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Qiangic (Ch'iang, Kyang, Tsiang), formerly known as Dzorgaic, is a group of related languages within the Sino-Tibetan language family. They are spoken mainly in Southwest China, including Sichuan, Tibet, 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.

Qiangic speakers are variously classified as part of the Qiang, Tibetan, Pumi, Nakhi and Mongol ethnic groups by the Chinese government.

The extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia is considered to be Qiangic by some linguists, including Matisoff (2004). The internal structure of Qiang is closely related to the Tangut language and rGyalrongic language. The undeciphered Nam language of China may possibly be related to Qiangic.

Lamo, Larong, and Drag-yab, a group of three closely related Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Chamdo, eastern Tibet, may or may not be Qiangic.

Its language status is evaluated at 6b, or threatened. Qiang is transitioning from in-use to out-of-use in the homes of the Qiang people because it holds little use in everyday life. Trade with other Chinese people is done in Mandarin, which is the same language that local schools are taught in. In addition, young adults are leaving the region's villages for education or for an easier lifestyle. Many marry people from other parts of China who only speak Mandarin.

[The only place where I integrated info from the actual Wiki is in the *lead*, the rest of the Wikepdia page doesn't relate with the grammar of Qiang.]

Phonology

The phonemic inventory of Qiang consists of 37 consonants, and eight basic vowel qualities. The syllable structure of Qiang allows up to six sounds.

Consonants

The Qiang Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Voiceless Stop	p	t			k	q	(ʔ)
Voiceless Aspirated Stop	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ	qʰ
Voiced Stop	b	d			g
Voiceless Affricate		ts	tʂ	tɕ
Voiceless Aspirated Affricate		tsʰ	tʂʰ	tɕʰ
Voiced Affricate		dz	dʐ	dʑ
Voiceless Fricative	ɸ(f)	s	ʂ	ɕ	x	χ	h
Voiced Fricative	(v)	z	ʐ(ɹ)	(ʑ)	(ɣ)	ʁ	ɦ
Nasal	m	n		ɳ	ŋ
Voiceless Lateral		ɬ
Voiced Lateral		l
Approximant	(w)			(j)

Vowels

Qiang distinguishes between unstressed and long vowels (signified by two small dots, "ː") for all of its vowels except for /ə/ . In addition, there exist 15 diphthongs and one triphthong in the language of Qiang.

The Qiang Vowel Inventory

	Front	Mid	Back
High	i, iː y, yː		u, uː
Mid	e, eː	ə	o, oː
Low	a, aː		ɑ, ɑː

There may not be a significant phonetic difference in sound between /i/ and /e/, and /u/ and /o/, respectively. In fact, they are often used in place of one another without changing the meaning.

Diphthongs and Triphthongs

Diphthongs: ia, iɑ, ie, ye, eu, əu, ei, əi, oi, uɑ, ua, uə, ue, ui, ya

Triphthong: uəi

R-coloring

As the Qiang language becomes more endangered, the use of r-coloring is not being passed down to younger generations of the Qiang people. As a result, there is great variation in its use. R-coloring is not considered its own phoneme because it is a vowel feature and only used to produce vowel harmony (see below), most commonly signifying a first person plural marking.

Example: miʴwu [person (<mi):all] 'all the people'

Syllable Structure

The Qiang Syllable Canon:

(C)

[fric]

(initial-consonant)

-

(V)

[glide]

V

-

(V)

[glide]

(C)

[fric]

(final-consonant)

-

(C) (initial-consonant) (V) V (V) (C) (final-consonant)

[fric] - [glide] - [glide] [fric] -

Examples of Syllables permitted in Qiang

Template	Qiang Word	Translation
V	ɑ	'one'
VV	ɑu	'one pile'
VC	ɑs	'one day'
VCC	əχʂ	'tight'
CV	pə	'buy'
CVV	kʰuə	'dog'
CVVV	kuɑi-tʰɑ	'strange'
CVC	pɑq	'intererst'
CVCC	bəxʂ	'honey'
CVVC	duɑp	'thigh'
CCV	xtʂe	'louse'
CCVV	ʂkue	'roast'
CCVVV	ʂkuəi	'mt. goat'
CCVC	ʂpəl	'kidney'
CCVCC	ʂpəχs	'Chibusu'
CCVVC	ʂquɑp	'quiet'
CCVVCC	ɕpiexɬ	'scar'

Phonological Processes

Initial Weakening

When a compound or a directional prefix is added before an aspirated initial, the latter becomes the final of the preceding syllable in the new word. This typically causes it to lose its aspiration.

Example: tə- DIR + ba 'big' > təwa 'become big'

[Stress section deleted because too complicated, permission from Prof. Kalin]

Vowel Harmony

Typically, vowel harmony is used to match a preceding syllable's vowel with the succeeding vowel or its height. In some cases, however, the vowel of a succeeding syllable will harmonize in the opposite way, matching with the preceding vowel. This process occurs across syllables in compounds or in prefix + root combinations. Vowel harmony can also occur for r-coloring on the first syllable if the second syllable of a compound or prefix + root combination already has r-coloring.

Example: wə 'bird' + ʂpu 'flock' > wuʂpu '(wild) pigeon'

Example: Chinese zhàogù + Qiang pə 'to do' > tʂɑuku-pu 'take care of'

Example: me 'not' + weʴ 'reduce' > meʴ-weʴ 'unceasingly'

Epenthetic Vowel

The vowel /ə/ can be embedded within a collection of consonants that are restricted by the syllable canon. The epenthetic vowel is used to combine sounds that would typically be impermissible.

