| Nuosu | |
|---|---|
| Northern Yi, Liangshan Yi, Sichuan Yi | |
| ꆈꌠꉙNuosuhxop | |
| Native to | China |
| Region | SouthernSichuan, northernYunnan |
| Ethnicity | Yi |
Native speakers | (2 million cited 2000 census)[1] |
Standard forms |
|
| Yi syllabary, formerlyYi logograms | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in |  China (Yunnan province) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ii Sichuan Yi, Nuosu |
| ISO 639-2 | iii Sichuan Yi, Nuosu |
| ISO 639-3 | iii Nuosu, Sichuan Yi |
| Glottolog | sich1238 Sichuan Yi |
 | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Nuosu orNosu (ꆈꌠꉙ, transcribed asNuo su hxop), also known asNorthern Yi,Liangshan Yi, andSichuan Yi, is theprestige language of theYi people; it has been chosen by the Chinese government as the standardYi language (Chinese:彝语) and as such is the only one taught in schools in both oral and written forms. It was spoken by two million people and was increasing (as of PRC census); 60% were monolingual (1994 estimate). Nuosu is the native Nuosu name for their own language and is not used inMandarin Chinese, though it may sometimes be translated asNuòsūyǔ (simplified Chinese:诺苏语;traditional Chinese:諾蘇語).[2]
The occasional terms "Black Yi" (黑彝;hēi Yí) and 'White Yi' (白彝;bái Yí) arecastes of the Nuosu people, not dialects.[citation needed]
Nuosu is one of several oftenmutually unintelligible varieties known as Yi, Lolo, Moso, or Noso. The six Yi languages recognized by the Chinese government have only 25% to 50% of their vocabulary in common. They share a commontraditional writing system, but that is used forshamanism, rather than daily accounting.[citation needed]
According to theEncyclopedia Britannica, it is one of the eightTibeto-Burman languages with over 1,000,000 speakers (others beingBurmese,Tibetan,Meitei,Bai,Karen,Hani,Jingpo).[3]
Nuosu is mainly spoken in theLiangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture,Sichuan.
There are other parts of Sichuan where Yi is spoken, includingPanzhihua andLeshan.
InYunnan, Northern Yi (Nuosu) is spoken in the north.
Lama (2012) gives the following classification for Nuosu dialects.
The Qumusu (曲木苏, Tianba 田坝) dialect is the most divergent one. The other dialects group as Niesu (聂苏, Suondi and Adu) and as Nuosu proper (Muhisu 米西苏, Yinuo 义诺, and Shengzha 圣乍). Niesu has both lost voiceless nasals and developed diphthongs.[4]
Adu (阿都话), characterized by itslabial–velar consonants, is spoken in theButuo andNingnan counties ofLiangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture,Sichuan province, and also in parts ofPuge,Zhaojue,Dechang, andJinyang counties.[5]
Nyisu or Yellow Yi (黄彝) ofFumin County, Yunnan may either be a Soundi Yi (Nuosu) dialect orNisu dialect.
Zhu and Zhang (2005)[6] reports that the Shuitian people (水田人) reside mostly in the lowlands of the Anning Riverdrainage basin, in Xichang, Xide, and Mianning counties ofLiangshan Prefecture inSichuan. They are called Muhisu (mu33 hi44 su33) by the neighboring Yi highland people. Shuitian is spoken in the following locations. Shuitian belongs to the Shengzha dialect (圣乍次土语) of Northern Yi.
According to Bradley (1997),[8] there are three main dialects of Nosu, of which the Southeastern one (Sondi) is most divergent.
Chen (2010) lists the following dialects of Nosu. Also listed are the counties where each respective dialect is spoken.[9]
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | (Alveolo-) Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | |||||||
| Nasal | unvoiced | m̥⟨hm⟩ | n̥⟨hn⟩ | |||||
| voiced | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ɲ⟨ny⟩ | ŋ⟨ng⟩ | ||||
| Stop/ Affricate | unvoiced | p⟨b⟩ | t⟨d⟩ | ts⟨z⟩ | ʈʂ⟨zh⟩ | tɕ⟨j⟩ | k⟨g⟩ | |
| aspirated | pʰ⟨p⟩ | tʰ⟨t⟩ | tsʰ⟨c⟩ | ʈʂʰ⟨ch⟩ | tɕʰ⟨q⟩ | kʰ⟨k⟩ | ||
| voiced | b⟨bb⟩ | d⟨dd⟩ | dz⟨zz⟩ | ɖʐ⟨rr⟩ | dʑ⟨jj⟩ | ɡ⟨gg⟩ | ||
| prenasalized | ᵐb⟨nb⟩ | ⁿd⟨nd⟩ | ⁿdz⟨nz⟩ | ᶯɖʐ⟨nr⟩ | ᶮdʑ⟨nj⟩ | ᵑɡ⟨mg⟩ | ||
| Continuant | unvoiced | f⟨f⟩ | l̥⟨hl⟩ | s⟨s⟩ | ʂ⟨sh⟩ | ɕ⟨x⟩ | x⟨h⟩ | h⟨hx⟩ |
| voiced | v⟨v⟩ | l⟨l⟩ | z⟨ss⟩ | ʐ⟨r⟩ | ʑ⟨y⟩ | ɣ⟨w⟩ | ||
| Front | Non-front | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||
| Syllabic consonant | loose | z̩⟨y⟩ | v̩ʷ⟨u⟩ | |
| tight | z̠̩⟨yr⟩ | v̠̩ʷ⟨ur⟩ | ||
| Close | loose | e̝⟨i⟩ | ɤ̝⟨e⟩ | o̝⟨o⟩ |
| Open-mid | tight | ɛ⟨ie⟩ | ɔ⟨uo⟩ | |
