Tangut people

The Tangut people (Tangut: , mjɨ nja̱ or , mji dzjwo; ; ; Тангуд) were a Sino-Tibetan people that founded and inhabited the Western Xia dynasty. The group initially lived under Tuyuhun authority, but later submitted to the Tang dynasty. After the collapse of Tang dynasty, the Tanguts established the Western Xia. They spoke the Tangut language, which was previously believed to be one of the Qiangic languages or Yi languages which belong to the Tibeto-Burman family." Phylogenetic and historical linguistic accounts, however, reveal that Tangut belonged instead to the Gyalrongic branch of Tibeto-Burman. Western Xia was annihilated by the Mongol Empire in 1227, most of its written records and architecture were destroyed. Today the Tangut language and its unique script are extinct, only fragments of Tangut literature remain. The Tangut language, otherwise known as Fan, belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Like many other Sino-Tibetan languages, it is a tonal language with predominantly mono-syllabic roots, but it shares certain grammatical traits central to the Tibeto-Burman branch. It is still debated as to whether Tangut belongs to the Yi or Qiangic subdivision of Tibeto-Burman. The Tanguts, called the Dangxiang () in Chinese, are typically regarded by Chinese scholars to be synonymous with or at least related to the Qiang people. Historically, "Qiang" was a collective term for the multiple ethnic groups who lived on the western borderlands of China, including the modern Qiang people (Rma). The name Tangut first appears in the Orkhon inscriptions of 735. In their own Tangut language, the Tanguts called themselves Mi-niah (Miñak). Until the 19th century, the term Minjak was still used to refer to the area inhabited by Qiang people in today's Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. Speakers of the Qiangic Muya language in western Kangding calls themselves Minyak. Geographic names such as Min river and Min county (Gansu) are pointed to this root.