What are the similarities between Chinese and Tibetan?

One of the language families classified by genealogy. It is a common name. In the past, some scholars used "Tibetan Chinese family" or "Indo-Chinese family".

The distributed and classified languages are included in this language family, mainly distributed in Asia. Besides China, it is also distributed in Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Viet Nam, Laos, Schupp and other countries. In addition, there are many Chinese-Tibetan speaking expatriates and immigrants all over the world.

The classification of Sino-Tibetan languages has always been different. First of all, the number of languages included is different. In addition to Chinese, Tibetan-Burmese, Miao-Yao and Zhuang-Dong languages, it also includes South Asian languages, and some people even think that it includes Yenisei-Osgar language in northern Siberia. The narrow scope only includes Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages. Secondly, the classification is also very inconsistent. In Language and Dialect of China (1937), Fang Guili proposed that Sino-Tibetan languages can be divided into Chinese, Dong-Tai, Miao-Yao and Tibeto-Burman languages, and he still insisted on this classification in his paper of the same name published in 1973. Luo Changpei and Fu Mao? The classification table of Sino-Tibetan language family put forward by the Survey of Chinese Minority Languages (1954) is basically consistent with Li's classification. Since the 1950s, most Chinese scholars have adopted Luo Hefu's classification method, believing that Zhuang-Dong language family and Miao-Yao language family should belong to Sino-Tibetan language family, but there are still different opinions on which language family or branch some languages should belong to. Xie Fei, an American scholar, classified the Sino-Tibetan language family into six major language families: Chinese, Taiwanese, Tibetan, Burmese, Assam and Karen. American scholar P.K. Benedict divided Chinese and Tibetan into two categories in An Overview of Sino-Tibetan Languages, and also divided Burmese and Karen into two categories under Tibetan Karen Languages. He believes that Miao Yao and Dong-Tai languages are closely related to Indonesian in Genesis, and belong to the Austro-Thai language family.

There are about 30 Sino-Tibetan languages in China. Chinese is divided into seven dialects, namely Northern Dialect, Wu Dialect, Hunan Dialect, Jiangxi Dialect, Hakka Dialect, Guangdong Dialect and Fujian Dialect, which are distributed all over the country. The Tibeto-Burman language family is distributed in the southwest, northwest and south-central regions. Miao and Yao languages are distributed in central south, southwest and southeast regions. Zhuang and Dong languages are distributed in the south-central and southwest of China. According to the classification table of Luo and Fu, combined with the investigation and research results in recent years, the classification table of Sino-Tibetan language family is as follows:

Phonetics has tones, that is, each syllable has a fixed pitch. Mood mainly plays a role in distinguishing lexical meanings, but it can also distinguish grammatical meanings in some languages. For example, in Lhasa dialect of Tibetan, ε: 14 "sleep" -ε:55 "noisy sleep" and par 14 "burning" -PAR 55 "light". Ké m55 "pot cover" in water language-Ké m35 "cover" (verb), é jen 13 "smoke"-é jen 33 "smoke". The development of tones between different languages is unbalanced. In terms of quantity, there are at least two (such as Pumi) and at most 12 (such as Miao). Relatively speaking, the Tibetan-Burmese language family has fewer tones, and most languages have only three or four tones. There are also atonal (such as Barrow and Amdo dialects in Tibetan). Amdo dialect in Tibetan has only a conventional pitch. Generally speaking, voiced initials are read high and voiced initials are read low. For example, in Xiahe dialect, hka is difficult to pronounce as Gao Pingtiao, while "Happy" is pronounced as a low-level tone. Generally speaking, tone is the most active component in syllables, which is closely related to initials and finals and restricts each other in the process of development. Tones are divided into yin and yang tones because of voiced initials, which is common in the whole language family. In modern times, the four tones of medieval Chinese have been divided into yin and yang in some dialects (such as Guangzhou dialect) and only partial tones in some dialects (such as northern dialect). Miao-Yao language family and Zhuang-Dong language family also experienced the process of four tones divided into yin and yang. Many languages and dialects have eight tones, including four tones of yin and four tones of yang. Many languages of the Tibeto-Burman language family also have the phenomenon of tone division due to voiced consonants. For example, Lhasa dialect in Tibetan is divided into high-pitched and low-pitched, with high notes from voiced initials and low notes from voiced initials. Many languages are also divided into relaxation and rising tone because of the presence or absence of vowels, and relaxation is generally more than rising tone. For example, the Zhuang-Dong language family and Miao-Yao language family usually have 5-6 soothing tones, but there are more than two promoting tones, and some places are divided into four because of the length of vowels. The monosyllabic tones of Dong language are also divided into two categories because of the aspirated and non-aspirated initials. If this opposition is also expressed in tones, the Dong language has 15 tones. Some parts of Chinese Cantonese also have this feature. In addition, the characteristics of aspirated initials, the length of vowels and the tightness of vowels will also affect the tone differentiation of some languages. Tone sandhi is rich, mostly in disyllabic words, and a few are between words. Tone sandhi is not only related to the meaning of words, but also to the grammatical structure.

