Muya language
Sino-Tibetan language spoken in China
title: "Muya language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["qiangic-languages", "languages-of-sichuan", "culture-in-the-garzê-tibetan-autonomous-prefecture"] description: "Sino-Tibetan language spoken in China" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muya_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Sino-Tibetan language spoken in China ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Muya |
| nativename | Munya |
| states | China |
| region | Sichuan |
| speakers | Eastern: 2,000 |
| date | 2020 |
| ref | e25 |
| speakers2 | Western: (2020) |
| familycolor | Sino-Tibetan |
| fam2 | Tibeto-Burman |
| fam3 | Qiangic |
| fam4 | Northern |
| lc1 | emq |
| ld1 | Eastern Minyag |
| lc2 | wmg |
| ld2 | Western Minyag |
| glotto | muya1239 |
| glottorefname | Muya |
| dia1 | East |
| dia2 | West |
| map2 | Lang Status 80-VU.svg |
| mapcaption2 | |
| map | Muya map.jpg |
| :: |
| name = Muya | nativename = Munya | states = China | region = Sichuan | speakers = Eastern: 2,000 | date = 2020 | ref = e25 | speakers2 = Western: (2020) | familycolor = Sino-Tibetan | fam2 = Tibeto-Burman | fam3 = Qiangic | fam4 = Northern | lc1 = emq | ld1 = Eastern Minyag | lc2 = wmg | ld2 = Western Minyag | glotto = muya1239 | glottorefname = Muya | dia1 = East | dia2 = West | map2 = Lang Status 80-VU.svg | mapcaption2 = | map = Muya map.jpg Munya or Muya (; also Manyak 曼牙科, Menia 么呢阿; ) is one of the Qiangic languages spoken in China. There are two dialects, Western and Eastern, which are not mutually intelligible. Most research on Munya has been conducted by Ikeda Takumi. There are about 2,000 monolinguals.
Names
The language has been spelled in various ways, including Manyak, Menya, Minyag, and Minyak. Other names for the language are Boba and Miyao.
Dialects
Ethnologue (21st edition) lists two Muya dialects, namely Eastern (Nyagrong) and Western (Darmdo). Muya is spoken in
Sun (1991) documents Muya (木雅) of Liuba Township (六坝乡), Shade District (沙德区), Kangding County (康定县), Sichuan.
Phonology
::data[format=table title="Consonants{{Cite journal |last=Namkung |first=Ju |date=1996 |editor-last=Matisoff |editor-first=James A. |title=Phonological Inventories of Tibeto-Burman Languages |url=https://stedt.berkeley.edu/pubs_and_prods/STEDT_Monograph3_Phonological-Inv-TB.pdf |journal=Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Monograph Series |issue=3 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley}}"]
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Alveolo-palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | Plosive | oral | aspirated | prenasalized | Affricate | oral | aspirated | prenasalized | Fricative | Nasal | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
- /ʑ/ can sometimes be heard as [r].
::data[format=table title="Vowels"]
| Front | Central | Back | Unrounded | Rounded | High | Mid-high | Mid-low | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
Additionally, the following diphthongs have been observed: /yi/, /ui/, /ie/, /ye/, /ue/, /uø/, /iɛ̃/, /yɛ/, /yɛ̃/, /uɛ/, /uæ/, /uæ̰/, /yɐ/, /yɐ̰/, /uɐ/, /yɯ/, /uɯ/, /yɑ/, /yɑ̃/, /uɑ/.
Muya also has four tones:
- [ ˥ ] - high, level
- [ ˥˧ ] - high-falling
- [ ˧˥ ] - high-rising
- [ ˧ ] - mid, level
Popular culture
In 2008, Bamu, a singer with the Jiuzhaigou Art Troupe in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, recorded an album of Muya songs (木雅七韵).
References
Bibliography
- Drolma, Dawa; Suzuki, Hiroyuki (2016). Preliminary report on the Darmdo Minyag linguistic area, with a geolinguistic description of terms for ‘sun’. Studies in Asian Geolinguistics 1. 72–78.
- Minyak language elementary textbook, a project of the Kham Aid Foundation, 2009.
References
- "Manyak".
- "Menia".
- . (). ["Minyak"](http://places.kmaps.virginia.edu/features/5234).
- {{harvp. Sun. 1991
- Namkung, Ju. (1996). "Phonological Inventories of Tibeto-Burman Languages". University of California, Berkeley.
- Huang, Zhiling. (2014-05-27). "Chasing the Fading Music". China Daily USA.
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