| Open | a⟨a⟩ | |||
Nuosu has five pairs of phonemic vowels, contrasting in a feature Andy Eatough callsloose throat vs.tight throat. Underlining is used as an ad-hoc symbol for tight throat; phonetically, these vowels arelaryngealized and/or show aretracted tongue root. Loose vs. tight throat is the only distinction in the two pairs ofsyllabic consonants, but in thevocoids it is reinforced by aheight difference.[10]
The syllabic consonantsy(r) u(r) are essentially the usual Sinological vowelsɿʮ, so⟨y⟩ can be identified with the vowel of the Mandarin四sì "four", but they have diverse realizations.Y(r) completely assimilates to a preceding coronal except in voice, e.g./ɕz̩˨˩/[ɕʑ̩˨˩]ꑮxyp "to marry", and is[m͡l̩] after a labial nasal, e.g./m̥z̩˧sz̩˧/[m̥m͡l̩˧sɹ̩˧]ꂪꌦhmy sy "cloth".U(r) assimilates similarly after laterals, retaining its rounding, e.g./l̥v̩ʷ˧/[l̥l̩ʷ˧]ꆭhlu "to stir-fry", and is[m̩ʷ] after a labial nasal, e.g./m̥v̩ʷ˧/[m̥m̩ʷ˧]ꂥhmu "mushroom"; moreover it induces alabially trilled release of preceding labial or alveolar stops, e.g./ⁿdv̩ʷ˨˩/[ⁿdʙβ̩˨˩]ꅥndup "to hit".
The tight-throat phone[ɤ̝] occurs as the realization of/ɤ̝/ in the high tone. That it is phonemically loose-throat is shown by its behaviour in tightness harmony in compound words.
Nuosu syllable structure is (C)V.
The high-mid tone is only marginally contrastive. Its two main sources are fromtone sandhi rules, as the outcome of a mid tone before another mid tone, and the outcome of a low-falling tone after a mid tone. However, these changes do not occur in all compounds where they might: for instanceꊈwo "bear" +ꃀmop "mother" regularly formsꊈꂾwo mox "female bear", butꃤvi "jackal" +ꃀmop "mother" formsꃤꃀvi mop "female jackal" without sandhi. The syntax creates other contrasts: tone sandhi applies across the boundary between object and verb, so is present inSOV clauses likeꃅꏸꇐꄜꎷmu jy lu ti shex "Mujy looks for Luti", but is absent inOSV clauses likeꃅꏸꇐꄜꎹmu jy lu ti shep "Luti looks for Mujy". A few words, likeꑞxix "what?", have underlying high-mid tone.
Classic Yi is a syllabiclogographic system of 8,000–10,000 glyphs. Although similar toChinese characters in function, the glyphs are independent in form, with little to suggest a direct relation.
In 1958 the Chinese government had introduced a Roman-based alphabet based on the romanized script ofGladstone Porteous of Sayingpan.[11] This was later replaced by the Modern Yi script.
The Modern Yi script (ꆈꌠꁱꂷnuosu bburma[nɔ̄sūbʙ̝̄mā] 'Nosu script') is a standardizedsyllabary derived from the classic script in 1974. It was made the official script of the Yi languages in 1980. There are 756 basic glyphs based on the Liangshan dialect, plus 63 for syllables only found in Chinese borrowings. The government requires the use of the script for signs in some designated public places.[12]
Nuosu is ananalytic language, the basic word order isSubject–object–verb. Vocabularies of Nuosu can be divided intocontent words andfunction words. Among content words, nouns in Nuosu do not perform inflections for grammatical gender, number, and cases,classifiers are required when the noun is being counted; verbs do not perform conjugations for its persons and tenses; adjectives are usually placed after the word being fixed with a structural particle and do not perform inflections for comparison. Function words, especiallygrammatical particles, have a significant role in terms of sentence constructions in Nuosu. Nuosu does not have article words, but conjunctions andpostposition words are used.[13]
Classifiers are required when numbers are used for fixing nouns.
| Number | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yi script | ꋍ | ꑍ | ꌕ | ꇖ | ꉬ | ꃘ | ꏃ | ꉆ | ꈬ | ꊰ | ꊰꋍ | ꊰꑋ | |
| IPA | t͡sʰẑ̩ | ɲê̝ | sɔ̠̄ | lz̩̄ | ŋɤ̝̄ | fv̩̋ʷ | ʂʐ̩̄ | he̝̋ | ɡv̩̄ʷ | t͡sʰz̩̄ | t͡sʰẑ̩t͡sʰz̩̄ | t͡sʰē̝ɲê̝ | |
| Yi Pinyin | cyp | nyip | suo | ly | nge | fut | shyp | hxit | ggu | cy | cyp cy | ci nyip |
There are 8 Tibeto-Burman languages with over 1,000,000 speakers (Burmese, Tibetan, Bai, Yi [Lolo], Karen, Meitei, Hani, Jingpo) ...
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
|  | |||
| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
| ||||
| East andSoutheast Asia |
| ||||
| Dubious (possible isolates) (Arunachal) |
| ||||
| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
