| Nusu | |
|---|---|
| Native to | China,Myanmar |
| Ethnicity | Nu |
Native speakers | 13,000 (2007)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nuf |
| Glottolog | nusu1239 |
TheNusu language is aLoloish language spoken by theNu people ofChina andMyanmar. There are three dialects: Northern, Southern, and Central. The Central dialect of Miangu is theprestige dialect and is understood fairly well by speakers of other dialects.[1]
Lama (2012) observes a sound change, *r- > Ø- fromProto-Loloish, as a Nusoish innovation.
The three Nusu dialects are spoken in the following locations (Nusuzu Nusuyu Jianzhi 怒族怒苏语简志 1986).
The divergentLiangsu dialect (良苏话) is spoken in by about 3,000 people in the following locations ofFugong County, Yunnan.[18][19]
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | (Alveolo-) Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | |||||||
| Nasal | voiced | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| unvoiced | m̥ | n̥ | ||||||
| Stop/ Affricate | voiced | b | d | dz | ɖʐ | dʑ | ɡ | |
| unvoiced | p | t | ts | ʈʂ | tɕ | k | ||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | tsʰ | ʈʂʰ | tɕʰ | kʰ | ||
| Fricative | unvoiced | f | s | ʂ | ɕ | x | h | |
| voiced | v | z | ʐ | ʑ | ɣ | |||
| Approximant | voiced | l | j | w | ||||
| unvoiced | l̥ | |||||||
Nusu has seven tones:
| Tone | IPA |
|---|---|
| High | ˥ |
| High falling | ˥˧ |
| Creaky low | ˩ˀ |
| Low | ˩ |
| Creaky high | ˥ˀ |
| Rising-falling | ˨˦˨ |
| Mid | ˧ |
Nusu uses theLatin script. It has 65 letters[citation needed]
The following list shows the letters of the Nusu alphabet in both uppercase and lowercase forms and their pronunciation in theIPA:
Nusu has 7 tones. Tones are marked with final consonant letters:
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. | |||||