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.
The autonym of the Pumi is in Western Prinmi, in Central Prinmi, and in Northern Prinmi with variants such as and .
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.
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 City, Yulong and
Yongsheng County) and Northern Prinmi (spoken in northern Ninglang and
Sichuan).
Lu (2001)
Dialects of Pumi include the following (Lu 2001).
- Southern (22,000 speakers)
- Northern (55,000 speakers)
Sim (2017)
Sims (2017)
lists the following dialects of Pumi.
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Northern
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Sanyanlong 三岩龙 Jiulong (B. Huang & Dai 1992)
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Taoba 桃巴 Muli (Sun 1991)
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Shuiluo 水洛 Muli (Jacques 2011)
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Central
-
Wadu 瓦都
-
Niuwozi 牛窝子
-
Southern
-
Dayang Lanping (Matisoff 1997)
-
Qinghua 箐花 Lanping (Sun 1991; B. Huang & Dai 1992)
[
]
Sims (2017)
Documentation
Transcribed, translated and annotated audio documents in the Pumi language are available from the Pangloss Collection.
They concern Northern dialects of Pumi.
Phonology
| +Pumi Consonants
! colspan="2" | !Labial
!Dental
!Retroflex
!Palatal
!Velar |
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| +Oral Vowels of Pumi
!
!Front
! colspan="2" | Central
! colspan="2" | Back |
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| +Nasal Vowels of Pumi
!
!Front
!Central
!Back |
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Orthography
The pinyin-based Roman script for Pumi has been proposed, but yet to be promoted.
Tones:
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Monosyllabic words
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f – falling tone
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v – high tone
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none – rising tone
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Polysyllable words
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f – nonspreading of the high tone
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v – spreading of the high tone to the next syllable
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r – rising tone
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none – default low tone
Grammar
A reference grammar of the Wadu dialect of Pumi is
available online.
A grammar of Central Pumi is also available.
Example
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Tèr gwéjè dzwán thèr phxèungphxàr sì.
Timitae llìnggwe zreungzrun stìng. | He has broken several hammers.
This man is crying and shouting all the time. |
Bibliography
