cluster spoken by the Yi people of Yunnan, China.

The Naic or Naxish languages are a group of Sino-Tibetan languages that include Naxi, Na (Mosuo), Shixing (Xumi), and Namuyi (Namuzi). They have been variously classified as part of the Loloish or the Qiangic branch of Sino-Tibetan.

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.

Laze, rendered in Chinese as Lare (拉热) and Shuitianhua (水田话), is a language of the Naish subbranch of the Naic group of languages, spoken in Muli County, western Sichuan, China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexis Michaud</span> French linguist

Alexis Michaud is a French linguist specialising in the study of Southeast Asian languages, especially Naic languages and Vietnamese. He is also known for his work on the typology of tonal languages and as a foremost proponent of Panchronic phonology. He is one of the main editors of the Pangloss Collection. He works at the LACITO research centre within Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Na is a language of the Naish subbranch of the Naic group of the Sino-Tibetan languages.

Basum is a divergent Bodish language spoken by about 2,500 people in Gongbo'gyamda County 工布江达县, Nyingtri Prefecture, Tibet, China. Basum is spoken by 13.5% of the population of Gongbo'gyamda County. Glottolog lists Basum as unclassified within Bodish.

Lamo is an unclassified Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Tshawarong, Zogang County, Chamdo Prefecture, Tibet. It was recently documented by Suzuki & Nyima (2016). sMad skad, a closely related language variety, is also spoken in Tshawarong.

Larong or Zlarong is a recently documented Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Zogang and Markam counties of southeastern Chamdo, Tibet. It was recently documented by Zhao (2018) and Suzuki & Nyima (2018). Zhao (2018) tentatively classifies Zlarong as a Qiangic language.

The Chamdo languages are a group of recently discovered, closely related Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Chamdo Prefecture, Tibet. Their position within the Sino-Tibetan language family is currently uncertain.

References

  1. Michaud, Alexis (2011). "The tones of numerals and numeral-plus-classifier phrases: on structural similarities between Naxi, Na and Laze". Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 34: 1–26 via Hyper Articles en Ligne.
  2. He Jiren 和即仁 & Jiang Zhuyi 姜竹仪. 1985. Naxiyu Jianzhi 纳西语简志 (A Brief Description of the Naxi Language). Beijing 北京: Minzu Chubanshe 民族出版社.
  3. Michaud, Alexis, He Limin & Zhong Yaoping. 2015. "Naxi / Naish." In Rint Sybesma, Wolfgang Behr, Zev Handel & C.T. James Huang (eds.), Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics. Leiden: Brill.
  4. Jacques, Guillaume, and Alexis Michaud. 2011. "Approaching the historical phonology of three highly eroded Sino-Tibetan languages: Naxi, Na and Laze." Diachronica 28:468-498.
  5. Li Zihe 李子鹤. 2015. 纳西语言研究回顾——兼论语言在文化研究中的基础地位 (A review of Naxi language studies, with a discussion of the fundamental role of cultural studies for linguistic research). 茶马古道研究期刊 4. 125–131.