Pumi language

The Pumi language (also known as Prinmi) 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.

Pumi
Prinmi
Native toPeople's Republic of China
RegionSichuan, Yunnan
EthnicityPumi
Native speakers
54,000 (1999)[1]
none
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
pmi – Northern Pumi
pmj – Southern Pumi
Glottologpumi1242[2]

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.[5][6]

In Muli Bonist priests read religious texts in Tibetan, which needs to be interpreted into Prinmi. An attempt to teach Pumi children to write their language using the Tibetan script has been seen in Ninglang.[7] A pinyin-based Roman script has been proposed, but is not commonly used.[8]

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).[9]

Lu (2001)

Dialects of Pumi include the following (Lu 2001).[10]

Southern (22,000 speakers)
  • Qinghua 箐花村, Lanping County, Yunnan
  • Ludian 鲁甸县, Yunnan
  • Xinyingpan 新营盘乡, Ninglang County, Yunnan
Northern (55,000 speakers)
  • Taoba 桃巴村, Muli County, Sichuan
  • Tuoqi 拖七村, Ninglang County, Yunnan
  • Zuosuo 左所区, Yanyuan County, Sichuan
  • Sanyanlong 三岩龙乡, Jiulong County, Sichuan

Sim (2017)

Sims (2017)[11] lists the following dialects of Pumi.

  • Northern
    • Sanyanlong 三岩龙 [Jiulong County] (B. Huang & Dai 1992)[12]
    • Taoba 桃巴 [Muli County] (Sun 1991)[13]
    • Shuiluo 水洛 [Muli County] (Jacques 2011)[14]
  • Central
    • Wadu 瓦都[15] [Ninglang County] (Daudey 2014)[16]
    • Niuwozi 牛窝子[17] [Ninglang County] (Ding 2001, etc.)[18]
  • Southern
    • Dayang [Lanping County] (Matisoff 1997)[19]
    • Qinghua 箐花 [Lanping County] (Sun 1991; B. Huang & Dai 1992)[13][12]

Sims (2017)[11] 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.[20] They concern Northern dialects of Pumi.

Sounds

Orthography

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

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]
br[pʴ]pr[pʴʰ]bbr[bʴ]r[ɹ]hr[ɹ̥]
ng[ŋ]hng[ŋ̥]w[w]y[j]

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]

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.[21] A grammar of Central Pumi is also available.[22]

Example
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.
gollark: Anyway, humans don't really have good memetics knowledge (or if it exists it's in some random field nobody cares about), so your attempts to deploy countermemes are futile.
gollark: I'm not a fan of Among Us, but I respect that for whatever reason people enjoy playing it.
gollark: Where so-called "flat" designers would include rounded corners, and blurred background things, I eschew these in favour of flat colored rectangles, sometimes with borders.
gollark: Anyway, I design all my stuff with "extremely flat design".
gollark: I mean, that would fit in the context better, although of course the sentence would remain wrong.

References
  1. Northern Pumi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Southern Pumi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Pumi". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Ding, Picus S. 2003. Prinmi: a sketch of Niuwozi. In Graham Thurgood and Randy LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages, pp. 588-601. London: Routledge Press.
  4. Lu, S. (2001), Dialectal Studies of the Pumi Language, Beijing: Nationalities Press
  5. Pumiyu Fangyan Yanjiu 2001.
  6. Ding 2014, chapter 1
  7. Wáng lěi and Shī Xiǎoliàng. 2011. Shínián, xiāngcūn “hánguī” zǒujìn xiànxué “pǔmǐbān”.
  8. Ding, Picus Sizhi (2007), "Challenges in Language Modernization in China: The Case of Prinmi" (PDF), in David, Maya; Nicholas Ostler; Caesar Dealwis (eds.), Working Together for Endangered Languages: Research Challenges and Social Impacts (Proceedings of FEL XI), Bath, England: Foundation for Endangered Languages, pp. 120–126, archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-26
  9. Ding 2014, chapter 1
  10. Lù, Shàozūn. 2001. Pŭmĭyŭ fāngyán yánjiū [A dialectal study of the Pŭmĭ language]. Beijing: Mínzú Chūbănshè
  11. Sims, Nathaniel. 2017. The suprasegmental phonology of proto-Rma (Qiang) in comparative perspective. Presented at the 50th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Beijing, China.
  12. Huang Bufan and Dai Qingxia, eds. 1992. Zangmianyuzu yuyan cihui 《藏緬語族語言詞匯》[A Tibeto-Burman Lexicon]. Beijing: Central Institute of Minorities.
  13. Sun Hongkai et al. 1991. Zangmianyu yuyin he cihui 《藏缅语语音和词汇》 [Tibeto-Burman phonology and lexicon]. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press.
  14. Jacques, G. (2011). Tonal alternations in the Pumi verbal system. Language and Linguistics, 12(2), 359-392.
  15. http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=230994
  16. Daudey 2014
  17. http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=223332
  18. Ding, Picus Shizhi (2001). "The Pitch-accent System of Niuwozi Prinmi" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 24 (2): 57–83.
  19. Matisoff, James A. (1997). "Dàyáng Pumi Phonology and Adumbrations of Comparative Qiangic" (PDF). The Mon-Khmer Studies Journal. 27: 171–213.
  20. "Pumi corpus". The Pangloss Collection.
  21. Daudey 2014
  22. Ding 2014

Bibliography
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