On pitch accent in the Mu-nya language

Abstract

Mu-nya (or Minyag) 木雅, a Tibeto-Burman language of China, is spoken by a part of the Tibetan nationality in southwest Sichuan, around the famous Minya Konka mountain. Presently six works on the Mu-nya language are available: two brief descriptive analyses (SUN 1983 and HUANG 1985), two vocabulary lists (ZMYYC and TBL), one brief phonological analysis (IKEDA 1998), and one short folk tale text (LIN 1998). All these descriptions are of the western dialect of Mu-nya, spoken around the Sade district. We have no linguistic information on the eastern dialect spoken in the Shimian district, which might be in danger of extinction.