The Naic or Naxish languages are a group of

Sino-Tibetan languages Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 ...

that include Naxi, Na (Mosuo), Laze (Muli Shuitian), Shixing (Xumi), and Namuyi (Namuzi). They have been variously classified as part of the

Loloish The Loloish languages, also known as Yi (like the Yi people) and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of 50–100 Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of Southwestern China. They are most closely related to Burm ...

or the Qiangic branch of Sino-Tibetan. The name "Naic" is derived from the endonym ''Na'' used by speakers of several of the languages.

Classification

Lama (2012)

Lama (2012) lists the following languages in his Naxish clade, which he places in the Loloish branch. *Naxish ** Namuzi (') ** Naxi (') *** Na: Mali Masa, Na (Moso) ***etc. ****Naru ****Naheng, Naxi proper Lama (2012) lists the following sound changes from

Proto-Loloish Proto-Loloish is the reconstructed ancestor of the Loloish languages. Reconstructions include those of David Bradley (1979), James Matisoff (2003), and Ziwo Lama (2012). In later publications, in place of ''Loloish'', David Bradley instead uses ...

as Naxish innovations. * *sn > * *pw- >

Jacques & Michaud (2011), Chirkova (2012)

The Naic group (corresponding to Lama's Naxish clade) is classified as Qiangic and not

Guillaume Jacques Guillaume Jacques (, born 1979) is a French linguist who specializes in the study of Sino-Tibetan languages: Old Chinese, Tangut, Tibetan, Gyalrongic and Kiranti languages. He also performs research on the Algonquian and Siouan language fam ...

Alexis Michaud Alexis Michaud is a French linguist specialising in the study of Southeast Asian languages, especially Naic languages and Vietnamese. He is also known for his work on the typology of tonal languages and as a foremost proponent of Panchronic p ...

(2011).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. TentativeSinoTibetanFamilyTreebyJacquesEtAl2011

TentativeSinoTibetanFamilyTreebyJacquesEtAl2011

*Naic **''

Namuyi Namuyi (Namuzi; autonym: ') is a Tibeto-Burman language belonging to the Naic branch, spoken by approximately 10000 people. It is primarily spoken in southern Sichuan. Namuyi has also been classified as Qiangic by Sun Hongkai (2001) and Guillaum ...

'' **''

Shixing Shixing County ( postal: Chihing; ) is a county of Shaoguan, Guangdong province, China, bordering Jiangxi province to the east. The native variety of Chinese in the area is Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking C ...

'' ** Naish ***'' Naxi'' ***'' Na'' ***'' Laze'' The argument is based on the discovery of cognates with

Qiangic languages Qiangic (''Chʻiang, Kyang, Tsiang'', Chinese: 羌語支, "''Qiang'' language group"; also Rmaic, formerly known as Dzorgaic) is a group of related languages within the Sino-Tibetan language family. They are spoken mainly in Southwest China, incl ...

, that are superficially undetectable due to the high degree of phonological erosion of the Naic languages, but can be uncovered through a systematic examination of lexical correspondences. Progress in the reconstruction of

rGyalrongic languages The Gyalrongic languages (also known as Rgyalrongic or Jiarongic) constitute a branch of the Qiangic languages of Sino-Tibetan, but some propose that it may be part of a larger Rung languages group and do not consider it to be particularly closel ...

and other languages of the Qiangic branch offers an improved basis for reconstruction. For instance, it appears that Proto-Naish *-o corresponds both to Proto-Rgyalrong *-o and *-aŋ, suggesting a merger between a closed syllable and an open syllable. Chirkova (2012)Chirkova, Katia (2012).
The Qiangic Subgroup from an Areal Perspective: A Case Study of Languages of Muli
" In ''Languages and Linguistics'' 13(1):133-170. Taipei: Academia Sinica. confirms that "Shixing displays significant similarity with Na .e. Naishlanguages in all its linguistic subsystems and no comparable similarity with any other local language or group of languages" (p. 154). From a detailed comparison, the author concludes that "Shixing can be hypothesized to be a Na language that has undergone considerable restructuring" (p. 157).

Lidz (2010)

Lidz (2010)Lidz, Liberty A. 2010. ''A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo)''. Ph.D. dissertation. Austin: University of Texas, Austin. groups the Naxi varieties as follows, but does not consider where these languages fit within

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 ...

. Lidz notes that the western groups call themselves "Naxi", whereas the eastern groups call themselves "Na" — hence the parentheses. Lidz (2010) also notes that the Na (Eastern) speakers of

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

are officially classified as ethnic Mongols by the Chinese government.

and

are not addressed. *Na(xi) **Western ( Naxi) ***Baoshanzhou 保山州 ***Dayanzhen 大研镇 ***Lijiang 丽江 **Eastern ( Na) ***Ninglang 宁蒗 / Beiqu 北渠 ***Yongning 永宁 ***Guabie 瓜别

References

{{Na-Qiangic languages