中部彝语

中部彝语是彝语支下的一群语言，最早由Bradley (1997)提出。在Lama (2012)的分类方案中不存在这一分类。中部彝语在Satterthwaite-Phillips (2011)的计算系统发生分析中也得不到证实。Satterthwaite-Phillips, Damian. 2011. Phylogenetic inference of the Tibeto-Burman languages or On the usefulness of lexicostatistics (and "Megalo"-comparison) for the subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.

语言
Lama (2012)认为中部彝语是并系群，Bradley (1997)将其分为下列独立分支。拉邬语组在Yang (2012)和Hsiu (2017)后被补充上。
傈僳语组: 傈僳语、倮倮泼语、里泼语、腊罗语、他鲁语群等等。
努苏语组：努苏语、柔若语
拉祜语组：拉祜语、苦聪话
拉邬语组：拉邬语、阿邬语、乐舞语Hsiu, Andrew. 2017. The Lawu languages: footprints along the Red River valley corridor .Yang, Cathryn. 2012. Phonology sketch and classification of Lawu, an undocumented Ngwi language of Yunnan . In Linguistic Discovery, Volume 10, Issue 2, Year 2012. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College.
基诺语

傈僳语组是最大、内部最多样的分支。基诺语在Lama (2012)中被划入哈尼语支(南部彝语)。

创新
Pelkey (2011:367)列出下列创新。
原始彝语1&2调：声调分裂
原始彝语2调分裂为*前加声门音声母(高调)和*无前加声门音声母(低调；拉祜语中存在紧随其后的突变)
原始彝语塞音声母前的低调>高/升调
父群语言的量词语法化为双音节形式、元音高度或其他系统性变化
缅语支词形变化缓和地类推而语法化：比南部彝语多，比北部彝语少
“狗”和“火”的词汇创新

参考

Bradley, David (1997). "Tibeto-Burman languages and classification". In Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas, Papers in South East Asian linguistics. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Lama, Ziwo Qiu-Fuyuan (2012). Subgrouping of Nisoic (Yi) Languages . Ph.D. thesis, University of Texas at Arlington.
Pelkey, Jamin. 2011. Dialectology as Dialectic: Interpreting Phula Variation. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.