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
31 core words in Northern Qiang
Water
cu
/tsu/
Fire
mi
/mi/
Sun
mu
/mu/
Moon
nyi
/ɲi/
Star
ʁʐə
/ʁʐə/
Mother
ami
/ami/
Father
apa
/apa/
I
qa
/qɑ/
You
ʔũ
/ʔũ/
Name
mi
/mi/
Eye
mil
/mil/
Hand
ki
/ki/
Heart
shulm
/ʃulm/
Love
halia
/halia/
Tree
səf
/səf/
House
stuapa
/stuapa/
Dog
kuel
/kʷel/
Cat
miu
/miu/
Eat
ndzu
/ndzu/
Drink
ndhu
/ndʱu/
One
lhe
/ɬe/
Two
ɣnə
/ʁnə/
Hello
nia ja
/nia dʒa/
Thank you
—
/—/
Good
stsuq
/stsuq/
Sources
Words compared
Compared with related Sino-Tibetan languages
| Meaning | Northern Qiang | Southern Qiang | Ladakhi | Sherpa | Balti | Hakha Chin | Kurtöp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | cu /tsu/ | tʃʰu /tʃʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ti /ti/ | khwe /kʰwe/ |
| Fire | mi /mi/ | miː /miː/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | mei /mei/ | mi /mi/ |
| Sun | mu /mu/ | ɲit /ɲit/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ni /ni/ | ningpe /niŋpe/ |
| Moon | nyi /ɲi/ | ʐwaː /ʐwaː/ | ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | thla /tʰla/ | lai /lai/ |
| Star | ʁʐə /ʁʐə/ | zgɿ /zɡɿ/ | སྐར་མ /skarma/ | སྐར་མ /karma/ | སྐར་མ /skarma/ | arfi /ʔarfi/ | karma /karma/ |
| Mother | ami /ami/ | miː /miː/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | nu /nu/ | amai /amai/ |
| Father | apa /apa/ | pə /pə/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ | pa /pa/ | apai /apai/ |
| I | qa /qɑ/ | qa /qɑ/ | ང /ŋa/ | ང /ŋa/ | ང /ŋa/ | kei /kei/ | ngat /ŋat/ |
| You | ʔũ /ʔũ/ | ʔu /ʔũ/ | ཁྱེད་རང /kʰeːraŋ/ | ཁྱེད་རང /kʰeraŋ/ | ཁྱང /kʰjaŋ/ | nang /naŋ/ | wit /wit/ |
| Name | mi /mi/ | rmə /rmə/ | མིང /miŋ/ | མིང /miŋ/ | མིང /miŋ/ | min /min/ | ming /miŋ/ |
| Eye | mil /mil/ | mit /mit/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | mit /mit/ | mik /mik/ |
| Hand | ki /ki/ | kʰaː /kʰaː/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | kut /kut/ | lak /lak/ |
| Heart | shulm /ʃulm/ | ɲit /ɲit/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | lung /luŋ/ | nying /ɲiŋ/ |
| Love | halia /halia/ | pʰo /pʰo/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | བློ་ཆོ /lotɕʰo/ | དགའ་བ /ɡaba/ | daw /daw/ | ga /ɡa/ |
| Tree | səf /səf/ | tʃʰoː /tʃʰoː/ | ཤིང /ʃiŋ/ | སྡོང་པོ /dompo/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ | thingkung /tʰiŋkuŋ/ | shing /ɕiŋ/ |
| House | stuapa /stuapa/ | kʰə /kʰə/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | ནང /naŋ/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | inn /in/ | khim /kʰim/ |
| Dog | kuel /kʷel/ | kʰwe /kʰwe/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ui /ui/ | khwi /kʰwi/ |
| Cat | miu /miu/ | maː /maː/ | བྱི་ལ /pila/ | བྱི་ལ /bila/ | བྱི་ལ /bjila/ | minu /minu/ | byila /bila/ |
| Eat | ndzu /ndzu/ | tʃʰə /tʃʰə/ | ཟ /za/ | ཟ /za/ | ཟ /za/ | ei /ei/ | za /za/ |
| Drink | ndhu /ndʱu/ | ʂu /ʂu/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | ཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ | din /din/ | thung /tʰuŋ/ |
| One | lhe /ɬe/ | tʃʰik /tʃʰik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | ཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | pakhat /pakʰat/ | thê /tʰe/ |
| Two | ɣnə /ʁnə/ | ɣnə /ɣnə/ | གཉིས /ɲis/ | གཉིས /ɲi/ | གཉིས /ɲis/ | pahnih /pahniʔ/ | zon /zon/ |
| Hello | nia ja /nia dʒa/ | niə /niə/ | ཇུ་ལེ /dʑule/ | ཏ་ཤེས་ཏེ་ལེ /ʈʰaɕi tɕʰele/ | ཨ་སི་ལམ /asilam/ | na dam maw /na dam maw/ | kuzu zangpo /kuzu zaŋpo/ |
| Thank you | — /—/ | — /—/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ /kadrintɕʰe/ | ka lawm /ka lawm/ | kadrinche /kadrintɕe/ |
| Good | stsuq /stsuq/ | kʰo /kʰo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | tha /tʰa/ | lekpo /lekpo/ |
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