Vowels in many languages are divided into lengths. Zhuang and Dong languages are the most common, as are Cantonese dialects in Chinese, Burmese languages in Miao and Yao languages, and Tibetan, Barrow and Dulong languages in Tibetan-Burmese languages. Long and short antonyms often appear in the main vowels with vowels. Tibeto-Burman language mainly appears on the opening syllable. The distribution of long and short vowels is different. Some languages (such as Li language) divide all vowels into long vowels and short vowels, while some languages (such as Dong language) only have the opposition between long vowels and short vowels on individual vowels. The length of vowels is often accompanied by some tongue position differences, such as a∶ actual sound value is [A∶A], a is [Yao], la∶i3 1 "Luokuang" is pronounced as [lA∶i3 1], and lai3 1 "Cai" is pronounced as. Long vowels often have vowel transition sounds, and their tongue position is generally lower than that of the main vowel. For example, O: in the black soil dialect of Li language has a transitional sound, pronounced as [o: Yao]. The length often affects the tone differentiation, and the tone of many languages is differentiated by the length. For example, the seven tones in Xingyi dialect of Buyi language have a long-term phonology of 13 (za∶p 13 "tune") and a short-term phonology of 35 (zap35 "pigpen"). There are four tones in the entering tone of Guangnan dialect of Zhuang language, and there is also differentiation after the opposition between long and short disappears. From the perspective of development, the long-short opposition in most languages has gradually disappeared, so the long-short collocation in some languages has become irregular. For example, Chejiang dialect of Dong language has eight vowel phonemes: A:, A:, E:, I:, O:, U:, among which only A: and A are opposite in length, and each has a vowel.

In many languages, initials and voiced consonants are opposite, and there is a trend of * * *. Such as Wu, Zhuang, Shui in Chinese, Maonan, Li in Zhuang and Dong languages, Burmese in Miao and Yao languages, Tibetan and Burmese languages, Yi languages and hani language. And there are two kinds of unvoiced sounds: unvoiced and unvoiced. In some languages, such as Miao, Burmese, Yi, Achang and so on. Nasal and lateral sounds are also divided into unvoiced and unvoiced. Pronunciation is closely related to tone, and the same tone category is often divided into two categories because of the difference of unvoiced sounds. It is the development trend of * * * that the turbidity is from opposition to non-opposition. Generally speaking, voiced sounds in stops, affricates and fricatives are unvoiced. This change has taken place in most areas of Chinese except Wu dialect and Xiang dialect (in some areas). After voiced sounds are voiced, most of them become aspirated voiceless sounds, and voiced voiceless sounds become unvoiced sounds, but some of them become aspirated voiceless sounds (such as Gan dialect and Hakka dialect). After the opposition between voiceless and voiced in Tibetan disappears, it turns into different tones. Generally speaking, nasal edge sounds are unvoiced and voiced. After the opposition disappears, some of them are transformed into different tones (such as Yi language), while others are transformed into tense opposition of vowels (such as Zawa language).

