Sino-Tibetan languages

Sino-Tibetan languages, also called Trans-Himalayan, are a large group of more than 400 languages. About 1.4 billion people speak these languages, making them the second-largest language family after Indo-European languages. The most spoken group is the Sinitic languages, which include Mandarin and other Chinese dialects, spoken by around 1.3 billion people.

Other important Sino-Tibetan languages are Burmese, spoken by about 33 million people, and the Tibetic languages, spoken by around 6 million. Many smaller languages in this family are spoken in the Himalayas, the Southeast Asian Massif, and the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. These languages often have fewer speakers and are found in remote mountain areas.

Scientists are still learning about the common origins of all Sino-Tibetan languages. They were traditionally split into two groups: Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman. However, it is not fully clear how all these languages are related.

In the past, some experts thought the Kra–Dai and Hmong–Mien languages might be part of this family, but this is no longer widely accepted. Experts now believe the similarities come from languages influencing each other over time and early borrowing of words. There have been ideas about links to other language families in Southeast Asia, but none have been widely agreed upon.

History

A connection between Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese, and other languages was first suggested in the early 1800s and is now widely accepted. Scholars started by studying languages with long writing traditions but later included many less-known languages, some without any writing. Understanding all these languages is still hard because they are very different and have changed little over time. Many smaller languages are spoken in hard-to-reach mountain areas.

During the 1700s, scholars noticed similarities between Tibetan and Burmese, both languages with rich literary histories. Early in the 1800s, researchers like Brian Houghton Hodgson found that many non-literary languages in the highlands of northeast India and Southeast Asia were also connected to these. The term "Tibeto–Burman" was first used in 1856 by James Richardson Logan, who later included Karen in 1858. The third volume of the Linguistic Survey of India, edited by Sten Konow, focused on the Tibeto–Burman languages of British India.

Studies of the "Indo-Chinese" languages of Southeast Asia from the mid-1800s showed they included four families: Tibeto-Burman, Tai, Mon–Khmer, and Malayo-Polynesian. Julius Klaproth noted in 1823 that Burmese, Tibetan, and Chinese shared common basic vocabulary. Ernst Kuhn suggested a group with two branches, Chinese–Siamese and Tibeto-Burman. August Conrady called this group Indo-Chinese in his 1896 classification. Franz Nikolaus Finck placed Karen as a third branch of Chinese–Siamese in 1909.

Jean Przyluski introduced the French term sino-tibétain in 1924. The English term "Sino-Tibetan" first appeared in a note by Przyluski and Luce in 1931.

In 1935, Alfred Kroeber started the Sino-Tibetan Philology Project at the University of California, Berkeley. The project gathered information about Sino-Tibetan languages.

Old Chinese is the oldest recorded Sino-Tibetan language, with inscriptions from around 1250 BC. Tibetic has extensive written records from the mid-7th century, while Burmese records like the 12th-century Myazedi inscription are more limited but later developed extensively. Both use scripts derived from the Brahmi script of Ancient India.

Descriptions of non-literary languages used earlier were often done by missionaries and colonial administrators. Many smaller Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken in remote mountainous areas. Until the 1980s, the best-studied areas were Nepal and northern Thailand. In the 1980s and 1990s, new surveys were published from the Himalayas and southwestern China, with particular interest in the Qiangic languages of western Sichuan and nearby areas.

Distribution

Most Sino-Tibetan languages spread because three big groups grew: Chinese, Burmese, and Tibetic. These groups replaced many older languages. They also have the longest writing traditions. Other languages are spoken in mountains along the southern slopes of the Himalayas, the Southeast Asian Massif, and the edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

The biggest group is the Sinitic languages, with 1.3 billion speakers. Most live in eastern China. The first Chinese writing is from around 1250 BC, called oracle bone inscriptions. Chinese later spread across China.

Burmese is the main language of Myanmar, spoken by about 33 million people. Burmese speakers moved into the northern Irrawaddy area from Yunnan in the ninth century. Other Burmish languages are spoken in western Yunnan. By the 11th century, the Pagan Kingdom grew across the area. Old texts like the Myazedi inscription are from the 12th century. The Loloish languages are spoken by 9 million people in mountains of western Sichuan, Yunnan, and nearby areas.

The Tibetic languages are spoken by about 6 million people on the Tibetan Plateau and nearby areas. They come from Old Tibetan, spoken in the Yarlung Valley before the Tibetan Empire spread it in the seventh century. Even after the empire ended, Classical Tibetan stayed important for Tibetan Buddhism.

Other languages are spoken in highland areas. The Karen languages are spoken by 4 million people along the Myanmar–Thailand border. The highlands from northeast India to northern Myanmar have over 100 different Sino-Tibetan languages. Two Sino-Tibetan languages, Meitei and Bodo, are official languages in India.

There are different ideas about where Sino-Tibetan languages began. One common idea links them to the Yangshao culture near the Yellow River, with growth tied to millet farming.

George van Driem thinks the home was in the Sichuan Basin before 9000 years ago, with people moving out over time.

Roger Blench suggests the first speakers were not farmers but people living in the eastern Himalayas in Northeast India about 9000 years ago. They moved to other places over time.

Recent studies suggest the home was near the Yellow River in northern China. These studies estimate the big split between Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman languages happened between 4,200 and 7,800 years ago.

Hypothesised homeland and dispersal according to Sagart et al. (2019) Hypothesised homeland and dispersal according to van Driem (2005) Hypothesised homeland and dispersal according to Blench (2009)

Classification

Some smaller groups of Sino-Tibetan languages have been studied well, but how they all relate to each other is still not clear. Because of this, some experts think there are many small, separate language families, while others try to group them in different ways.

In 1937, a scholar named Li Fang-Kuei described the family as having four main branches: Chinese, Tai, Miao–Yao (Hmong–Mien), and Tibeto-Burman. Later studies showed that some similarities came from languages influencing each other, not from sharing a common ancestor.

Recent studies focus on two big branches: Chinese and Tibeto-Burmese. Some experts think Chinese might be closely related to some Tibeto-Burmese languages. Scholars have different ideas about how to organize these languages, and there is still much to learn.

Typology

Sino-Tibetan languages have many different ways of building sentences and using sounds. Most of these languages follow a special order when they speak: they say what happens and then who does it. But some, like Chinese, say who does it and then what happens.

These languages also use tones — changes in how high or low a sound is — to tell words apart. Some languages do this more than others. Scholars study how words change and connect in these languages, finding many interesting patterns. Some languages add extra words to show who is doing what, making their sentences more detailed.

Vocabulary

See also: Old Chinese § Classification

See also: Proto-Sino-Tibetan language § Vocabulary

Proposed external relationships

Beyond the traditionally recognized language families of Southeast Asia, some have suggested possible broader connections for the Sino-Tibetan languages.

One idea is the "Sino-Austronesian" family, which includes Sino-Tibetan and Austronesian languages. This idea has been mostly rejected by other language experts, who think the similarities came from contact rather than being directly related.

Another idea is the "Sino-Caucasian" hypothesis, which suggests a link between Sino-Tibetan and Yeniseian languages. This has been expanded to include Na-Dene languages from North America, but most historical language experts view this as doubtful or incorrect. Recent studies have found some support for a closer link just between Dene and Yeniseian languages.

There have also been suggestions of a link between Sino-Tibetan and Indo-European languages. These ideas have not been widely accepted by most language experts.