Pumi language

Qiangic language spoken in Yunnan, China From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Pumi language (also known as Prinmi[2]) is a Qiangic language used by the Pumi people, an ethnic group from Yunnan, China, as well as by the Tibetan people of Muli in Sichuan, China.[3][4] Most native speakers live in Lanping, Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi and Muli.

NativetoChina
RegionSichuan, Yunnan
EthnicityPumi
Native speakers
(54,000 cited 1999)[1]
Quick facts Native to, Region ...
Pumi
Prinmi
psshinv miv ཕྷྷྲིནཀ་མིཀ་, prienv miv ཕྲནཀ་མིཀ་, psshonv mef ཕྷྷྲོནཀ་མེས་, prinv mev ཕྲིནཀ་མེཀ་, chinv mif ཁྲིནཀ་མིས་
Native toChina
RegionSichuan, Yunnan
EthnicityPumi
Native speakers
(54,000 cited 1999)[1]
Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
pmi – Northern Pumi
pmj – Southern Pumi
Glottologpumi1242
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The autonym of the Pumi is pʰʐə̃55 mi55 in Western Prinmi, pʰɹĩ55 mi55 in Central Prinmi, and pʰʐõ55 mə53 in Northern Prinmi with variants such as pʰɹə̃55 mə55 and tʂʰə̃55 mi53.[4][5]

In Muli Bonpo-Buddhist priests read religious texts in Tibetan, which needs to be interpreted into Prinmi.[citation needed] An attempt to teach Pumi children to write their language using the Tibetan script has been seen in Ninglang.[6] A pinyin-based Roman script has been proposed, but is not commonly used.[7]

Dialects

Earlier works suggest there are two branches of Pumi (southern and northern), and they are not mutually intelligible. Ding (2014) proposes three major groups: Western Prinmi (spoken in Lanping), Central Prinmi (spoken in southwestern Ninglang, Lijiang, Yulong and Yongsheng) and Northern Prinmi (spoken in northern Ninglang and Sichuan).[5]

Lu (2001)

Dialects of Pumi include the following (Lu 2001).[4]

Southern (22,000 speakers)
Northern (55,000 speakers)

Sim (2017)

Sims (2017)[8] lists the following dialects of Pumi.

  • Northern
    • Sanyanlong 三岩龙 [Jiulong County] (B. Huang & Dai 1992)[9]
    • Taoba 桃巴 [Muli County] (Sun 1991)[10]
    • Shuiluo 水洛 [Muli County] (Jacques 2011)[11]
  • Central
    • Wadu 瓦都[12] [Ninglang County] (Daudey 2014)[13]
    • Niuwozi 牛窝子[14] [Ninglang County] (Ding 2001, etc.)[15]
  • Southern
    • Dayang [Lanping County] (Matisoff 1997)[16]
    • Qinghua 箐花 [Lanping County] (Sun 1991; B. Huang & Dai 1992)[10][9]

Sims (2017)[8] reconstructs high tones and low tones for Proto-Prinmi.

Documentation

Transcribed, translated and annotated audio documents in the Pumi language are available from the Pangloss Collection.[17] They concern Northern dialects of Pumi.

Phonology

More information Labial, Dental ...
Pumi Consonants
Labial Dental Retroflex Palatal Velar
Nasal voiceless [m̥] [n̥] [ŋ̊]
voiced [m] [n] [ŋ]
Plosive voiceless [p] [t] [ʈ] [k]
aspirated [pʰ] [tʰ] [ʈʰ] [kʰ]
voiced [b] [d] [ɖ] [ɡ]
Affricate voiceless [ts] [ʈʂ] [tɕ]
aspirated [tsʰ] [ʈʂʰ] [tɕʰ]
voiced [dz] [ɖʐ] [dʑ]
Fricative voiceless [s] [ʂ] [ɕ] [x]
voiced [z] [ʐ] [ʑ] [ɣ]
Lateral voiceless [ɬ]
voiced [l]
Approximant voiceless [ɹ̥]
voiced [w] [ɹ] [j]
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More information Front, Central ...
Oral Vowels of Pumi
Front Central Back
Close [i/iᵊ] [ɨ] [ʉ] [u]
Close-Mid [e] [ɤ] [o]
Mid [ə]
Open-Mid [ɛ] [ɜ]
Near-Open [ɐ]
Open [a] [ɑ]
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More information Front, Central ...
Nasal Vowels of Pumi
Front Central Back
Close [ĩ]
Close-Mid [õ]
Mid [ə̃]
Open-Mid [ɛ̃]
Near-Open [ɐ̃]
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Orthography

The pinyin-based Roman script for Pumi has been proposed, but yet to be promoted.

More information Letter, IPA ...
Initials:
LetterIPALetterIPALetterIPALetterIPALetterIPA
b[p]p[pʰ]bb[b]m[m]hm[m̥]
d[t]t[tʰ]dd[d]n[n]hn[n̥]
g[k]k[kʰ]gg[ɡ]h[x]hh[ɣ]
j[tɕ]q[tɕʰ]jj[dʑ]x[ɕ]xx[ʑ]
z[ts]c[tsʰ]zz[dz]s[s]ss[z]
zh[ʈʂ]ch[ʈʂʰ]zzh[ɖʐ]sh[ʂ]ssh[ʐ]
zr[ʈ], [ʈʂ/kʴ]cr[ʈʰ], [ʈʂʰ/kʴʰ]zzr[ɖ], [ɖʐ/ɡʴ]l[l]lh[ɬ]
brpʴprpʴʰbbrbʴr[ɹ]hr[ɹ̥]
ng[ŋ]hng[ŋ̊]w[w]y[j]
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More information Letter, IPA ...
Rimes:
LetterIPALetterIPALetterIPALetterIPA
i[i/iᵊ]u[u]ui[ɥi/wi]e[ə]
ie[jɛ/e]iu[ju]uee[ɥe/we]
ii[ɨ/ə]uu[uə/ʉ]ue[ɥɛ/wɛ/wə]üa[ɥɐ]
in[ĩ/ə̃]ien[(j)ɛ̃/ĩ]uen[ɥɛ̃/wɛ̃/wĩ]uin[ɥĩ]
o[o/ɤ]io[(j)ɐw/ɨɤ]on[õ]ion[jõ]
a[ɑ]ia[jɐ/jɜ]ua[wɑ/wɜ]uan[wɐ̃/wɜ̃]
aa[a]uaa[wa]an[ɐ̃]
ea[ɜ/ɛ]ai[ɜj]uai[wɜj]
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Tones:

  • Monosyllabic words
    • f – falling tone
    • v – high tone
    • none – rising tone
  • Polysyllable words
    • f – nonspreading of the high tone
    • v – spreading of the high tone to the next syllable
    • r – rising tone
    • none – default low tone

Grammar

A reference grammar of the Wadu dialect of Pumi is available online.[13] A grammar of Central Pumi is also available.[18]

Example

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pumi writing.
More information English ...
PumiEnglish
Tèr gwéjè dzwán thèr phxèungphxàr sì.
Timitae llìnggwe zreungzrun stìng.		 He has broken several hammers.
This man is crying and shouting all the time.
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References

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