Native speakers 50,000 (2002–2004) | Glottolog horp1240 | |
Language family Sino-TibetanQiangicRgyalrongicHorpa ISO 639-3 Either:ero – Horpajih – sTodsde (Shangzhai) | ||
Horpa is one of several closely related Rgyalrongic languages of China. Horpa is better understood as a cluster of closely related yet unintelligible dialect groups/languages. Closely related to Horpa Shangzhai or Stodsde skad. The term Stodsde skad is a Tibetan name meaning "language of the people of the far Northwest".
The cluster of languages variously referred to as Stau, Ergong or Horpa in the literature are spoken over a large area from Ndzamthang county (in Chinese Rangtang 壤塘县) in Rngaba prefecture (Aba 阿坝州) to Rtau county (Dawu 道孚) in Dkarmdzes prefecture (Ganzi 甘孜州), in Sichuan province, China. At the moment of writing, it is still unclear how many unintelligible varieties belong to this group, but at least three must be distinguished: the language of Rtau county (referred as ‘Stau’ in this paper), the Dgebshes language (Geshizha 格什扎话) spoken in Rongbrag county (Danba 丹巴), and the Stodsde language (Shangzhai 上寨) in Ndzamthang.
Horpa is spoken in Dasang District, Danba County of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan. It is also spoken in nearby Dawu County, where it is called 'Stau', pronounced [stawuske].
Ergong is a non-tonal language (Sun 2013).