Shixing, also rendered Shuhi, is a Qiangic language of

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 ...

, China. 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. 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. # Only in Upper Xumi # 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 ��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 Sichuan