Editing Tangut people (section)

==Language==
[[File:西夏女供養人像.png|thumb|Tangut women]]
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 used to be debated as to whether Tangut belonged to the [[Nuosu language|Yi]] or [[Qiang language|Qiangic]] subdivision of Tibeto-Burman.{{sfn|Vovin|2020|p=162-163}} The Tanguts, called the Dangxiang ({{zh|c=党項|p='''Dǎngxiàng'''|labels=no}}) in Chinese, are typically regarded by Chinese scholars to be synonymous with or at least related to the [[Qiang (historical people)|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 (Sichuan)|Min river]] and [[Min County|Min county]] (Gansu) are pointed to this root.