The Sui language () is a Kam–Sui language spoken by the Sui people of

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to the ...

province in China. According to Ethnologue, it was spoken by around 300,000 people in 2007. Sui is also unique for its rich inventory of consonants, with the Sandong (三洞) dialect having as many as 70 consonants. The language also has its own script, known as "Shuishu" (水書) in Chinese, which is used for ritual purposes. Some regionally atypical features of the Sui language include voiceless nasals (''hm, hn''),

palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...

stops, postvelar stops, prenasalized stops (''mb, nd''), and pre-glottalized stops and nasals (i.e. ').

Dialects

China

The Sui language is divided into three dialects with minor differences (Wei & Edmondson 2008).Wei, James, and Jerold A. Edmondson (2008). "Sui." In Diller, Anthony, Jerold A. Edmondson, and Yongxian Luo ed. ''The Tai–Kadai Languages''. Routledge Language Family Series. Psychology Press, 2008. *Sandong 三洞, spoken by 90% of Sui speakers. **

Sandu Shui Autonomous County Sandu Shui Autonomous County (; Bouyei: ) is an autonomous county in the southeast of Guizhou province, China. It is under the administration of the Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, and the only Shui Autonomous County in China; 63% o ...

: Sāndòng 三洞, Shǔilóng 水龙, Zhōnghé 中和, Miáocǎo 苗草, Bàjiē 坝街, Jiǎdǎo 甲倒, Shíqí 石奇, Jiāróng 佳荣, Héngfēng 恒丰, Zhōuqín 周覃, Jiǔqiān 九仟, Tángzhōu 塘州, Yángméng 阳蒙 **

Libo County Libo County () is a county of southern Guizhou province, China, bordering Guangxi to the south. It is under the administration of the Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. Geography The county is located in the remote southeastern corner ...

: Yáoqìng 瑶庆 **

Dushan County Dushan County () is a county of 346,000 people (2007) in Guizhou province, China. It is under the administration of Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, in the south of the province, bordering Guangxi to the south. The county seat is the t ...

: Wēnquán 温泉 (Tiānxīng 天星) **

Rongjiang County Rongjiang County () is a county in southeastern Guizhou province, China. It is under the administration of the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture. Administration Rongjiang County is divided into 9 towns and 4 townships and 6 Ethnic ...

Congjiang County Congjiang County () is a county in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou, China. It is divided by the Duliu River (), the upper reaches of the Liu River, and borders Guangxi to the south. It is an important transit point a ...

*Yang'an 阳安 **

: Yáng'ān 阳安, Yángluò 羊洛, Línqiáo 林桥 **

: Dǒngmiǎo 董渺 *Pandong 潘洞 **

Duyun Duyun () is the capital of Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou province in the People's Republic of China. The area surrounding the city was affected by the Miao rebellion of 1735–36. The city participated in the uprising ...

City: Pāndòng 潘洞 **

: Wēngtái 翁台 In Guangxi, Sui is spoken by about 7,000 people in

Hechi Hechi () is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China, bordering Guizhou to the north. In June 2002 it gained city status. Geography and climate Hechi is located in northwestern ...

and 1,900 in

Nandan County Nandan (, za, Nanzdanh) is a county of Hechi City, in the northwest of Guangxi, China. It has an area of and a population of (2010). Administrative divisions There are 7 towns, 3 townships and 1 ethnic township in the county. Towns: * Chenggu ...

(e.g., in Longmazhuang 龙马庄 of Liuzhai Township 六寨镇, with the autonym ').Guangxi Minority Languages Orthography Committee. 2008. ''Vocabularies of Guangxi ethnic languages ��西民族语言方音词汇'. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House ��族出版社 However
Castro (2011)
proposes that the Sandong dialect is divided further into two more subdialects, Central (spoken in Sandu County) and Southern (spoken in

). Southern Sui speakers are also culturally distinguished by their celebration of the ''Maox'' festival instead of the ''Dwac'' festival, which is celebrated by all other Sui groups. Below are some villages representative of Central and Southern Sui. Castro & Pan (2014) add two more dialects to the Sandong cluster, namely Eastern and Western. Castro & Pan (2014) consider Sandong to consist of four subdialects, namely Eastern, Western, Central, and Southern, giving the following datapoints. *Sandong 三洞 **''Eastern'' ***Zenlei, Dujiang town, Sandu County (三都县都江镇怎累村上村) ***Dangmin, Renli township,

