Northern Qiang language

• A glottal stop [ʔ] may be heard in word-initial position when preceding vowels.
• /ɸ/ can also be heard as a labio-dental [f].
• /ʐ/ can also be heard as an alveolar [ɹ].
• /ɕ x/ can have voiced allophones of [ʑ ɣ].
• Approximants /w j/ only appear in intervocalic positions, or preceding /i u/.

Northern Qiang distinguishes between unstressed and long vowels (signified by two small dots, "ː") for all of its vowels except for /ə/ . In addition, there exist 15 diphthongs and one triphthong in the language of Northern Qiang.[5]^:25–26

There may not be a significant phonetic difference in sound between /i/ and /e/, and /u/ and /o/, respectively. In fact, they are often used in place of one another without changing the meaning.

Diphthongs: ia, iɑ, ie, ye, eu, əu, ei, əi, oi, uɑ, ua, uə, ue, ui, ya

Triphthong: uəi

As the Northern Qiang language becomes more endangered, the use of r-coloring is not being passed down to younger generations of the Northern Qiang people. As a result, there is great variation in its use. R-coloring is not considered its own phoneme because it is a vowel feature and only used to produce vowel harmony (see below), most commonly signifying a first person plural marking.[5]^:28

Example: miʴwu [person (<mi):all] 'all the people'[5]^:28

The Northern Qiang Syllable Canon:[5]^:30

When a compound or a directional prefix is added before an aspirated initial, the latter becomes the final of the preceding syllable in the new word. This typically causes it to lose its aspiration.[5]^:31–32

Example: tə- DIR + ba 'big' > təwa 'become big'[5]^:32

Vowel harmony exists in the Mawo (麻窝) dialect. Typically, vowel harmony is used to match a preceding syllable's vowel with the succeeding vowel or its height. In some cases, however, the vowel of a succeeding syllable will harmonize in the opposite way, matching with the preceding vowel. This process occurs across syllables in compounds or in prefix + root combinations. Vowel harmony can also occur for r-coloring on the first syllable if the second syllable of a compound or prefix + root combination already has r-coloring.[5]^:35–36

Example: wə 'bird' + ʂpu 'flock' > wuʂpu '(wild) pigeon'[5]^:35

Example: Chinese zhàogù + Qiang pə 'to do' > tʂɑuku-pu 'take care of'[5]^:36

Example: me 'not' + weʴ 'reduce' > meʴ-weʴ 'unceasingly'[5]^:35

Example: The realization of the word "one" (a) is influenced by the classifiers:[6]

• e si (a day)
• a qep (a can)
• ɑ pɑu (a packet)
• o ʁu (a barrel)
• ɘ ʑu (a pile)
• ø dy (a mouth)

The vowel /ə/ can be embedded within a collection of consonants that are restricted by the syllable canon. The epenthetic vowel is used to combine sounds that would typically be impermissible.[5]^:36

Example: bəl-əs-je [do-NOM (< -s)-good to eat] 'advantageous'[5]^:36

For some words, changing or adding consonants produces no phonological difference in meaning. The most common consonant interchange is between /ʂ/ and /χ/.[5]^:37

Example: ʂqu ~ χqu 'mouth'[5]^:37

Example: kɑp ~ kɑpətʂ 'orphan'[5]^:37

In Northern Qiang, any combination of the following order is allowed as long as it follows this flow. Some of the items found below, such as adjectives, may be used twice within the same noun phrase.[5]^:39

GEN phrase + Rel. clause + Noun + ADJ + DEM/DEF + (NUM + CL)/PL[5]^:39

Gender marking only occurs in animals. Typically, /mi/ is the suffix for females, while /zdu/ is the suffix for males.[5]^:48

Example: wə-mi 'mare'[5]^:48

Example: puɳu-zdu 'male cat'[5]^:48

Pronouns of Northern Qiang can be represented from the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person, and can refer to one, two, or more than two people.[5]^:50

The genitive marker /-tɕ(ə)/ is placed on the modifying noun. This modifying noun will precede the noun it modifies.[5]^:99–100

Example:[5]^:100

Changing the meaning of verbs can be done by prefixes and suffixes, or by using reduplication.[5]^{:120, 123}

Repetition of the same root verb signifies a reciprocal action upon one actors, or an ongoing action.[5]^{:52, 123}

Example: mɑ 'plaster (a wall)' > məmɑ 'be plastering'[5]^:123

In Northern Qiang, the modifying noun of the compound must precede the modified noun.[5]^:43

Example:[5]^{:48, 49}

Nouns are created from adjectives or verbs using clitics /-s/, /-m/, or /-tɕ/, the indefinite markers /le/ or /te/, or the definite marker /ke/.[5]^{:59, 223}

Example:[5]^:224

(TEMP) (LOC) (ACTOR) (GOAL/RECIPIENT) (ADV) (UG) VC (PART)[5]^:221

(TEMP = temporal phrase; UG = undergoer; VC = verb complex; PART = clause-final particle)

A sentence in Northern Qiang may be as short as a verb complex, which may just be a predicate noun.[5]^:222

Deriving from the order stated above, Northern Qiang is a language with a Subject-Object-Verb sentence structure.

Example:[5]^:77

S

χumtʂi

Xumtʂi

O

ʐətɕʰaq-e-ze

rabbit-one-CL

V

ɦɑ-tʂ

DIR-pierce(kill)

S O V

χumtʂi ʐətɕʰaq-e-ze ɦɑ-tʂ

Xumtʂi rabbit-one-CL DIR-pierce(kill)

'Xumtʂi killed a rabbit.'

Many loan words or loan phrases from Mandarin are used but the word order of these phrases is rearranged to fit the grammatical structure of Northern Qiang.[5]^:222

Example:[5]^:222

In this sentence, the words "tɕiutɕin" and "ʂə" are borrowed from Mandarin.