Mondzish languages

Mondzish
Geographic distribution	Lolo–Burmese Mondzish
Subdivisions	Kathu Nuclear Mondzish
Glottolog	mond1269

Mondzish (Mangish) is a small group of languages that constitute the most divergent branch of the

in the classification of Lama (2012). The Mondzish languages are spoken in Funing, Guangnan, Malipo, and Napo counties of China and Hà Giang and Cao Bang provinces of northern Vietnam. The autonyms of Mondzish-speaking peoples often begins with *man-. Lama (2012) considers *man- to be cognate with Mán (蛮), which is an ancient Chinese exonym for non-Chinese peoples to the south.

Mondzish languages are spoken in

is related.

Classification

Hsiu (2014:73) classifies the Mondzish languages as follows. Additional languages from Hsiu (2017) are also included.

• Kathu (Thou)
• Nuclear Mondzish (Nuclear Mangish)
  • Muangphe
  • Manga
  • Maang (also known as Mo'ang, Meang)
  • Mondzi
    or Mantsi (also known as Lô Lô by the Vietnamese)
  • Maza
  • Mauphu, Motang
  • Mongphu

A revised classification of Mondzish languages by Hsiu (2018)^[1] is as follows.

Sound changes

Lama (2012) lists the following sound changes from Proto-Loloish as Mondzish innovations.

• *tsʰ- > s-
• *ɣr- > ʐ-
• *ɣʷ- > b-

References

• Edmondson, Jerold A. 2003. Three Tibeto-Burman Languages of Vietnam.
• Hsiu, Andrew. 2014. "Mondzish: a new subgroup of Lolo-Burmese". In Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics (IsCLL-14). Taipei: Academia Sinica.
• Lama, Ziwo Qiu-Fuyuan (2012), Subgrouping of Nisoic (Yi) Languages, thesis, University of Texas at Arlington.