Pumi language
Pumi | |
---|---|
Prinmi | |
Native to | People's Republic of China |
Region | Sichuan, Yunnan |
Ethnicity | Pumi |
Native speakers | 54,000 (1999)[1] |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
none | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
Either: pmi – Northern Pumi pmj – Southern Pumi |
Glottolog |
pumi1242 [2] |
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. Earlier works suggest there are two branches of Pumi (southern and northern), and they are not mutually intelligible. A more refined division 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]
The autonym of the Pumi is pʰʐə̃˥mi˥ in Western Prinmi, pʰɹĩ˥mi˥ in Central Prinmi, and pʰʐõ˥mə˥˧ in Northern Prinmi with variants such as pʰɹə̃˥mə˥ and tʂʰə̃˥mi˥˧.[6][7]
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.[8] A pinyin-based Roman script has been proposed, but is not commonly used.[9]
Dialects
Dialects of Pumi include the following (Pumiyu Fangyan Yanjiu 2001).
- Southern (22,000 speakers)
- Qinghua 箐花, Lanping County
- Ludian 鲁甸
- Xinyingpan 新营盘, Ninglang County
- Northern (55,000 speakers)
- Taoba 桃巴, Muli County
- Tuoqi 拖七, Ninglang County
- Zuosuo 左所
- Sanyanlong 三岩龙, Jiulong County, Sichuan
Example
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. |
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pumi writing. |
- ↑ Northern Pumi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Southern Pumi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) - ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Pumi". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Lu, S. 2001. Dialectal Studies of the Pumi Language. Beijing: Nationalities Press.
- ↑ Ding, Picus. 2014
- ↑ Pumiyu Fangyan Yanjiu 2001.
- ↑ Ding, Picus. 2014
- ↑ Wáng lěi and Shī Xiǎoliàng. 2011. Shínián, xiāngcūn “hánguī” zǒujìn xiànxué “pǔmǐbān”.
- ↑ Ding, Picus. 2007
- Ding, Picus. 2014. A Grammar of Prinmi: Based on the Central dialect of northwest Yunnan, China. Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region 14. Leiden: Brill.
- Jacques, Guillaume 2011. A panchronic study of aspirated fricatives with new evidence from Pumi 'Lingua' 121:1518-38.
- Jacques, Guillaume 2011. Tonal alternations in the Pumi verbal system Language and Linguistics. 12.2:359-392.