There are seven common suffixes, such as -m, -n, -e, -p, -t, -k and -da (pronunciation only hinders, not hinders). Some languages also have continuous vowels such as -r, -l and -s, such as "Dong" and "Qi" in Menba (Cuona) and "Yin" in Menba (Medog). Some languages or dialects also have compound vowels. For example, there are 22 disyllabic sounds such as -st, -Zd, -rb, -P, -S, -γl and -z in Mawo dialect of Qiang language, and the development of rhyme endings is also unbalanced, with a trend from complex to simple. Generally speaking, the vowels of consonants are combined (for example, P combined with T) and transformed (for example, K changed) until they are all transformed into-and then-fall off; Nasal vowels and stop vowels often develop in parallel with the pronunciation parts (such as P and T, M and N), and then transform into nasal vowels until nasal components disappear further. There are -p, -t, -k, -m, -n and -mi in Middle Chinese. In modern dialects, some remain intact (such as Cantonese) and some disappear (such as Wu dialect). The development of Tibetan language has also gone through this process. In the 7th century, -b, -d, -g, -m, -n and -ge in Tibetan were completely preserved in some places in modern dialects, such as -p, -t, -k, -m, -n and -ge in Alec dialect. Some parts have been lost, such as -m, -e, -p, -e and -t in Lhasa dialect transformed into -e and -n, and some -e transformed into vowels; In some places, such as Dege dialect, vowel stops are all converted into-,and vowel stops are all converted into nasal sounds. Burmese has also gone through the process of many stops becoming -fu and many nasal endings becoming vowel nasalization. Miao Yao language family also tends to simplify and omit consonant endings. For example, in the Miao language of China, there is no vowel, but only a nasal vowel. Read -a after the last vowel and -n after the first vowel. In Shimenkan dialect of Miao language, consonant vowels have all fallen off.

Some languages still retain complex consonants. Most of the complex consonants are two in one, and a few are three in one. There are four main types of disyllabic consonants: ① Nasal consonants and other consonants (nasal consonants are pronounced in the same place as the following consonants). For example, mbu33 in Liangshan dialect of Yi language is full, and nd 36 in Naxi language is "Shang (Qu)". (2) Laryngeal consonants and other consonants. For example, Da ba∶n 13 "village" in Jinxiu dialect of Lajia language, Da na33 "face" in Sandong dialect of Shuiyu language and Dawa31"silly" in Yangchang dialect of Buyi language. ③ Dull or nasal sounds with vibrato, edge sound or voiced fricative sound, such as prak55 "dish" in Guixian dialect of Zhuang language, pla24 "five" in Gaopo dialect of Miao language, "soft" in ml 3322, "drip" in Dulong language and "mountain" in Mulao language. (4) There are fricative sounds and other consonants, such as "that is, the Qiang language in Tao Ping's dialect of 55", that is, "in Mawo dialect of Qiang language", that is, "O" in Daofu dialect of Tibetan and "LO" in Alec dialect of Tibetan. Three-syllable consonants such as mpl in Gaopo dialect of Miao language? ∫kra means "touch" in Lajia Jinxiu dialect and "fine screen" in Jia Rong dialect. The Tibeto-Burman language family is the most abundant in complex consonants, including 1, 3 and 4 binary consonants and 3-syllable consonants. Secondly, Miao-Yao language family has two kinds of consonants and three kinds of consonants. There are only two types of consonants and three types of consonants in Zhuang-Dong language family. Its development tends to be simple and detached. Take Tibetan as an example. In the 7th century, Tibetan was rich in consonants, including two, three and four. But today, some dialects (such as Amdo dialect) retain more consonants (up to 90), and some dialects (such as Weizang dialect) have no consonants in many places. There are two main forms of changes: one is the loss of some consonants, such as dɡu "Jiu" and bsad "Sha" in Tibetan, and the pronunciation of ku 12 and sερ53 in Lhasa. On the other hand, compound consonants are merged into single consonants, such as Ω ru "boat" and π druɡ "six" in Tibetan, and tê hu 12 and tê hu 12 in Lhasa. Except for a few areas, most of modern Chinese has no consonants. Some scholars at home and abroad believe that there are rich disyllables in ancient Chinese.

Some languages of the Tibeto-Burman language family, such as Yi, hani language, Wa, Lahu, Bai, Jingpo and Zaiwa. There are loose vowels and tight vowels. Its opposite function is mainly to distinguish lexical meanings, and some languages can also distinguish grammatical meanings. Such as Zawa language: kjo2 1 "listen"-kjo21"listen", mju2 1 "float"-mju21"float". The difference of tightness is often accompanied by some differences in tone and tongue position, such as the tone value of tight vowels is slightly higher than that of loose vowels, and the tongue position of tight vowels is slightly lower than that of loose vowels. Some vowels are followed by a glottal sound. One of the sources of elastic opposition comes from the falling off of stop rhyme, that is, vowels with stop rhyme fall off and become tight vowels, which are opposite to loose vowels without rhyme, such as Yi language. One is transformed from voiced initials and becomes loose and tight, such as Jingpo dialect and Zaiwa dialect. In some languages, such as Bika dialect and Bai Hao dialect in hani language, tense vowels tend to relax.

