Middle of the week – and day seventeen – so today’s post is on the Queyu language for the letter Q.
Queyu is a Qiangic language spoken by about 7,000 people in the west of Sichuan Province and Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. UNESCO has the language classified as definitely endangered, and the and language is one of the least-researched in China.
As most, if not all, people who speak Queyu practice Buddhism, Tibetan also appears to be a widely-used language amongst this ethnic group, especially in relation to religious ceremonies.
Since there is very little information available on this language, it is difficult to predict the language’s future. However, it does seem that the number people classified as being Queyu people has been increasing over the last few decades, so the language might survive a while longer.
Sources/Further Reading
Ethnologue: Queyu
Wikipedia: Choyo language
Endangered Languages Project: Queyu
Asiaharvest: Queyu
Sichuan’s Ethnic Corridor: Queyu profile
万民：却育民族
Academia.edu: Roche, G. – The Vitality of Tibet’s Minority Languages in the 21st Century – Preliminary Remarks