Shixing, also rendered Shuhi, is a poorly-attested Qiangic language of

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of t ...

and the

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions ...

. 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 Muli Tibetan Autonomous County (; ''smi-li rang-skyong-rdzong''; Yi: ''mup li op zzup zyt jie jux dde xiep'') is in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in the southwest of Sichuan province, China, bordering Yunnan province to the southwest. ...

. 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. In the table above, ''italic'' phonemes only appear in the Upper Xumi dialect while bold phonemes only appear in the Lower Xumi dialect. All others appear in both Upper and 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 ��宏开 2014. ''A study of Shixing'' hixingyu yanjiu 史兴语研究 Beijing: Minzu University Press. {{Languages of China Loloish languages Qiangic languages Languages of China