Grammatical function words and word order are the main means to express grammatical meaning. Word order is fixed and there are many kinds of function words. The change of individual word order mostly depends on the help of function words. Except for some Tibeto-Burman languages (such as Jiarong and Qiang), the morphological changes of most languages are not rich. The standard of dividing parts of speech is not mainly based on the change of word form, but on the combination law of words and the function of words in sentences and with reference to the meaning of words. There are similarities and differences in the basic word order. Subjects all come before predicates, but the object types are different. Chinese, Miao and Yao languages, Zhuang and Dong languages are "subject-predicate object", while Tibetan and Burmese languages are "subject-predicate object". Take "I write" as an example:

Tibetan (Lhasa): Geaa 12 (1) Ji 1 1ke53 (word) Gexi 12 (written) kij ═ △12 (by 3 1 ai33 (suffix) Yi language (Liangshan dialect): Ai a33 (I) bu33ma33 (word) bu33 (writing) Miao language (Guizhou Oriental dialect): vi 1 1 (I) Yan. Zhuang language (Wuming dialect): kau24 (1) θi55 (writing) θ Alu 24 (word) Dong language (Rongjiang dialect): ja: u2 12 (1) a 13 (writing) si33 (word) When the noun is used as an attribute, Tia22 Take "My Brother's Clothes" as an example: Tibetan: O55o sub 53 (my brother) ki (my brother) thu sub 165438+33lo sub 53 (clothes) Jingpo: K. 3 1 (. Zhuang language: keu24 (piece) pu33 (clothes) tak33 (piece) Dong language: uk323 (clothes) ai3 1 (brother) adjective as attribute, Chinese is "adjective attribute-noun head", Take "white cloth" as an example: Tibetan: rε 12 (cloth) ka55po53 (white) Jingpo: panhubudje33 (cloth) ph o 3 1 (white) Yi: 12 (white) Zhuang: Pa. Take "ho33 people" as an example: Tibetan: mi 12 (people) 2443296153 (1) Jingpo: m ╤ 31∫ a3/kloc-. Kloc-0/ (a) Zhuang language: pou42 (a) vun2 1 (a) deu24 (a) Dong language: i55. 3 1 (a) n2 12 (ren) has quantifier. Except for some languages of the Tibeto-Burman family, such as Tibetan and Jingpo, which are underdeveloped, there are generally abundant quantifiers. The function of quantifiers is mainly to express the quantity of things and actions. In addition, quantifiers in many languages also indicate the characteristics of things such as category, shape, gender and level. For example, tu2 1 in Zawa is used for animals; Kam5 1 "tree" is used for plants; Ham2 1 "individual, granule and pill" is used for round granules; Khat55 "branches, roots and strips" are used for long strips; Khji55 "Tuo, Tuo" is used for tuo or lump. Another example is tak42 "ge" used by male teenagers in Wuming dialect of Zhuang language. Koη24 "one" is used for middle-aged men; Ta33 "One" is used for female teenagers; Me33 "One" is used for middle-aged women; Je: p33 is "small pinch"; Ja∶p33 is "big pinch"; γe∶k42 is a "small strip"; γa∶k42 is a "big strip". In the Zhuang, Dong and Miao languages of Miao and Yao languages, quantifiers also have the function of marking nouns, and some nouns should be preceded by quantifiers. For example, Wu Ming in Zhuang language, ko24 (tree) fai42 (tree) "tree", keu24 (film) pu33 (clothing) "clothing". From the source, quantifiers mostly come from nouns and verbs. In some languages of Tibeto-Burman language family, nouns are weighted as quantifiers in their own form (the last syllable is mostly used for two syllables, and the first syllable is used for a few). For example, in Lu Chun, hani language, mo3 1 (horse) hi3 1 (kloc-0/) Mo31(horse) "a horse", liì (bridge) hi31. Naxi language: No31(bridge) D 33 (1) No31(block) "A bridge", D31(house) D 33 (1) D I. Quantifiers from less to more,

