Naish languages

Subgroup of three Sino-Tibetan languages

Naish
Geographic distribution	Yunnan and Sichuan
Linguistic classification	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Loloish or Qiangic (?) Naic Naish
Subdivisions	Naxi Mosuo (Na) Laze
Glottolog	`nais1236`

The Naish languages are a low-level subgroup of Sino-Tibetan languages that include Naxi, Na (Mosuo), and Laze.

Classification

The Naish languages are:

Naish
- Naxi
- Na (Narua, Mosuo)
- Laze

In turn, Naish together with Namuyi and Shixing constitutes the Naic subgroup within Sino-Tibetan.

Arguments for relatedness include irregular morphotonology: tone patterns of numeral-plus-classifier phrases that constitute shared structural properties. Since these similarities are phonetically nontransparent, they cannot be due to borrowing.^[1]

Names

Note that in Mainland China, the term "Naxi" is commonly used for the entire language group, e.g. by the influential linguistic introduction by He and Jiang (2015).^[2]^[3] The terms "Naish" and "Naic" are derived from the endonym Na used by speakers of several of the languages. These concepts were initially proposed by Guillaume Jacques & Alexis Michaud (2011).^[4] Phylogenetic issues are summarized in the entry about the Naic subgroup. For a review of the literature about Naish languages, see Li (2015).^[5]

Tentative Sino-Tibetan family tree proposed by Jacques & Michaud (2011)

Lexical innovations

Jacques & Michaud (2011) list the following words as Naish lexical innovations.

Gloss	Naxi	Na	Laze	Proto-Naish
to stumble	pe˧	k^hɯ.pi^M		*(S)pa
cloud	ki˩	tɕi˧	tɕi˩sɯ˥	*ki
village	hi˧mbe˧	fv̩.bi^L	ɖɯ˧bie˧	*mba
Bai people	le˧bv̩˧	ɬi.bv̩^M		*Sla
noble		sɯ.p^hi^M	sɯ˩p^hie˩	*si p^ha
medicine (2nd syllable)	ʈʂ^hɚ˧ɯ˧	ʈʂ^hæ.ɯ^H	ts^hɯ˧fi˧	*rts^hi Swri

Reconstruction

Proto-Naish, the proto-language ancestral to the Naish languages, has been reconstructed by Jacques & Michaud (2011).

References

^ Michaud, Alexis (2011). "The tones of numerals and numeral-plus-classifier phrases: on structural similarities between Naxi, Na and Laze". Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 34: 1–26 – via Hyper Articles en Ligne.
^ He Jiren 和即仁 & Jiang Zhuyi 姜竹仪. 1985. Naxiyu Jianzhi 纳西语简志 (A Brief Description of the Naxi Language). Beijing 北京: Minzu Chubanshe 民族出版社.
^ Michaud, Alexis, He Limin & Zhong Yaoping. 2015. "Naxi / Naish." In Rint Sybesma, Wolfgang Behr, Zev Handel & C.T. James Huang (eds.), Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics. Leiden: Brill.
^ Jacques, Guillaume, and Alexis Michaud. 2011. "Approaching the historical phonology of three highly eroded Sino-Tibetan languages: Naxi, Na and Laze." Diachronica 28:468-498.
^ Li Zihe 李子鹤. 2015. 纳西语言研究回顾——兼论语言在文化研究中的基础地位 (A review of Naxi language studies, with a discussion of the fundamental role of cultural studies for linguistic research). 茶马古道研究期刊 4. 125–131.