(榕江县仁里水族乡党民村) ***Guyi, Sanjiang township,

(榕江县三江水族乡故衣村上寨) **''Western'' ***Meiyu, Tangzhou township, Sandu County (三都县塘州乡枚育村) ***Xinyang, Tingpai town, Sandu County (三都县廷牌镇新仰村) ***Antang, Tangzhou township, Sandu County (三都县塘州乡安塘村) **''Central'' ***Shuigen, Sandong township, Sandu County (三都县三洞乡水根村) ***Hezhai, Zhonghe town, Sandu County (三都县中和镇中和村和寨) **''Southern'' ***Guchang, Jiuqian town, Sandu County (三都县九阡镇姑偿村) ***Laliang, Jiarong town,

(荔波县佳荣镇拉亮村) ***Shuiyao village, Shuiyao township,

(荔波县水尧水族乡水尧村) ***Shuiwei village, Shuiwei township,

(榕江县水尾水族乡水尾村) *Yang'an 阳安 **Banliang, Tangzhou township, Sandu County (三都县塘州乡板良村) **Tangnian, Tanglian village, Benzhai township,

(独山县本寨水族乡塘联村塘年寨) *Pandong 潘洞 **Gaorong, Jiaoli township, Sandu County (三都县交梨乡高戎村) **Pandong, Yanghe township,

Duyun City Duyun () is the capital of Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou province in the People's Republic of China. The area surrounding the city was affected by the Miao rebellion of 1735–36. The city participated in the uprising ...

(都匀市阳和水族乡潘洞村) Using computational phylogenetics, Castro & Pan (2014) classify the Sui dialects as follows. Pandong was the first branch to split off from Proto-Sui, followed by Yang'an and then Sandong. Within Sandong, the Southern dialect is the most divergent. *Sui **''Pandong 潘洞'' dialect **(branch) ***''Yang'an 阳安'' dialect ***''Sandong 三洞'' dialect ****Southern ****(core) *****Western, Central *****Eastern

Vietnam

Sui is also spoken in Hồng Quang Village, Chiêm Hoá District,

Tuyên Quang Tuyên Quang () is a city in Vietnam, and is the capital of Tuyên Quang Province. History The French post at Tuyên Quang was defended for four months against 12,000 troops of the Yunnan Army and the Black Flag Army by two companies of the Fre ...

Province (62 km northwest of Chiêm Hoa City). In Vietnam, the Sui are known as Thủy, but are officially classified with the Pà Thẻn people. The Sui numbered only 55 people as of the 1982 Vietnamese census, and numbered about 100 people as of 2001. Since Pa-Hng (Pà Thẻn) and Tày are also spoken in Hồng Quang Village, many Sui are also fluent in those two languages. The elderly Sui people of Hồng Quang claim that 8 Sui families had migrated to Vietnam from China 100 to 200 years ago, 2 of which have now already assimilated into other ethnic groups. Edmondson & Gregerson (2001) have found that the Sui dialect of Hồng Quang is most similar to the Sandong 三洞 dialect of Sui as spoken in Shǔilóng 水龙,

, China.

Phonology

Sui has seven vowels, . Diphthongs are . There are six or seven tones, reduced to two in

checked syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...

s. The tones of the Sandu Sui Autonomous County,

, listed by conventional

tone number Tone numbers are numerical digits used like letters to mark the tones of a language. The number is usually placed after a romanized syllable. Tone numbers are defined for a particular language, so they have little meaning between languages. Oth ...

s, are: The alternate checked tone 7 is found on the long vowel . Tone 8 is somewhat variable on a long vowel, appearing in different locations either higher or lower than the short allophone, but always falling, as in tones 2 and 4. In some villages, tone 6 is two phonemes, in native words and in Chinese loanwords. In the village of Ngam, Libo county, tone 1 is low , the others as above. Consonants in parentheses were reported by the 1956 dialectology study ''Shuiyu diaocha baogao,'' but not in Li Fang Kuei's 1942 research in

. (Labio-velars were not listed separately, so it's not clear if they also existed.) only occurs phonemically in the Southern Sui dialects. is classed as a labial because it can be followed by a glide . can also be pronounced as a voiced fricative . The prenasalized stops have very short nasalization. The voiceless nasals are actually voiced at the end, as most voiceless nasals are around the world. The preglottalized stops are truly preglottalized, not

ejective In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some ...

creaky voice In linguistics, creaky voice (sometimes called laryngealisation, pulse phonation, vocal fry, or glottal fry) refers to a low, scratchy sound that occupies the vocal range below the common vocal register. It is a special kind of phonation in which ...

d. The gammas have been described as fricatives, but here have been placed in the approximant row because of the preglottalized phone and the frequent ambiguity between dorsal fricatives and approximants. In several locations in the Sandu Sui Autonomous County, the preglottalized consonants and the voiceless sonorants do not exist, having merged with the other consonants.

