Na language
Sino-Tibetan language spoken in China
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Na (or Narua, Mosuo) is a language of the Naish subbranch of the Naic group of the Sino-Tibetan languages.
Varieties
Yongning Na, which is spoken in Yongning Township, Ninglang County, Lijiang, Yunnan, China, has been documented by Jacques and Michaud (2011).[2] It has three tonal levels.[3] A trilingual dictionary is available online.[4]
Lataddi Narua is notable for having only two tonal levels.[5]
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Alveolo- palatal |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | (ɳ) | ɲ | (ŋ) | ||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | (ʈ) | k | q | (ʔ) | ||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | (ʈʰ) | kʰ | qʰ | ||||
| voiced | b | d | (ɖ) | ɡ | ɢ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | t͡ʂ | t͡ɕ | |||||
| aspirated | t͡sʰ | t͡ʂʰ | t͡ɕʰ | ||||||
| voiced | d͡z | d͡ʐ | d͡ʑ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʂ | ɕ | (x) | h | ||
| voiced | (v) | z | ʐ | ʑ | ɣ | (ʁ) | |||
| Lateral | fricative | ɬ | |||||||
| glide | l | (ɭ) | |||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||||
- /t, tʰ, d, n, l/ can be heard as [ʈ, ʈʰ, ɖ, ɳ, ɭ] when preceding vowel sounds /ɯ, u, v̩, ɤ, æ/.
- /p, pʰ, b, m, w/ can be heard as [ʙ̥, ʙ̥ʰ, ʙ, ɱ, v] when preceding vowel sounds /ɯ, u, v̩/.
- /ɣ/ can also be heard as uvular [ʁ] in word-initial position.
- /w, h/ is also heard as voiceless [w̥, x] in free variation.
- /n/ is heard as velar [ŋ] when before velar stops.
- [ʔ] is heard in initial position before vowels.[6]
Vowels
- /ɯ/ can be heard as [ɨ] in syllable-initial position and as retroflex [ɻ̩] when after retroflex consonants.[7]
Grammar
Syntax
Narua's default word order is agent–object–verb, although expression of all verb arguments is not obligatory.
Narua marks sentence topics with jjo /dʑo˥/ after a topicalized clause or noun phrase.
