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(in a few sources also known as tibeto-burman or trans-himalayan)
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*the sino-tibetan languages, are a family of more than 400 languages spoken in [‘east asia’ / ‘south-east asia’ / ‘south asia’]*
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(the family is 2nd only to the ‘indo-european languages’ in terms of the # of ‘native speakers’)
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[the ‘sino-tibetan languages’ with the most native speakers are the varieties of …]
‘chinese’
(1.2 billion speakers)
‘burmese’
(33 million speakers)
*the ‘tibetic languages’*
(8 million speakers)
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(many ‘sino-tibetan’ languages’ are spoken by small communities in ‘remote mountain areas’ + are (thus) poorly documented)
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(several ‘low-level groupings’ are ‘well-established’…
(…but the higher-level structure of the family remains unclear)
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(although the family is often presented as divided into ‘sinitic’ + ‘tibeto-burman’ branches, a common origin of the ‘non-sinitic languages’ has never been demonstrated, and is rejected by an increasing number of researchers)
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*SKETCHES*
*.
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