Qiang language, called Rma (尔玛) or Rme by its speakers, is a Sino-Tibetan language cluster of the Qiangic branch spoken by approximately 140,000 people in north-central Sichuan Province, China.
Qiang consists of: Northern Qiang language (a non-tonal language) Southern Qiang language (a tonal language)
Writing system
In 2017, the Rma script, invented by Wei Jiuqiao (), was officially finalized and has been accepted by many Qiang people as the first ever official writing system for their language. There is no published information as to whether the script is compatible with both the Northern Qiang language and the Southern Qiang language or if it is only compatible with one of the languages. The writing system has also been given a preliminary proposal to encode it to the Universal Character Set of Unicode.
Consonants
Vowels
Classification
Sims (2016) gives the following classification for the "Qiangish" (or "Rma") languages, which include Northern Qiang and Southern Qiang. Individual dialects are highlighted in italics. Qiangish Northern Qiang ('upstream' *nu- innovation group) NW Heishui: Luhua 芦花镇 Central Heishui Qinglang 晴朗乡 Zhawo 扎窝乡 Ciba 慈坝乡 Shuangliusuo 双溜索乡 uvular V's innovation group: Zhimulin 知木林乡, Hongyan 红岩乡, Mawo 麻窝乡 SE Heishui: Luoduo 洛多乡, Longba 龙坝乡, Musu 木苏乡, Shidiaolou 石碉楼乡 North Maoxian: Taiping 太平乡, Songpinggou 松坪沟乡 South Songpan: Xiaoxing 小姓乡, Zhenjiangguan 镇江关乡, Zhenping 镇坪乡 West Maoxian / South Heishui: Weigu 维古乡, Waboliangzi 瓦钵乡梁子, Se'ergu 色尔古镇, Ekou, Weicheng 维城乡, Ronghong, Chibusu, Qugu 曲谷乡 [basis for written language], Wadi 洼底乡, Baixi 白溪乡, Huilong 回龙乡, Sanlong 三龙乡 Central Maoxian: Heihu 黑虎乡 SE Maoxian (reflexive marker innovation): Goukou 沟口乡, Yonghe 永和乡 Southern Qiang (perfective agreement suffixes innovation group) 'inward' *ji innovation subgroup North Wenchuan: Longxi 龙溪乡 South Wenchuan: Miansi 绵虒镇 'downward' *ɚ innovation subgroup Western Lixian: Puxi 蒲溪乡, Xuecheng 薛城镇, Muka 木卡乡, Jiuzi 九子村 Eastern Lixian: Taoping 桃坪乡, Tonghua 通化乡
Reconstruction
Sims (2017) reconstructs tones for Proto-Rma (alternatively called Proto-Qiangish), proposing that the lack of tones in Northern Qiang is due to Tibetan influence. High tones and low tones are reconstructed for Proto-Rma, as well as for Proto-Prinmi.