Qílian Language
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Qílian | |
---|---|
Chi | |
小語 | |
Pronunciation | {ˌḱ̋͡ˈiˈɨə̄̀͡ɲ} |
Native to | Qília |
Region | Boralia |
Ethnicity | Qílian |
Native speakers | 210.680.512 (2025) |
sili-kao'sacha | |
Early form | Borealian Mandarin
|
Dialects | Yùshan Dialect, Upper Beizhang Dialect (Ka'osacha +Qílian), Yuan Dialect, Azalonian Dialect, Nansayian Dialect (Bisayian + Qílian) |
Qanzi | |
Sources | Chinese, Vietnamese |
Official status | |
Official language in | Qília |
Recognised minority language in | Singhapala Bisayia Republic, Sukoku, Kyun Alura, Spokania, Jote?, Limthia? |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | QI |
Qílian or Qian (Qílian: 小語; pinyin: Qíyǔn; lit. 'Qi language' or 小語; Qíwiéng; 'Chi writing') is a group of languages spoken natively by the majority Han Borealian and many ethnic minority groups in Qílian, as well as by various communities in the Qílian diaspora. Approximately 210 million people speak a variety of Qilian as their first language.
The Qilian languages form the qílian branch of the Qili-kao'sacha language family. The spoken varieties of Qílian are generally considered by native speakers to be dialects of a single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means that they are sometimes considered separate languages in one family.Research into the historical relationships between the varieties of Qilian is ongoing. Currently, most classifications present 4 to 7 main regional groups based on phonetic developments of Middle Qilian, of which the most widely spoken, by far, is Qilian,also commonly called, Tenága, a prominent term from “”“Malay”“”, or Sichouwén, proeminent term from Qílian, that means "silk language", with X%, or about 167.5 million speakers (167,508,302), followed by Han (30 million), Azalonian (230 thousand) . These branches are unintelligible to each other, and many of their subgroups are unintelligible to other varieties within the same branch (e.g. Azalonian). However, there are transitional areas where varieties from different branches share enough features for some limited intelligibility, including Xiangtzé as the tenága of the west, Taizhou Wun qílian with the tenága of lower Yùtzé, Jinyang with the tenága of the southern plains and certain divergent dialects of Shugoukka with Ganbao. All varieties of Kilian are tonal, at least to some extent, and are largely analytical.
The most ancient attested written Qilian consists of the inscriptions on stones and oracle bones created during the Tsiang dynasty, around 1450 BC. The phonetic categories of Old Qilian can be reconstructed from the rhymes of ancient poetry. During periods of war such as the Mandate War, Middle Qilian underwent several sound changes and split into several varieties after a prolonged geographical and political separation. The Qí'yun, a rhyming dictionary, recorded a compromise between the pronunciations of different regions. The imperial courts since the First Yùshang Dynasty operated using Middle Qilian, also known as zhuong'qiyun (Qilian: 中小語; pinyin: Zhuóng'Qíyǔn) File:WIKITONGUES- Ying speaking Henan Chinese.webm
History
The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Tsiang dynasty. As the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate a unified standard.
Old and Middle Qílian
The first examples of ancient Qilian are divinatory inscriptions on bones and stone slabs of oracles dating from around 1450 BC, during the Late Tsiang. The next attested stage came from inscriptions on bronze and bamboo artifacts dating from the Western Zhouyin period (1046-771 BC), the Classic of Poetry and parts of the Book of Documents and the I Tsing. Scholars have attempted to reconstruct the phonology of Old Qilian by comparing later varieties of Qilian with the rhyming practice of the Poetry Classic and the phonetic elements found in most Qíliancharacters. Although many of the finer details remain obscure, most scholars agree that Old Qilian is related to Middle Qilian in having retroflex and palatal obstruents, and in having some kind of initial consonant cluster, and in having voiceless nasals and liquids. The most recent reconstructions also describe an atonal language with consonant clusters at the end of the syllable, developing tone distinctions in Middle Chinese. Several derivational affixes have also been identified, but the language has no inflection and indicated grammatical relationships using word order and grammatical particles.
The original Middle Qilian was the language used during the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Qí Dynasties. It can be divided into an early period, reflected by the Qieyun rhyming dictionary (601 AD), and a later period in the 10th century, reflected by rhyming tables such as the Yunjing, constructed by ancient Chinese philologists as a guide to the Qieyun system. These works define phonological categories, but with little indication of the sounds they represent. Linguists have identified these sounds by comparing the categories with pronunciations in modern varieties of Chinese, borrowed Chinese words from Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean, and transcription evidence. The resulting system is very complex, with a large number of consonants and vowels, but probably not all of which are distinguishable in a single dialect.