XIV

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

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.

Katia Chirkova reports two varieties.

• 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. And voiceless and "voiced glottal fricatives."

1. Only in Upper Xumi
2. Only in Lower Xumi

Vowels※

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/.
  • At least in Lower Xumi /ʉ/, is phonetically close-mid [ɵ].
  • /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.
  • 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.

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 ※ 'on the roof / upstairs'.
• Lower Xumi has the following nasal vowels: /ĩ, õ, ɛ̃, ɐ̃, ɑ̃/, as well as the marginal /ə̃/, which occurs only in the word ※ 'on the roof / upstairs'. /ẽ, õ, ɐ̃, ɑ̃/ generally correspond to Upper Xumi /ĩ, ũ, ɛ̃, ɔ̃/, respectively.

References※

Bibliography※