Qiangic or Kiangic, formerly known as Dzorgai, is a language group of the northeastern Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family

Sino-Tibetan languages

The Sino-Tibetan languages are a language family comprising, at least, the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. They are second only to the Indo-European languages in terms of the number of native speakers...

, spoken mainly in Southwestern China, including Sichuan

Sichuan

' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...

, Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

, and Yunnan

Yunnan

Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

.

Sun (1983) proposes two branches, northern and southern:

• Northern: Northern Qiang
  Northern Qiang language
  Northern Qiang is a Qiangic language of the Tibeto-Burman language family spoken by approximately 130,000 people in north-central Sichuan Province, China.Unlike its close relative Southern Qiang, Northern Qiang is not a tonal language....
  
   (Máwō), Pumi
  Pumi language
  The Pumi language is a Tibeto-Burman language used by the Pumi people, an ethnic group from Yunnan, China. Most native speakers live in Lanping, Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi and Muli...
  
   (Prinmi), Tangut
  Tangut language
  Tangut is an ancient northeastern Tibeto-Burman language once spoken in the Western Xia Dynasty, also known as the Tangut Empire. It is classified by some linguists as one of the Qiangic languages, which also include Qiang and rGyalrong, among others...
  
   (extinct)
• Southern: Southern Qiang
  Southern Qiang language
  Southern Qiang is a Qiangic language of the Tibeto-Burman language family spoken by approximately 81,300 people along the Minjiang river in Sichuan Province, China.Unlike its close relative Northern Qiang, Southern Qiang is a tonal language....
  
   (Táopíng).

Sun groups other, poorly described Qiangic languages as,

• Ersu
  Ersu language
  Ersu is a Qiangic language of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is spoken by about 9,000 people in China. There are three main dialects of Ersu, Eastern Ersu, Central Ersu, and Western Ersu but mutual intelligibility is fading. Some linguists speculate Menia is a dialect of Ersu...
  
   (Tosu), Shixing, Namuzi
• Guixiong (2-3 varieties with low intelligibility)
• Zhaba
  Zhaba language
  Zhaba is a Qiangic language of Tibet spoken by about 8,000 people in the Zhamai district of Yajiang County. It is a Tibeto-Burman language....
  
  , Queyu.

Thurgood and La Polla (2003) state that the inclusion of Qiang, Prinmi, and Muya

Muya language

Munya or Muya is one of the Qiangic languages spoken in China. There are two dialects, which are not mutually intelligible. Most research on Munya has been conducted by Ikeda Takumi....

 is well supported, but that they do not follow Sun's argument for the inclusion of Tangut. The unclassified language Baima

Baima language

Baima is a language spoken by 11,000 people of Tibetan nationality in north central Sichuan Province, China. It has vigorous use amongst adult speakers....

may also be Qiangic.

Consonants

Below is an International Phonetic Alphabet representation of the northern Qiang language Qugu(曲谷，pinyin: Qugu)dialet consonants.

			Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	Voiceless	Unaspirated	p		t			k	q	?
		Aspirated	pʰ		tʰ			kʰ	qʰ
	Voiced	Unaspirated	b		d			g
	Voiceless	Unaspirated		ts		tʂ	tɕ
		Aspirated		tsʰ		tʂʰ	tɕʰ
	Voiced	Unaspirated		dz		dʐ	dʑ
Nasal			m		n		ɲ
Labial					l	ɭ
Fricative	Voiceless		f/φ	s	ɬ	ʂ	ɕ	x	χ	h
	Voiced			z		ʐ	ʑ	ɣ	ʁ	ɦ
Approximant			w

External links

• Ethnologue: Tangut-Qiang
• Site on Qiangic languages (French and Chinese)