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 (autonym: ')
• Lower Xumi (autonym: ')

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.

References

Bibliography

• Sun Hongkai [孙宏开]. 2014. A study of Shixing [Shixingyu yanjiu 史兴语研究]. Beijing: Minzu University Press.