Shixing language


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 ; 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
  • Lower Xumi

    Phonology

Consonants

Xumi features a very unusual phonemic contrast between voiceless and voiced 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:. The difference lies in the open-mid and open series; in Upper Xumi, these are, whereas in Lower Xumi, they are.
  • * At least in Lower Xumi, is phonetically close-mid.
  • * is closer in Upper Xumi ; in addition, the open central vowel is phonetically near-open. For this reason, they may be transcribed with and, respectively.
  • * The Lower Xumi and generally correspond to Upper Xumi and, respectively. is near-open near-back and thus similar to the Upper Xumi, but more back.

    Nasal

  • Upper Xumi has the following nasal vowels:, as well as the marginal, which occurs only in the word 'on the roof / upstairs'.
  • Lower Xumi has the following nasal vowels:, as well as the marginal, which occurs only in the word 'on the roof / upstairs'. generally correspond to Upper Xumi, respectively.