Reduplication is rich, adjectives and quantifiers are more common. Adjective reduplication mostly indicates that the state of property is strengthened. For example, Dai 24 is "good"-Dai 24 is "excellent", θa Lu 24 is "clear"-θ A Lu 24 is "very clear". The reduplication of quantifiers mostly means "every". Such as Rongjiang dialect in Dong language: 55 "ge" in the south-55 "ge" in the south, and ta∶u53 "ci"-ta ∶ u53 "every time". Mian Hakka: la∶n2 1 "bit"—la ∶ N21la ∶ N21"everybody", ó a∶n33 "Jin" —óa ∶ N33ó a ∶ N33. In some languages, nouns, pronouns and verbs can also overlap. Overlapping nouns in Jingpo language indicate the majority, such as mu 55 "country"-Mu 55 "some countries" and phun55 "tree"-Phun 55 "some trees". In Wa language, overlapping interrogative pronouns represent the majority. Such as o55 Who -O55O55 Who, xai2 1 What -Xai2 1xai2 1 something. Personal pronouns in Liangshan dialect of Yi language overlap to form reflexive pronouns, such as "I"-"myself" and "we"-"we". When Naxi verbs overlap, they mean "mutual". For example, Lulu 33 "knows"-Lulu 33 "knows", ha55 "bites"-Ha55 "bites each other" Yi Liangshan dialect verbs overlap to express doubts. For example, la33 "come"-LA44LA33 "come", bo33 "go"-BO44BO33 "go".

There are auxiliary words that express the structural relationship of sentence components. Some of these structural auxiliary words indicate restriction and complementarity, some indicate subject, object, initiative and passivity, and some are useful after adverbials such as place, time and tools. For example, in hani language Lu Chun dialect, there are three words: a3 1 (I) γ (auxiliary word) mjì (object) "my things", a33 (scanning) γ (auxiliary word) so55 (sweeping) "sweeping clean", and. Auxiliary words such as Xu33 a3 1 (mouse) a55mi55 (cat) ne33 (auxiliary word) ba3 1 (auxiliary word) a55 (mouse caught by cat) and da55 H (stick) ne33 (auxiliary word) make some word orders flexible. For example, in Jingpo language, the adjective attribute can be moved before the head language, and the object can be moved before the subject: phun55 (tree) k╤3 1pa3 1 (big tree), or k ╤ 31(. Ai33 (I) na 33 (you) E 55 (auxiliary word) ja33 (giving) te 3 1 (suffix) "I give it to you" can also be said to be na 33 (you) E. There are auxiliary words at the end of the sentence to express various moods. For example, in Dehong dialect of Dai language, Lu 53 (buy) ti33saη35 (what) li35 (what) "buy what?" Ma55 (come) thai3 1 (come) lε3 1 (come) "Come here!"

Words in most languages are mainly composed of monosyllabic simple words and polysyllabic compound words, with the exception of some Tibetan-Burmese languages, such as Jingpo. There are few monosyllabic words with multi-syllables, and some have the relationship between polyphony and rhyme. Such as Maonan: Tūm 23 1tη23 1 "mantis", tuη2 13tin2 13 "duckling", buη2 13ba24 "butterfly" and mo η 23655.

Compound words are mainly compound words, with fewer derivatives. Compound forms generally include associative, modified, dominant and subject-predicate forms. Such as Liangshan dialect of Yi language: o33 (head), Taiwan (tail), Taiwan 33 (cow), Taiwan 3 1 (month), Taiwan (lunar calendar), Taiwan 33 (Qiao Bunu and Meizhu: ve43 (wife) ka? 3 1 (husbka22) "husband and wife", N23 1 (fish) nγ 33 (snake) "eel", ku2 1 (escape) tu23 1 (fire) ",Xishuangbanna dialect of Dai language. (Water) ta55 (Eye) "Tears", Mn 55 (Head) "Pillow" and fa 65438 generally have a four-syllable structure, mainly in AABB, ABAB, ABAC, ABCD and other formats, with disyllables and rhymes between syllables. Such as Lahu language: ki3 1ki3 1mo33mo33 "In a hurry", Pe31Le31Le365438 "Rory bothersome", sE53qh sE53l.

In language contact, the mutual absorption of loanwords by neighboring languages is an important means to enrich vocabulary. Due to the large population and wide distribution of Chinese in China, other Sino-Tibetan languages generally borrow Chinese words to enrich themselves. Some languages have borrowed Chinese words for a long time, and some ancient Chinese words still remain in modern spoken English. For example, py3 1ly33 "irregular pen" and pi33li3 1 "sound" (flute) in Naxi language are all early Chinese loanwords. In some languages, such as Bai language, Chinese loanwords account for more than half of the total vocabulary. In addition, some languages also borrow words from neighboring national languages, such as Jingpo borrowing Dai words, Menba borrowing Tibetan words and Raja borrowing Zhuang words.

