Southern Qiang
Sino-Tibetan (Qiangic)
Data confidence: LOW (QXS is critically under-documented). Geographic coordinates (32.8°N, 103.6°E) place the center in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. Vocabulary items drawn from comparative Qiangic reconstruction and Northern Qiang (CND) cognates per LaPolla & Huang (2003) "A Grammar of Qiang" — direct Southern Qiang attestations are scarce in published sources. IPA reflects likely Qiangic phonological patterns (uvular/postalveolar affricates, aspirated st [Provisional - limited documentation; readings pending native-speaker verification.]
Where it is spoken
20 core words in Southern Qiang
Water
tʃʰu
/tʃʰu/
Fire
miː
/miː/
Sun
ɲit
/ɲit/
Moon
ʐwaː
/ʐwaː/
Mother
miː
/miː/
Father
pə
/pə/
Eat
tʃʰə
/tʃʰə/
Drink
ʂu
/ʂu/
Love
pʰo
/pʰo/
Heart
ɲit
/ɲit/
Tree
tʃʰoː
/tʃʰoː/
House
kʰə
/kʰə/
Dog
kʰwe
/kʰwe/
Cat
maː
/maː/
Hand
kʰaː
/kʰaː/
Eye
mit
/mit/
Hello
niə
/niə/
Thank you
—
/—/
One
tʃʰik
/tʃʰik/
Good
kʰo
/kʰo/
Words compared
Compared with related Sino-Tibetan (Qiangic) languages
| Meaning | Southern Qiang | Central Bai | Lhomi | Parauk Wa | Situ rGyalrong | Khams Tibetan | Balti |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | tʃʰu /tʃʰu/ | tshi /tʃʰɪ/ | ཆུ་ /tɕʰu˥/ | tʃɔː /tʃɔː/ | tʃʰu /tʃʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ |
| Fire | miː /miː/ | me /me/ | མེ་ /me˥/ | miː /miː/ | mə /mə/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ |
| Sun | ɲit /ɲit/ | nyi /ɲi/ | ཉི་མ་ /ɲi˥ma˩/ | waː /waː/ | niʂ /niʂ/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ |
| Moon | ʐwaː /ʐwaː/ | thsi /tʰsɪ/ | ཟླ་བ་ /dawa˩/ | lɔː /lɔː/ | zla /zlɑ/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ |
| Mother | miː /miː/ | me /me/ | ཨ་མ་ /ʔama˩/ | maː /maː/ | ma /mɑ/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ |
| Father | pə /pə/ | phu /pʰu/ | ཨ་པ་ /ʔapa˩/ | pʰaː /pʰaː/ | pə /pə/ | ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ | ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ |
| Eat | tʃʰə /tʃʰə/ | tshje /tʃʰje/ | ཟ་ /sa˩/ | sɛː /sɛː/ | mə-za /mə.zɑ/ | ཟ /za/ | ཟ /za/ |
| Drink | ʂu /ʂu/ | phi /pʰɪ/ | འཐུང་ /tʰuŋ˩/ | pə /pə/ | nə-tɕʰə-n /nə.tɕʰə.n/ | འཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ | ཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ |
| Love | pʰo /pʰo/ | phi-tshje /pʰɪ tʃʰje/ | — /—/ | rəŋ /rəŋ/ | nə-ŋɯ /nə.ŋɯ/ | དགའ་པོ /ɡapo/ | དགའ་བ /ɡaba/ |
| Heart | ɲit /ɲit/ | sin /sɪ̃/ | སྙིང་ /ɲiŋ˥/ | sɛɛ /sɛɛ/ | tʰoŋ /tʰɔŋ/ | སྙིང་ /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ |
| Tree | tʃʰoː /tʃʰoː/ | si /sɪ/ | ཤིང་ /ɕiŋ˥/ | tʰɔː /tʰɔː/ | sin /sin/ | ཤིང་ /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ |
| House | kʰə /kʰə/ | khe /kʰe/ | ཁྱིམ་ /kʰim˥/ | miː /miː/ | kʰoŋ /kʰɔŋ/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ |
| Dog | kʰwe /kʰwe/ | kho /kʰo/ | ཁྱི་ /kʰi˥/ | kʰɔː /kʰɔː/ | kʰə /kʰə/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ |
| Cat | maː /maː/ | mau /mau̯/ | — /—/ | mɛː /mɛː/ | tsa /tsʰɑ/ | ཞི་མི /ʑimi/ | བྱི་ལ /bjila/ |
| Hand | kʰaː /kʰaː/ | khon /kʰɔ̃/ | ལག་པ་ /lakpa˩/ | miːk /miːk/ | laʂ /lɑʂ/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ |
| Eye | mit /mit/ | ngat /ŋɑ́t/ | མིག་ /mik˥/ | miːn /miːn/ | miʂ /miʂ/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ |
| Hello | niə /niə/ | he /he/ | བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས /taɕi˥ tele˩/ | sawʔdiː /sawʔdiː/ | ŋ̩ /ŋ̩/ | ཨ་རོ /aro/ | ཨ་སི་ལམ /asilam/ |
| Thank you | — /—/ | mje-kje /mje kje/ | — /—/ | tʰɔk /tʰɔk/ | ʒo /ʒɔ/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰukdʑe tɕʰe/ | བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ /kadrintɕʰe/ |
| One | tʃʰik /tʃʰik/ | tshit /tʃʰɪt/ | གཅིག་ /tɕik˥/ | tʃit /tʃit/ | tʃʰiʂ /tʃʰiʂ/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ |
| Good | kʰo /kʰo/ | no /no/ | ཡག་པོ་ /jakpo˩/ | jɔː /jɔː/ | tʰuŋ /tʰʊŋ/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ |
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