Namuyi (Namuzi; autonym: ') is a

Tibeto-Burman The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...

language belonging to the

Naic Naic (), officially the Municipality of Naic (), is a municipality in the province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 160,987 people. Etymology Naic, Cavite is one of the former barrios of Maragond ...

branch, spoken by approximately 10000 people. It is primarily spoken in southern

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

. Namuyi has also been classified as Qiangic by Sun Hongkai (2001) and

Guillaume Jacques Guillaume Jacques (, born 1979) is a French linguist who specializes in the study of Sino-Tibetan languages: Old Chinese, Tangut, Tibetan, Gyalrongic and Kiranti languages. He also performs research on the Algonquian and Siouan language fam ...

(2011). The eastern and western dialects have low mutual intelligibility. In

, it is spoken in Muli County and

Mianning County Mianning County ( zh, s=冕宁县, , ) is a county of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. History Mianning County has a long history of being a multi-ethnic region. ''The Annals of ...

. The language is

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

and the number of speakers with fluency is decreasing year by year, as most teenagers do not speak the language, instead speaking the

Sichuan dialect Sichuanese,; Sichuanese Pinyin: ''Si4cuan1hua4''; zh, p=Sìchuānhuà, w=Szŭ4-ch'uan1-hua4 also called Sichuanese Mandarin, is a branch of Southwestern Mandarin spoken mainly in Sichuan and Chongqing, which was part of Sichuan Province fro ...

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

Geographical distribution

Namuyi is a language spoken in the following four

villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

of southern

: *' (Namuyi name): Dàshuǐ Village 大水村, Mínshèng Township 民胜鄉, Xīchāng City (80 ethnic Namuyi) *' (Namuyi name): Хiǎngshuǐ Village 響水村, Xiǎngshuǐ Township 響水鄉, Xīchāng City (800 ethnic Namuyi) *' (Namuyi name): Dōngfēng Village 東風村, Zéyuǎn Township 澤遠鄉, Miǎnníng County (560 ethnic Namuyi) *' (Namuyi name): Lǎoyā Village 老鴉村, Shābà Town 沙壩鎮, Miǎnníng County (290 ethnic Namuyi) It is also spoken in Muli and

Yanyuan Yanyuan County ( zh, s=盐源县, p=Yányuán Xiàn; ''yiep yuop xiep'', also ''ce mo xiep'') is a county in Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, bordering Yunnan province to the west. The county is located in Sichuan's rugged Hengdu ...

of the Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture and

Jiulong County Gyaisi County (), also Jiulong County ( zh, s=九龙县); is a County (People's Republic of China), county located in southeastern Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, China. It has a population of 52000, mainly Tibetan peop ...

in Ganzi Autonomous Prefecture.

Dialects

The Namuyi language is subdivided into two different

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s, the dialect of spoken by the people around Muli, and the dialect of those spoken in Mianning. The dialects differ mainly in

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

, where the Mianning and Yanyuan dialect have few

consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...

s as opposed to the Jiulong and Muli dialect.

Phonology

There are 40 single-consonant initials in the Namuyi language. Namuyi also has ten phonemic vowels, /i/ for /e/ for /ɛ/ for � /ɨ/ for �,ɯ/ʉ/ for /ə/ for � /a/ for /u/ for /o/ for and /ɔ/ for � There is no phonological

vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual length (phonetics), duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many ...

, though speakers can lengthen a vowel in the first syllable at times to emphasize a word.

References

External links

* ELAR archive o
Namuyi language documentation materials
{{Languages of China Loloish languages Qiangic languages Languages of Sichuan