Shixing language

Shixing, also rendered Shuhi, is a Qiangic language of Sichuan, China. Two-thirds of its speakers are monolingual.

This article is about a Qiangic language. For a Spanish footballer nicknamed "Xumi", see Jordi Xumetra.
Shixing
Shuhi
Native toChina
Native speakers
1,800 (2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3sxg
Glottologshix1238
ELPShixing

Shixing is also known by its Tibetan name Xumi (旭米 Xùmǐ); it is spoken by about 1800 people living by the Shuiluo River 水洛 in Shuiluo Township 水洛乡, Mili Tibetan Autonomous County.[2]

Katia Chirkova reports two varieties.[3]

  • Upper Xumi (autonym: ʂuhĩ)
  • Lower Xumi (autonym: ʃʉhẽ)

Phonology

Consonants

Xumi features a very unusual phonemic contrast between voiceless /ʎ̥/ and voiced /ʎ/ alveolo-palatal lateral approximants.[4][5]

Consonant phonemes[6][7]
Labial Alveolar Postalveolar Velar Uvular Glottal
plain sibilant Palato-
alveolar		 Retroflex Alveolo-
palatal
Nasal voiceless m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊
voiced m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive/

Affricate

 aspirated pʰ tʰ tsʰ tʃʰ ʈʂʰ tɕʰ kʰ qʰ
plain p t ts tʃ ʈʂ tɕ k q
voiced b d dz dʒ ɖʐ dʑ ɡ ɢ
Fricative voiceless s ʃ ʂ ɕ x χ h
voiced z ʒ ʐ ʑ ɣ ʁ ɦ
Lateral voiceless l̥ ʎ̥
voiced l ʎ
Approximant ɹ j w

In the table above, italic phonemes only appear in the Upper Xumi dialect while bold phonemes only appear in the Lower Xumi dialect. All others appear in both Upper and Lower Xumi.

Vowels
Oral monophthongs of Lower Xumi, from Chirkova & Chen (2013:369)

Oral
  • The close and close-mid series are the same in both varieties: /i, ʉ, u, e, o/. The difference lies in the open-mid and open series; in Upper Xumi, these are /ɛ, ɐ, ɔ, a/, whereas in Lower Xumi, they are /ɛ, ɐ, ɑ/.[8][9]
    • At least in Lower Xumi /ʉ/, is phonetically close-mid [ɵ].[10]
    • /ɐ/ is closer in Upper Xumi [ɜ]; in addition, the open central vowel /a/ is phonetically near-open [ɐ]. For this reason, they may be transcribed with ⟨ɜ⟩ and ⟨ɐ⟩, respectively.[11]
    • The Lower Xumi /o/ and /ɑ/ generally correspond to Upper Xumi /u/ and /ɔ/, respectively. /ɑ/ is near-open near-back [ɑ̽] and thus similar to the Upper Xumi /a/, but more back.[10][11]

Nasal
  • Upper Xumi has the following nasal vowels: /ĩ, ũ, ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ɐ̃/, as well as the marginal /ɘ̃/, which occurs only in the word [LPmɘ̃da] 'on the roof / upstairs'.[8]
  • Lower Xumi has the following nasal vowels: /ĩ, õ, ɛ̃, ɐ̃, ɑ̃/, as well as the marginal /ə̃/, which occurs only in the word [LPmə̃dɐ ᴿʁo] 'on the roof / upstairs'.[9] /ẽ, õ, ɐ̃, ɑ̃/ generally correspond to Upper Xumi /ĩ, ũ, ɛ̃, ɔ̃/, respectively.[11]

References
  1. Shixing at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Chirkova & Chen (2013), p. 363.
  3. Chirkova & Chen (2013), p. 364.
  4. Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365, 367–368.
  5. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 382–383.
  6. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), p. 382.
  7. Chirkova & Chen (2013), p. 365.
  8. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 388–389.
  9. Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 369–370.
  10. Chirkova & Chen (2013), p. 369.
  11. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), p. 389.

Bibliography
  • Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013), "Xumi, Part 1: Lower Xumi, the Variety of the Lower and Middle Reaches of the Shuiluo River", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 363–379, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000157
  • Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya; Kocjančič Antolík, Tanja (2013), "Xumi, Part 2: Upper Xumi, the Variety of the Upper Reaches of the Shuiluo River", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 381–396, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169
  • Sun Hongkai [孙宏开]. 2014. A study of Shixing [Shixingyu yanjiu 史兴语研究]. Beijing: Minzu University Press.
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