Munya or Muya (; also Manyak , 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 Shimian County, Ya'an Jiulong County Kangding
Sun (1991) documents Muya (木雅) of Liuba Township (六坝乡), Shade District (沙德区), Kangding County (康定县), Sichuan.
Phonology +ConsonantsLabialAlveolarRetroflexAlveolo-palatalVelarUvularGlottalPlosiveoral aspiratedprenasalized Affricateoral aspiratedprenasalized Fricative NasalApproximant /ʑ/ can sometimes be heard as [r].
+VowelsFrontCentralBackUnroundedRoundedHigh 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.