Syllable structure A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...

is Cj VC^T, where /j/ may follow one of the labial or coronal consonants, other than (and ) and the affricates. ( occur in recent Chinese loans.) All syllables start with a consonant, unless initial is analyzed as phonetic detail of an initial vowel. The final C is one of . Final plosives are both unphonated (have glottal closure) and are unreleased; the coronal is apical alveolar: . They reduce the tonic possibilities to two, "tones" 7 or 8.

Script

The Sui script (Sui: ''le1 sui3,''

Simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one, that is simpler (usually shorter), for example * Simplification of algebraic expressions, ...

: 水书,

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays ...

: 水書,

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

: ''Shuǐshū)'' is a

logographic In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...

writing system with some

pictographic A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and ...

characters that can be used to write the Sui language (Wei 2003:xxix). However, traditionally only shamans were familiar with the writing system, and it is not utilized for everyday use by ordinary Sui people. This system is used for

geomancy Geomancy ( Greek: γεωμαντεία, "earth divination") is a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand. The most prevalent form of divinatory geomancy in ...

and divination purposes. There are at least 500 different Sui characters, known as ''le1 sui3'' in the Sui language (Wei 2003:xxix). According to tradition, these characters were created by ''ljok8 to2 qong5'' (Chinese Lù Duógōng 陸鐸公). Some of these characters are pictorial representations, such as of a bird or a fish, and a few are schematic representations of a characteristic quality, such a snail represented by a drawing of an inward curving spiral. Many of these characters appear to be borrowings from

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanj ...

s and are written backwards, apparently for increased supernatural power. Today, the Sui people use written Chinese for their daily activities.

References

* 張均如，《水語簡誌》，北京：民族出版社，1980。 * Stanford, James, Wei Shuqi & Lu Li. 2018. Ecologies of Sui sociolinguistics: A language permeated with rural social structures. In Christine Mallinson and Elizabeth Seale (eds), Rural voices: Language, identity, and social change across place. Lexington Press. 91-103. * Castro, Andy and Pan Xingwen. 2014. ''Sui Dialect Research'' ��语调查研究 Guiyang: Guizhou People's Press. * Stanford, James. 2016. Sociotonetics using connected speech: A study of Sui tone variation in free-speech style. Asia-Pacific Language Variation 2(1):48-81. * Stanford, James. 2009. "Eating the food of our place": Sociolinguistic loyalties in multidialectal Sui villages. Language in Society 38(3):287-309. * Stanford, James. 2008. A sociotonetic analysis of Sui dialect contact. Language Variation and Change 20(3):409-50. * Stanford, James. 2008. Child dialect acquisition: New perspectives on parent/peer influence. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(5):567-96. * Stanford, James. 2007. Sui Adjective Reduplication as Poetic Morpho-phonology. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 16(2):87-111. * Wei Xuecun and Jerold A. Edmondson. 2003. Sui (Shui)-Chinese-Thai-English Dictionary. Salaya, Thailand: Mahidol University.

External links

ABVD: Sui word list
*Wei Xuecun, Jerold A. Edmondson, Somsonge Burusphat (eds). 2003. ''Sui (Shui)-Chinese-Thai-English Dictionary''. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University, 395 pp. . *Jerold Edmondson, John Esling, Jimmy Harris, and James Wei
"A phonetic study of the Sui consonants and tones"
''Mon–Khmer Studies'' 34:47–66 * Fang-Kuei Li
"The Distribution of Initials and Tones in the Sui Language"
''Language'', Vol. 24, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1948), pp. 160–167, available through JSTOR.
Sui language
at UPSID *Castro, Andy and Pan, Xingwen (2015): Sui dialect research. SIL: Guiyang. (CLDF Dataset on Zenodo ) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sui Language Kam–Sui languages Languages of China