The study of Sino-Tibetan language is unbalanced. Among them, the study of Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese and other languages has a long history, leaving many literary works, such as Erya, Dialect, Guang Yun, Ode to the Thirtieth Century, Sex into the Law and so on. But the real use of modern linguistic theories and methods for investigation and research began in the 20th century. Published comparative linguistics works such as A Survey of Indian Languages by British scholar G.A. Gleason (1909); Lexical Outline of Tibeto-Burman Language by American scholar S.N. Wolfenden (1929); Fang Guili, a Chinese-American linguist, A Comparative Handbook of Taiwan Province People (1977); An Introduction to Sino-Tibetan by American scholar Xie Fei (1966); American scholar Paul Bae's A Summary of Sino-Tibetan Languages (1972) and so on. Modern linguists in China began to investigate the Sino-Tibetan language family in China from the 1920s to 1930s, but the large-scale investigation and study only started in the 1950s after the founding of the People's Republic of China. At present, the characteristics of Sino-Tibetan language family in China have been basically understood, and the Series of Minority Languages in China (see Series 5 on Ethnic Issues) reflects the results of investigation and research in this period.

In the description of the current situation of languages, most languages have been investigated and many special research results have been obtained. Among them, the descriptive research of Chinese, Tibetan, Zhuang and Miao languages has entered a relatively in-depth and comprehensive stage, and some descriptive research methods suitable for the language characteristics of this language family have been explored, such as phonological induction and tone analysis. But there are also some languages that have not been studied enough, and some have not even started to learn.

In the research of language history, many scholars have noticed the historical research of some languages with historical documents, such as Chinese and Tibetan, and achieved good results. For languages without historical documents, historical research mainly depends on the comparison between languages and dialects, and it is also limited to some small areas and some special topics, such as studying the tones and categories of Miao and Yao languages, and studying the long and short vowels and elastic vowels of Chinese and Tibetan languages. The comparative study of Chinese and other languages will have a broad development prospect and is of great significance to explore the history of Chinese and the development law of the whole language family.

The study of language family is a difficult problem that many scholars pay attention to. At present, there are different opinions, some because of insufficient research on language facts, the truth has not been recognized, and some because of the lack of unified classification standards. To solve this problem, in addition to further investigation and study, theoretical research on language classification is needed. Some scholars have suggested that there are words with the same origin as Austronesian languages in the basic words of Zhuang-Dong and Miao-Yao languages. This view deserves attention, and no matter what the future conclusion is, it will be helpful to the study of Sino-Tibetan language family.

philology

Luo Changpei and Fu Mao? : A Survey of Chinese Minority Languages, China Language No.2, 1954.

Robert Schaefer, Introduction to Sino-Tibetan Language, Otto Haalas Wizsbaden, 1966.

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Sino-Tibetan family of languages

Sino-Tibetan family of languages

Summarize the related language families with the names of Chinese and Tibetan. These two languages have the richest literature and a large number of users. "Sino-Tibetan language family" is a common name, and some books have also used "Tibetan-Chinese language family" and "Indosinian language family".

The classification and distribution of Chinese and Tibetan languages have always been different, and there are two popular classifications. One is divided into Chinese, Tibetan-Burmese, Miao-Yao and Zhuang-Dong languages (or Dong-Tai languages, Dong-Tai languages, Taiwanese languages, etc. This classification was first put forward by Fang Guili. In Language and Dialect in China (1937), he proposed that Sino-Tibetan languages can be divided into Chinese, Dong-Tai languages, Miao-Yao languages and Tibeto-Burman languages, and he still insisted on this classification in his paper of the same name published in 1973. China scholars Luo Changpei and Fu Mao? A survey of Chinese minority languages (1954) puts forward a classification table of Sino-Tibetan languages, which is basically consistent with Fang Guili's. Since 1950s, most scholars in China have adopted Luo Hefu's classification method, holding that Zhuang-Dong language family and Miao-Yao language family, Chinese language family and Tibeto-Burman language family not only have many similarities in present situation, but also have kinship, so they should belong to the same language family. Another classification is represented by American scholar Paul Wright. In his book An Overview of Sino-Tibetan Languages (1972), he divided Sino-Tibetan languages into Chinese and Tibetan Karen languages, and also divided them into Burmese and Karen languages under Tibetan Karen languages. He believes that there is no kinship among Miao Yao, Zhuang and Dong languages and Chinese, and their similarities or similarities come from mutual borrowing or typological agreement. He also believes that Miao Yao and Zhuang-Dong languages are closely related to Indonesian in genesis and should belong to the same language family, namely, the Austro-Thai language family. He also cited some Zhuang and Dong words with different origins from Chinese but the same origins as Indonesian to prove his argument. As early as 1942, Paul Bai put forward the genetic relationship between Taiwan Province people and Indonesians in his article "Taiwan Province people, Kadai people and Indonesians: a new alliance in Southeast Asia". Later, his view was further developed, and in 1965, he put forward the idea of establishing an Australian-Thai language family. The focus of the above two different classifications lies in the similarities or similarities between Miao Yao language, Zhuang Dong language and Chinese, whether they are related to the same origin or the same typology or borrowing relationship.

