A Comparative Study Of Ersus Language With Yi,Tibetan And Qiang Languages

At present,there are two different views on the affinities of the Ersu language:one is that it belongs to the Qiangic,and the other is that it belongs to the Loloish.In this paper,we use the historical comparison method to compare and analyze the affinities of the Ersu language and other languages from the perspective of cognate core words.Zela-Ersu,Xide-Yi,Lhasa-Tibetan,and Taoping-Qiang are selected as representatives.The core word lists were developed with reference to the core word lists proposed by various scholars and the actual situation of each language.The core words are compared to find out the phonological correspondence,identify the cognate components,and then explore the relationship between these languages in terms of ontogeny.Core words are the most basic and central part of a language,which are difficult to be borrowed and can largely exclude borrowed words in the comparison process,so the distribution of cognate core words in each language often reflects the proximity of interlingual affinities.There are some phonologically and semantically similar morphemes in Ersu,Yi,Tibetan,and Qiang,and the core words can exclude those borrowings from the process of ethnic contact in the comparison process,and keep the parts from the common origin.Moreover,the Ersu language is a highly endangered language.The study of the Ersu language can help record and preserve the Ersu language,slow down its extinction,and protect the diversity of our ethnolinguistic samples.The Ersu cultural circle is located at the eastern edge of the Tibetan-Qiang-Yi corridor,and historically Ersu and the surrounding different tribal peoples have been in contact,interacting and integrating for a long time.Exploring the relationship between Ersu and its kin languages is of some significance to sort out the linguistic genealogy of the Tibetan-Qiang-Yi corridor,deepen the understanding of the historical evolution of the Sino-Tibetan language family,and enrich the linguistic research results.The main contents of the article include,a brief overview of the Ersu language,the methods used in the study,the current status of research in related fields,the significance of the study of Ersus,and the sources of the corpus used for comparison;an introduction to the phonological system of Ersu,the main types of constructions;the identification of the core word list,a comparison of the core word phonology between Ersu and Xide-Yi,Lhasa-Tibetan,and Taoping-Qiang,and an analysis of the phonological correspondence and cognate relations;a discussion of the core words involved from the perspective of cognate,the phonological correspondence and cognate relations are analyzed.The kinship between the languages involved in the comparison is discussed from the perspective of cognate core words and phonological innovations,and the status of Ersu in the Tibetan-Burman is also discussed in the light of relevant literary and historical data.