Zhaba, also known as Bazi, Bozi, Draba, nDrapa, Zaba, Zha (Chinese: æÂÂÃ¥ÂÂ诠or æÂÂå·´è¯Â), is a Qiangic language of Sichuan, China spoken by about 8,000 people in Daofu County and Yajiang County. The Zhaba, who are officially classified by the Chinese government as ethnic Tibetan people, refer to themselves as ' and to the Zhaba language as '. Neighboring Khams Tibetan speakers refer to the Zhaba people as '. Zhaba speakers live primarily in the Xianshui River é²Âæ°´æ²³ valley.
Descriptions of Zhaba include Huang (1991) and Gong (2007). Huang & Dai (1992) document the Queyu dialect spoken in Zhatuo Village æÂÂæÂÂæÂÂ, Zhatuo Township æÂÂæÂÂ乡, Daofu County, Sichuan.
Additionally, the following diphthongs and triphthongs have been observed: /ui/, /ue/, /uÃÂ/, /uÃÂÃÂ/, /yÃÂ/, /uÃÂ/, /ua/, /ei/, /ÃÂi/, /ÃÂu/, /ai/, /au/, /uei/, /iau/.
Zhaba also has four tones:
Ethnologue (21st edition) lists two dialects of Zhaba:
A total of 8,319 Zhaba people are distributed in the following townships of Zhaba District æÂÂÃ¥ÂÂåº of Daofu County (Upper Zha ä¸Âæ area), and Zhamai District æÂÂ麦åº of Yajiang County (Lower Zha ä¸Âæ area) (Gong 2007:2-3). Zhaba people from the two districts speak the same mutually intelligible language.