| Pumi | |
|---|---|
| Prinmi | |
| psshinv mivཕྷྷྲིནཀ་མིཀ་,prienv mivཕྲནཀ་མིཀ་,psshonv mefཕྷྷྲོནཀ་མེས་,prinv mevཕྲིནཀ་མེཀ་,chinv mifཁྲིནཀ་མིས་ | |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Sichuan,Yunnan |
| Ethnicity | Pumi |
Native speakers | (54,000 cited 1999)[1] |
| Tibetan script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:pmi – Northern Pumipmj – Southern Pumi |
| Glottolog | pumi1242 |
ThePumi language (also known asPrinmi[citation needed]) is aQiangic language used by thePumi people, an ethnic group fromYunnan,China, as well as by theTibetan people ofMuli inSichuan,China.[2][3] Most native speakers live inLanping,Ninglang,Lijiang,Weixi andMuli.
The autonym of the Pumi ispʰʐə̃55mi55 in Western Prinmi,pʰɹĩ55mi55 in Central Prinmi, andpʰʐõ55mə53 in Northern Prinmi with variants such aspʰɹə̃55mə55 andtʂʰə̃55mi53.[3][4]
InMuli Bonist 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 inNinglang.[5] A pinyin-based Roman script has been proposed, but is not commonly used.[6]
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 inLanping), Central Prinmi (spoken in southwesternNinglang,Lijiang,Yulong andYongsheng) and Northern Prinmi (spoken in northernNinglang andSichuan).[7]
Dialects of Pumi include the following (Lu 2001).[3]
Sims (2017)[8] lists the following dialects of Pumi.
Sims (2017)[8] reconstructs high tones and low tones for Proto-Prinmi.
Transcribed, translated and annotated audio documents in the Pumi language are available from thePangloss Collection.[17] They concern Northern dialects of Pumi.
| Labial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | voiceless | [m̥] | [n̥] | [ŋ̥] | ||
| 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] | |||
| 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] | |||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | [ĩ] | ||
| Close-Mid | [õ] | ||
| Mid | [ə̃] | ||
| Open-Mid | [ɛ̃] | ||
| Near-Open | [ɐ̃] |
The pinyin-based Roman script for Pumi has been proposed, but yet to be promoted.
| Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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] |
| br | pʴ | pr | pʴʰ | bbr | bʴ | r | [ɹ] | hr | [ɹ̥] |
| ng | [ŋ] | hng | [ŋ̥] | w | [w] | y | [j] |
| Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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] |
Tones:
A reference grammar of the Wadu dialect of Pumi isavailable online.[18] A grammar of Central Pumi is also available.[19]
| Pumi | English |
|---|---|
| Tèr gwéjè dzwán thèr phxèungphxàr sì. Timitae llìnggwe zreungzrun stìng. | He has broken several hammers. This man is crying and shouting all the time. |