Example: bəl-əs-je [do-NOM (< -s)-good to eat] 'advantageous'

Free Variation

For some words, changing or adding consonants produces no phonological difference in meaning. The most common consonant interchange is between /ʂ/ and /χ/.

Example: ʂqu ~ χqu 'mouth'

Example: kɑp ~ kɑpətʂ 'orphan'

Morphology

Qiang uses affixes in the form of prefixes and suffixes to describe or modify the meaning of nouns and verbs. Other morphological processes that are affixed include gender marking, marking of genitive case, compounding, and nominalization. Qiang also uses non-affixational processes such as reduplication.

Noun Phrase

In Qiang, any combination of the following order is allowed as long as it follows this flow. Some of the items found below, such as adjectives, may be used twice within the same noun phrase.

Structure of the Qiang noun phrase

GEN phrase + Rel. clause + Noun + ADJ + DEM/DEF + (NUM + CL)/PL

Gender Marking

Gender marking only occurs in animals. Typically, /mi/ is the suffix for females, while /zdu/ is the suffix for males.

Example: wə-mi 'mare'

Example: puɳu-zdu 'male cat'

Pronouns

Pronouns of Qiang can be represented from the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person, and can refer to one, two, or more than two people.

The Qiang Personal Pronouns

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	qɑ	tɕi-zzi	tɕi-le
2	ʔũ	ʔi-zzi	ʔi-le
3	theː / qupu	thi-zzi	them-le

Genitive Case

The genitive marker /-tɕ(ə)/ is placed on the modifying noun. This modifying noun will precede the noun it modifies.

Example:

qɑ-tɕ

1sg-GEN

ləɣz

book

qɑ-tɕ ləɣz

1sg-GEN book

'my book'

Verbal Morphology

Changing the meaning of verbs can be done by prefixes and suffixes, or by using reduplication.

Verbal Prefixes

	Marking in Qiang	Purpose/Meaning
1		intensifying adverb
2	"various"	direction/orientation, or 3rd person indirect directive
3	/mə-/, or /tɕə-/	simple negation, or prohibitive
4	/tɕi/	continuative aspect

Verbal Suffixes

	Marking in Qiang	Purpose/Meaning
5	/-ʐ/	causative
6	/-ɑː/	prospective aspect
7	/kə/, or /lə/	'(to) go', or '(to) come' (auxiliary directional verbs)
8	/-jə/	reptition
9	/-ji/	change of state
10	/-l-/	1st person indirect directive
11	/-k/	inferential evidential, mirative
12	/-u/	visual evidential
13	/-ʂɑ/, /-sɑn/, /-ʂəʴ/, /-sɑi/, [-wu/ ~ -u]	non-actor person1(sg, 2sg, 1pl, 2pl, 3sg/pl )
14	/-ɑ/, /-n/, /-əʴ/, /-i/, /-tɕi/	actor person (1sg, 2sg, 1pl, 2pl, 3pl)
15	/-i/	hearsay evidential

Reduplication

Repetition of the same root verb signifies a reciprocal action upon one actors, or an ongoing action.

Example: mɑ 'plaster (a wall)' > məmɑ 'be plastering'

Other Morphological Processes

Compounding

In Qiang, the modifying noun of the compound must precede the modified noun.

Example:

khuɑ-ʁl

dog-child

khuɑ-ʁl

dog-child

'puppy'

Nominalization

Nouns are created from adjectives or verbs using clitics /-s/, /-m/, or /-tɕ/, the indefinite markers /le/ or /te/, or the definite marker /ke/.

Example:

tɑwə-tɑ-m

hat-wear-NOM

le-ze

DEF-CL

tɑwə-tɑ-m le-ze

hat-wear-NOM DEF-CL

'the person wearing a hat'

Syntax

The language of Qiang has quite a predictable syntax without many variations. The typical basic word order is SOV. As a language that is derived from Mandarin Chinese, Qiang borrows some Mandarin words while keeping its own sentence structure.

Clause Structure

Order

(TEMP) (LOC) (ACTOR) (GOAL/RECIPIENT) (ADV) (UG) VC (PART)

(TEMP = temporal phrase; UG = undergoer; VC = verb complex; PART = clause-final particle)

A sentence in Qiang may be as short as a verb complex, which may just be a predicate noun.

Deriving from the order stated above, Qiang is a language with a Subject-Object-Verb sentence structure.

Example:

S

χumtʂi

Xumtʂi

O

ʐətɕʰaq-e-ze

rabbit-one-CL

V

ɦɑ-tʂ

DIR-pierce(kill)

S O V

χumtʂi ʐətɕʰaq-e-ze ɦɑ-tʂ

Xumtʂi rabbit-one-CL DIR-pierce(kill)

‘Xumtʂi killed a rabbit.’

Code Mixing

Many loan words or loan phrases from Mandarin are used but the word order of these phrases is rearranged to fit the grammatical structure of Qiang.

Example:

pəs-ŋuəɳi

today-TOP

ʐmətʂi-sətsim-leː

emperor-wife-DEF:CL

tɕiutɕin

(after.all

ʂə

be)

mi-leː

person-DEF:CL

ŋuə-ŋuɑ?

COP-Q

pəs-ŋuəɳi ʐmətʂi-sətsim-leː tɕiutɕin ʂə mi-leː ŋuə-ŋuɑ?

today-TOP emperor-wife-DEF:CL (after.all be) person-DEF:CL COP-Q

'Today, is the emeror's wife a human?'

In this sentence, the words "tɕiutɕin" and "ʂə" are borrowed from Mandarin.