Pumi language

Pumi
Prinmi
psshinv miv ཕྷྷྲིནཀ་མིཀ་, prienv miv ཕྲནཀ་མིཀ་, psshonv mef ཕྷྷྲོནཀ་མེས་, prinv mev ཕྲིནཀ་མེཀ་, chinv mif ཁྲིནཀ་མིས་
Native toChina
RegionSichuan, Yunnan
EthnicityPumi
Native speakers
(54,000 cited 1999)[1]
Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
pmi – Northern Pumi
pmj – Southern Pumi
Glottologpumi1242

The Pumi language (also known as Prinmi[citation needed]) 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.[2][3] Most native speakers live in Lanping, Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi and Muli.

The autonym of the Pumi is pʰʐə̃55 mi55 in Western Prinmi, pʰɹĩ55 mi55 in Central Prinmi, and pʰʐõ55 mə53 in Northern Prinmi with variants such as pʰɹə̃55 mə55 and tʂʰə̃55 mi53.[3][4]

In Muli Bonist priests read religious texts in Tibetan, which needs to be interpreted into Prinmi.[citation needed] An attempt to teach Pumi children to write their language using the Tibetan script has been seen in Ninglang.[5] A pinyin-based Roman script has been proposed, but is not commonly used.[6]

  1. ^ Northern Pumi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Southern Pumi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Ding, Picus S. (2003). "Prinmi: A Sketch of Niuwozi". In Thurgood, Graham; LaPolla, Randy (eds.). The Sino-Tibetan Languages. London: Routledge Press. pp. 588–601.
  3. ^ a b Lu 2001
  4. ^ Ding 2014, chapter 1
  5. ^ "Shínián, xiāngcūn "hánguī" zǒujìn xiànxué "pǔmǐbān"" 十年，乡村“韩规”走进县学“普米班”. Dàzhòng wǎng 大众网 (in Chinese). 2011-10-07.
  6. ^ Ding, Picus Sizhi (2007). "Challenges in Language Modernization in China: The Case of Prinmi" (PDF). In David, Maya; Nicholas Ostler; Caesar Dealwis (eds.). Working Together for Endangered Languages: Research Challenges and Social Impacts (Proceedings of FEL XI). Bath, England: Foundation for Endangered Languages. pp. 120–126. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-26.