1. Introduction

Qiang (Qiāng 羌) is a language within the Qiangic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, spoken in Ābà Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture (Ābà Zàngzú-Qiāngzú Zìzhìzhōu 阿壩藏族羌族自治州) in Northern Sìchuān by about 110,000 people of the Qiang and Tibetan nationalities. Rather than being considered a single language, Qiang is better treated as a cluster of closely related languages and their dialects, as many of its varieties are not mutually intelligible. In this article, we use the term var…