Sino-Tibetan Languages

V

Linguistic Features

All the Chinese languages and at least half the Tibeto-Burman languages are tonal—that is, the same syllable can have different meanings if spoken at a different pitch. However, Chinese and Tibeto-Burman differ in grammatical structure. Chinese has a subject-verb-object order (as does English). In Tibeto-Burman languages the verb follows the subject and object. Chinese also uses few prefixes and suffixes, whereas Tibeto-Burman languages add a number of suffixes to words, especially to verbs.

VI

Writing Systems and Literature

The best-known Sino-Tibetan writing system is the Chinese system, which dates from about 1000 bc. It uses thousands of distinctive characters called ideographs, which are symbols that represent ideas. The characters in this system, unlike letters in an alphabet, are not related to the sound of a word, but rather to its meaning. The earliest known examples of Chinese writing are inscriptions on polished ox bones or tortoise shells dating from the 14th century bc. See also Chinese Literature.

Most Tibeto-Burman languages were unwritten until the 20th century, but several of them have old writing systems with alphabets that are of Indian origin. Tibetan script dates from the 7th century and Burmese has been written since the 10th century. Both Tibetan and Burmese have extensive bodies of religious, historical, and literary writing that span centuries. Newari and Meithei also have writing systems derived from Indian scripts; Limbu (spoken in Nepal) and Lepcha (spoken in Sikkim) have alphabets based on Tibetan script.

VII

Classification

Early linguists, noting structural similarities and shared vocabulary between Chinese and languages of mainland Southeast Asia, assumed that Chinese and such languages as Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, and Miao-Yao (a small group of languages spoken in southern China, northern Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam) had all descended from the same language. The resemblances between Chinese and the Southeast Asian languages are now thought to be the result of prolonged and intense cultural contact rather than common ancestry. Linguists today consider Tibeto-Burman languages to be the closest relatives of Chinese.

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Many questions about the classification of Tibeto-Burman languages remain unresolved. One commonly used system classifies the Tibeto-Burman languages into four branches: Bodic, Burmic, Baric, and Karenic.

Tibetan, the principal language of the Bodic branch, is spoken throughout Tibet, in parts of western China, in Nepal, and in communities of Tibetan refugees in India. The dominant languages of Sikkim and Bhutan are forms of Tibetan. The closest relatives of Tibetan are Bodic languages spoken in Nepal such as Tamang and Gurung, and several languages spoken in small communities in northwestern India. Other important Bodic languages spoken in Nepal include Limbu and Newari. Newari, with almost one million speakers, is the dominant language of the Kathmandu Valley.

The major languages in the Burmic branch are Burmese and Yi. The group may include the Qiangic languages of western China, although scholars disagree on this. The Burmic branch also includes a number of tribal languages of Myanmar and Yunnan, such as Lisu, Lahu, and Hani. Each of these has several hundred thousand speakers.

The languages of the Baric branch are spoken in Yunnan, northern and western Myanmar, and eastern India. The Baric languages with the most speakers are Meithei (also known as Manipuri), with over 1.6 million speakers in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, and Lushai (also known as Mizo), with 500,000 speakers in the Indian state of Mizoram, which borders Manipur.

Languages of the Karen branch are spoken in eastern Myanmar and western Thailand. The largest are Sgaw and Pwo, each with over two million speakers.

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