We adopt the first classification mentioned above, that is, Miao Yao language and Zhuang Dong language belong to Sino-Tibetan language family. According to this classification, Sino-Tibetan languages are mainly distributed in China, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and other parts of Asia. In addition, there are many Chinese and Tibetan speakers in other parts of the world. Countries that use a certain Sino-Tibetan language as their national language or main language include China (Chinese), Thailand (Thai), Myanmar (Burmese), Bhutan (Zongkabutan) and Laos (Lao). Because it is difficult to draw a clear line between Chinese and Tibetan languages and dialects, there are different estimates of the number of languages. American scholar R Xie Fei thinks that there are about 300 languages and dialects, and Japanese scholar Qiaoxiong Nishida estimates that there are about 400 languages and dialects. The population exceeds 1 100 million, accounting for about 1/4 of the world population, only less than the Indo-European language family.

China is a country with the largest population and the largest number of languages using Sino-Tibetan. So far, more than 30 languages have been identified, which belong to different language families and branches. Among them, Chinese is distributed all over the country and divided into seven dialects: Mandarin, Wu dialect, Hunan dialect, Jiangxi dialect, Hakka dialect, Guangdong dialect and Fujian dialect. The Tibeto-Burman language family is distributed in the southwest, northwest and south-central regions. Miao and Yao languages are distributed in central south, southwest and southeast regions. Zhuang and Dong languages are distributed in the south-central and southwest of China. Now with Luo Changpei and Fu Mao? According to the classification of Sino-Tibetan language family in China, combined with the investigation and research results in recent years, the classification table of Sino-Tibetan language family is as follows:

There are still different opinions on the classification of some languages. For example, some people think that a branch of Qiang language should be established, including Qiang language, Pumi language and Jia Rong language. Others think that these languages should belong to the Tibetan branch. In the past, many people thought that Bai language should belong to Yi language branch, and later some people thought it should belong to another language family. Some people think that Dulong language should belong to Jingpo language branch and Nu language should belong to Yi language branch. There are also two opinions on the lineage of She language: some people think it belongs to Miao language branch, while others think it belongs to Yao language branch. Generally speaking, China scholars think that gelao language belongs to Zhuang language and Dong language, while some foreign scholars think that gelao language belongs to Australian-Thai language. Among the three language families, Tibeto-Burman, Miao-Yao and Zhuang-Dong, Tibeto-Burman has the most problems, which reflects the complexity of the classification of this language family. In addition, there is still controversy about the pedigree of Beijing dialect: some people think it belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family, while others think it belongs to South Asian language family.

Due to various factors in the development of society and language, there are many complicated situations in the relationship between language and nationality. In most cases, a nation uses one language, but there is also a nation that uses two or three languages. For example, Yao people use three languages: Mian, Bunu, Miao, Lajia, Dong Shui and Zhuang Dong languages. Jingpo people use two languages belonging to different branches: Jingpo language belonging to Jingpo language branch and Zawa language belonging to Burmese language branch. Besides Tibetan, some Tibetans use Jiarong language, and so on. There is also a special phenomenon: the Miao people living in Hainan Island speak Yao language, not Miao language.

In addition to the more than 30 languages identified above, there are still some "words" that need to be further determined whether they are independent languages. Such as shanzhai dialect, country dialect, Lingao dialect, Muya dialect, Sur dialect, Ergong dialect, etc. Han and Tibetan