Rrmea
Northern Qiang
Sino-Tibetan
Northern Qiang (autonymously Rrmea) is a Qiangic Tibeto-Burman language of the Aba Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, China. The Qiangic family (Northern Qiang cnd, Central Qiang cng, Pumi pmj, rGyalrongic varieties — ~10 languages, total ~250K speakers) is sister to the Bodish-Tibetic branch within Sino-Tibetan, occupying the eastern Tibetan Plateau and Sichuan highlands. Northern Qiang is famous in linguistic literature for its complex stop-fricative system, voiceless sonorants, and unusual tonal contrasts. The 2008 Sichuan earthquake devastated Mao County, the Qiang heartland, displacing many speakers; revitalization through Qiang Pinyin literacy programs continues.
Where it is spoken
20 core words in Northern Qiang
Water
cu
/tsu/
Fire
mi
/mi/
Sun
mu
/mu/
Moon
nyi
/ɲi/
Mother
ami
/ami/
Father
apa
/apa/
Eat
ndzu
/ndzu/
Drink
ndhu
/ndʱu/
Love
halia
/halia/
Heart
shulm
/ʃulm/
Tree
rrm
/ʐm/
House
stuapa
/stuapa/
Dog
kuel
/kʷel/
Cat
miu
/miu/
Hand
ki
/ki/
Eye
mil
/mil/
Hello
nia ja
/nia dʒa/
Thank you
—
/—/
One
lhe
/ɬe/
Good
stsuq
/stsuq/
Sources
Words compared
Compared with related Sino-Tibetan languages
| Meaning | Northern Qiang | Ladakhi | Sherpa | Kurtöp | Balti | Dzongkha | Khams Tibetan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | cu /tsu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | khwe /kʰwe/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ |
| Fire | mi /mi/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | mi /mi/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ |
| Sun | mu /mu/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ningpe /niŋpe/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ |
| Moon | nyi /ɲi/ | ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | lai /lai/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ |
| Mother | ami /ami/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | amai /amai/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ |
| Father | apa /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | apai /apai/ | ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ |
| Eat | ndzu /ndzu/ | ཟ /za/ | ཟ /za/ | za /za/ | ཟ /za/ | བཟའ /za/ | ཟ /za/ |
| Drink | ndhu /ndʱu/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | thung /tʰuŋ/ | ཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ |
| Love | halia /halia/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | བློ་ཆོ /lotɕʰo/ | ga /ɡa/ | དགའ་བ /ɡaba/ | དགའ་བ /ɡawa/ | དགའ་པོ /ɡapo/ |
| Heart | shulm /ʃulm/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | nying /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང་ /ɲiŋ/ |
| Tree | rrm /ʐm/ | ཤིང /ʃiŋ/ | སྡོང་པོ /dompo/ | shing /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང་ /ɕiŋ/ |
| House | stuapa /stuapa/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | ནང /naŋ/ | khim /kʰim/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | ཁྱིམ /tɕim/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ |
| Dog | kuel /kʷel/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | khwi /kʰwi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ཁྱི /tɕi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ |
| Cat | miu /miu/ | བྱི་ལ /pila/ | བྱི་ལ /bila/ | byila /bila/ | བྱི་ལ /bjila/ | བྱི་ལ /bila/ | ཞི་མི /ʑimi/ |
| Hand | ki /ki/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | lak /lak/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ |
| Eye | mil /mil/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | mik /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ |
| Hello | nia ja /nia dʒa/ | ཇུ་ལེ /dʑule/ | ཏ་ཤེས་ཏེ་ལེ /ʈʰaɕi tɕʰele/ | kuzu zangpo /kuzu zaŋpo/ | ཨ་སི་ལམ /asilam/ | སྐུ་གཟུགས་བཟང་པོ་ལ /kuzu zaŋpo la/ | ཨ་རོ /aro/ |
| Thank you | — /—/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | kadrinche /kadrintɕe/ | བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ /kadrintɕʰe/ | བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ /kadrintɕe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰukdʑe tɕʰe/ |
| One | lhe /ɬe/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | ཅིག /tɕik/ | thê /tʰe/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ |
| Good | stsuq /stsuq/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | lekpo /lekpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | ལེགས་ཤོམ /lekɕom/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ |
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