Sui language

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Sui
Suī
Spoken in  China
 Vietnam
Region Guizhou (93%), Guangxi, Yunnan
Total speakers 346,000 (1990)
Language family Kradai
Language codes
ISO 639-1 None
ISO 639-2 –
ISO 639-3 swi
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Sui language (Chinese: 水語 shuiyu) belongs to the Kradai family, chiefly spoken by the Sui people in Guizhou province, China. According to Ethnologue, as of 1999, the total number of speakers is around 400,000.

The language is known for its complicated consonant system. The Sandong (三洞) dialect has as many as 70 consonants.[citation needed] The language has it own script, known as "Shuishu" (水書) in Chinese, for ritual purpose.

Contents

[edit] Phonology

Sui has seven vowels, /i e ə a aː o u/. Diphthongs are /ai̯ aːi̯ oi̯ ui̯ au̯ aːu̯ eu̯ iu̯/. There are six or seven tones, reduced to two in checked syllables. The tones of the Sandu Sui Autonomous County, Guizhou, listed by conventional tone numbers, are:

Sui tones
# Sandu Sui county
description IPA
1 low rising ˩˧
2 low falling ˧˩
3 mid ˧
4 high falling ˥˧
5 high rising ˧˥
6 6a: high (6b: mid rising) 6a: ˥ (6b: ˨˦)
7 checked high (checked high rising) ˥C (long: ˧˥C)
8 checked falling ˦˨C

The alternate checked tone 7 is found on the long vowel /aːC/. 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.

Sui consonants
Labial Denti-
alveolar		 Apical
alveolar		 Laminal
postalveolar		 Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
plain labialized
Plosives aspirated pʰ t̪ʰ kʰ kʷʰ qʰ
tenuis p t̪ k kʷ q ʔ
prenasalized voiced mb nd̪ (ɡ) (?) (ɢ)
preglottalized voiced ʔb ʔd (ʔɡ)
Affricates aspirated t̪sʰ tʃʰ
tenuis t̪s tʃ
Fricatives voiceless f ~ ɸ s ʃ (x) h
voiced z
Nasals voiceless m̥ n̪̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊ ŋ̊ʷ
voiced m n̪ ɲ ŋ ŋʷ
glottalized ʔm ʔn ʔɲ ʔŋ
Approximants voiced ʋ ~ w l j ɣ ʁ
glottalized ʔj ʔɣ ʔw

Consonants in parentheses were reported by the 1956 dialectology study Shuiyu diaocha baogao, but not in Li Fang Kuei's 1942 research in Libo County. (Labio-velars were not listed separately, so it's not clear if they also existed.)

The laminal postalveolar affricates are not palatalized like the Mandarin postalveolars /tɕ/, /tɕʰ/. /w/ is classed as a labial because it can be followed by a glide /j/. 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 or creaky voiced. 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 is CjVCT, where /j/ may follow one of the labial or coronal consonants, other than /m̥ ʔm/ (and /ʔw/) and the affricates. (/tsj, tsʰj, tsw, tsʰw/ occur in recent Chinese loans.) All syllables start with a consonant, unless initial [ʔ] is analyzed as phonetic detail of an initial vowel. The final C is one of /p t k m n ŋ/. Final plosives are both unphonated (have glottal closure) and are unreleased; the coronal is apical alveolar: [ʔ͡p̚, ʔ͡t̚, ʔ͡k̚]. They reduce the tonic possibilities to two, "tones" 7 or 8.

[edit] Script

Sui script

The Sui script (Sui: Lel Sai3,[1] Simplified Chinese: 水书, Traditional Chinese: 水書, Pinyin: Shuǐshū) is a pictographic writing system for the Sui language.[2][dubious – discuss][Pictographic, or pictogram-based logographic?] Like the Yi script, Sui has many loan Chinese characters, while many characters resemble prototypical Chinese characters. In 2006, it was placed on the Chinese intangible cultural heritage list.[3]

The Sui script is in danger of extinction and the Chinese government is making effort to preserve the Sui characters.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ “水书”及其造字方法研究,黔南民族师范学院学报, 2005年25卷1期
  2. ^ Multilingualism in China. Minglang Zhou, Minglang Zhou, Joshua A. Fishman, page 132-135
  3. ^ "Shui included in China's intangible cultural heritage list". National Working Group for IPR Protection, Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China. August 8, 2006. http://www.ipr.gov.cn/ipr/en/info/Article.jsp?a_no=10296&col_no=99&dir=200608. Retrieved 2008-08-28. 
  4. ^ "Books in rare ancient characters of Shui group retrieved". People's Daily. April 01, 2004. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200404/01/eng20040401_139182.shtml. Retrieved 2008-09-01. 
  • (Chinese) 張均如，《水語簡誌》，北京：民族出版社，1980。
  • Stanford, James N. (2007). Sui adjective reduplication as poetic morpho-phonology. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 16(2):87-111.
  • Stanford, James N. (2007). Dialect contact and identity: A case study of exogamous Sui clans. PhD dissertation, Michigan State University.
  • Stanford, James N. (2008). A sociotonetic analysis of Sui dialect contact. Language Variation and Change 20(3):409-50.
  • Stanford, James N. (2008). Child dialect acquisition: New perspectives on parent/peer influence. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(5):567-96.

[edit] External links

Language
Script
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