Languages tibéto-Burmeses

The group tibéto-Burmese is a very diversified group of Langue S spoken between the China, the India, the Tibet, the Nepal, the Bhutan, the Burma and in some areas of the Pakistan, the Bangladesh, the Thailand, the Laos and even of the Vietnam.

History of the concept

It is the German linguist Julius Klaproth which in 1823 in its work Asia Polyglotta discovered the tibéto-Burmese, in which he included the three languages known at its time: the Chinese, the Tibetan and the Burmese .

With the difference the Indo-European for which many languages are attested before our era, there are few languages traditionally written tibéto-Burmeses: one hardly finds but the Tibetan (7th century), the Tangoute (11th century), the Burmese (12th century), the Meitei (14th century), the Néware (14th century) and the Us, as well as the Lepcha and the Limbou. Some languages were written in Latin alphabet during the colonial time: it is in particular the case of the Jinghpo.

However, in the Hou Hanshu 后汉书, one finds a text bilingual written in a language tibéto-Burmese spoken then by the Tribu Bailang 白狼 in the current Sichuan. This text is equipped with a line translation by Chinese line, and its deciphering made it possible to determine that this language is close to the Milk-Burmese: it is there the language in the past attested of the family apart from Chinese.

The Chinese Langues would be related to the tibéto-Burmese, and, according to certain researchers, would not be that a branch tibéto-Burmese among others, which would have of private individual only his number of speakers and the seniority of his writing. It was already there the opinion of Klaproth at the beginning of the 19th century. For information on the rebuilding of the old pronunciation of Chinese, who allows to compare it thereafter with the language tibéto-Burmeses, to see the article Chinese antiquated.

This assumption of a family sino-Tibetan comes owing to the fact that one recognized more than 400 words (489 according to Weldon South Coblin) common to Chinese and the tibéto-Burmese. In 1988, Jerry Norman, which considered this assumption “unattackable” however added that “the phonological correspondences between Chinese and tibéto-Burmese were never studied in detail”. Moreover, typologies of Chinese and the tibéto-Burmese are different: Chinese is a monosyllabic and insulating language while the Tibetan is a agglutinant Langue like the Mongolian or the Japanese. The Tibetan uses in particular accidental Suffixes, unknown of Chinese. It would thus be necessary to make additional investigations to confirm or contradict this assumption. An observation according to which the antiquated Chinese had a suffix of “Concrétisation” * - S , and was thus not an insulating language, could consolidate it.

The term of “languages sino-Tibetans” is however prone to controversy. The origin of the writing Tibetan goes back to Songtsen Gampo (born towards 609 - 613 ~mort in 650) which was the 33e king of the Tibet. Songtsen Gampo sent in India Tibetans to study the Sanskrit there. The minister Thonmi Sambhota created the writing Tibetan starting from the Indian alphabet Devanâgarî. There are thus no hard copies older of this language, which is not contradictory forcing with the assumption of common origin.

List and classification

See the list in the lanque article by family.

Origin

The historical data which one has on the migrations of the Tibetans and Burmeses indicate the Eastern Tibet like starting point. The North-East of Tibet is precisely the old territory of the Qiang, the people tibéto-Burmese in the past attested. It was already known of the Chinese under the Dynastie Shang, towards -1200 (one millenium and half before the Tibetans). As the character which indicates Qiang (羌) comprises the elements 人 “man” and 羊 “sheep”, they seem stockbreeders of sheep. The Chinese also indicated them by the name of Dou My Qiang “Qiang with the many horses”. Primarily stockbreeders, they had a seminomad lifestyle and a warlike behavior. They currently live with the Western Sichuan.

On their old territory, the Qinghai and the Eastern Gansu, a culture of the end of the Neolithic and beginning of the Bronze Age are attested from -2200 to -1600. It is called the culture of Qijia. One observes a transition from agriculture there towards the pastoralism, then towards a beginning of nomadism. It is allowed to suppose that the men of Qijia had a relationship with Qiang, even with the whole of the Tibéto-Burmeses. Tibetans and Burmeses perhaps were besides only of the detached branches of Qiang.

Rebuilding of the proto-tibéto-Burmese

The three groups of languages best studied of the family are the Chinese, the Tibetan and the languages Milk-Burmese be.

The languages tibéto-Burmeses, except for the Qianguique and of the Kiranti, do not present a complex morphology. Insofar as the last two groups of language are still insufficiently studied, it is difficult for the moment to rebuild the grammatical system of the proto-language. Just can one foresee the existence of some Préfixe S and more rarely of suffixes in the proto-language. Some are always productive in RGyalrong, a group of languages of the subfamily Qianguique whose archaism is at all points incomparable in the remainder of the family.

Prefixes

S causative: Tibetan: khor “to turn” gives skor “to make turn”. Is in all the languages of the family, but often in the form of a sound/deaf or not-aspired/aspired opposition due to the sound changes.

prénasalisation intransitivante : RGyalrong ka-prat “to break qqch” gives ka-mbrat “to be broken”

K nominalisator: in RGyalrong, this prefix, with two different vocalisms, is used to form the name of agent and the name of action (form of infinitive). One finds this prefix in Angami-pochuri, Tangkhul and Kiranti

Suffixes

- S last: Tibetan BIS “to write, present” gives breaking “to write, last”. Is also in RGyalrong, Qiang and perhaps in Jinghpo.
- N and - S nominalizing: Tibetan za “to eat” gives zas and zan “food”. In Chinese is, RGyalrong and perhaps in Qiang.
- T Applicatif: limbou ha: p “to cry (intr.)”, ha: Pt “to cry for somebody”; some traces in Chinese and rGyalrong
- S causative: limbou ha: p “to cry (intr.)”, ha: PS “to make cry qqun”, Chinese traces.

Irregular verbs

One finds verbs irregular in some languages such as the Tibetan, the RGyalrong and certain languages Kiranti. However, there exists one verb whose irregularity seems related between languages of different families and who could go back to a common irregularity:

to eat: last Tibetan za zos : alternation a-o for this verb is found in Kiranti.

See too

Linguistic

Dictionary of the languages

Languages by family

Languages sino-Tibetans

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