Na language

Na
Na
Narua
Native to	China
Region	Sichuan
Ethnicity	Mosuo
Native speakers	47,000 (2010)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Lolo-Burmese or Qiangic Naic Naish Na; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nru
Glottolog	yong1270

Last updated January 02, 2026

Na (or Narua, Mosuo) is a language of the Naish subbranch of the Naic group of the Sino-Tibetan languages.

Varieties

Yongning Na, which is spoken in Yongning Township, Ninglang County, Lijiang, Yunnan, China, has been documented by Jacques and Michaud (2011).^[2] It has three tonal levels.^[3] A trilingual dictionary is available online.^[4]

Lataddi Narua is notable for having only two tonal levels.^[5]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo- palatal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	( ɳ )		ɲ	( ŋ )
Stop	voiceless	p	t	( ʈ )			k	q	( ʔ )
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	( ʈʰ )			kʰ	qʰ
	voiced	b	d	( ɖ )			ɡ	ɢ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s	t͡ʂ	t͡ɕ
	aspirated		t͡sʰ	t͡ʂʰ	t͡ɕʰ
	voiced		d͡z	d͡ʐ	d͡ʑ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʂ	ɕ		( x )		h
Fricative	voiced	( v )	z	ʐ	ʑ		ɣ	( ʁ )
Lateral	fricative		ɬ
Lateral	glide		l	( ɭ )
Approximant		w				j

/t, tʰ, d, n, l/ can be heard as [ʈ, ʈʰ, ɖ, ɳ, ɭ] when preceding vowel sounds /ɯ, u, v̩, ɤ, æ/.
/p, pʰ, b, m, w/ can be heard as [ʙ̥, ʙ̥ʰ, ʙ, ɱ, v] when preceding vowel sounds /ɯ, u, v̩/.
/ɣ/ can also be heard as uvular [ʁ] in word-initial position.
/w, h/ is also heard as voiceless [w̥, x] in free variation.
/n/ is heard as velar [ŋ] when before velar stops.
[ʔ] is heard in initial position before vowels.^[6]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		ɯ	u
Mid	ɛ	ə	ɤ	ɔ
Open	æ , æ̃		ɑ
Syllabic			v̩

/ɯ/ can be heard as [ɨ] in syllable-initial position and as retroflex [ɻ̩] when after retroflex consonants.^[7]

Grammar

Syntax

Narua's default word order is agent–object–verb, although expression of all verb arguments is not obligatory.

Narua marks sentence topics with jjo/dʑo˥/ after a topicalized clause or noun phrase.

References

↑ Na at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
↑ Jacques, Guillaume, and Alexis Michaud. 2011. "Approaching the historical phonology of three highly eroded Sino-Tibetan languages." Diachronica 28:468-498.
↑ Michaud, Alexis (2017). Tone in Yongning Na: Lexical tones and morphotonology. Studies in Diversity Linguistics. Berlin: Language Science Press. ISBN 978-3-946234-87-6.
↑ Michaud, Alexis; Latami, Dashilamu; Milan, Pascale-Marie; Galliot, Benjamin (2025). Na (Mosuo) – English – Chinese dictionary (version 2.1 ed.). France: Lexica.
↑ Dobbs, Roselle, and La Mingqing. 2016 "The two-level tonal system of Lataddi Narua." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, Vol. 39:1 (2016), 67–104. doi : 10.1075/ltba.39.1.04dob
↑ Lidz, Liberty A. (2010). A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo). University of Texas at Austin.
↑ Zhenhong, Yang (2009). An overview of the Mosuo language. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 32. pp. 1–43.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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[e24-1] Na at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)

[2] Jacques, Guillaume, and Alexis Michaud. 2011. "Approaching the historical phonology of three highly eroded Sino-Tibetan languages." Diachronica 28:468-498.

[3] Michaud, Alexis (2017). Tone in Yongning Na: Lexical tones and morphotonology. Studies in Diversity Linguistics. Berlin: Language Science Press. ISBN 978-3-946234-87-6.

[4] Michaud, Alexis; Latami, Dashilamu; Milan, Pascale-Marie; Galliot, Benjamin (2025). Na (Mosuo) – English – Chinese dictionary (version 2.1 ed.). France: Lexica.

[5] Dobbs, Roselle, and La Mingqing. 2016 "The two-level tonal system of Lataddi Narua." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, Vol. 39:1 (2016), 67–104. doi : 10.1075/ltba.39.1.04dob

[6] Lidz, Liberty A. (2010). A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo). University of Texas at Austin.

[7] Zhenhong, Yang (2009). An overview of the Mosuo language. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 32. pp. 1–43.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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