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. Most native speakers live in Lanping, Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi and Muli.
The autonym of the Pumi is ' in Western Prinmi, ' in Central Prinmi, and ' in Northern Prinmi with variants such as ' and '.
In Muli Bonpo-Buddhist 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. A pinyin-based Roman script has been proposed, but is not commonly used.
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, Yulong and Yongsheng) and Northern Prinmi (spoken in northern Ninglang and Sichuan).
Dialects of Pumi include the following (Lu 2001).
Sims (2017) lists the following dialects of Pumi.
Sims (2017) reconstructs high tones and low tones for Proto-Prinmi.
Transcribed, translated and annotated audio documents in the Pumi language are available from the Pangloss Collection. They concern Northern dialects of Pumi.
The pinyin-based Roman script for Pumi has been proposed, but yet to be promoted.
Tones:
A reference grammar of the Wadu dialect of Pumi is available online. A grammar of Central Pumi is also available.