U language
Austroasiatic language spoken in Yunnan, China
The U language (autonym: [ʔu˥] 'human being'), or P'uman (Chinese: 濮满), is spoken by 40,000 people in the Yunnan Province of China and possibly Myanmar. It is classified as an Austroasiatic language in the Palaungic branch. In China, U speakers are classified as ethnic Bulang.
U speakers have no ethnonym and refer to themselves as ʔú ʔè ('our people').
01Locations
U is spoken in Shuangjiang County of Yunnan and other nearby counties.
- Wang & Chen (1981) covers the dialect of Pengpan 碰拚, Dafengshan Township 大凤山乡, Shuangjiang County.
- Zhou & Yan (1983) covers the dialect of Pangpin 胖品, Yongge Township 永革乡, Shuangjiang County.
- Yan & Zhou (2012) cover U of Gantang 甘塘, Yongde County as well as U of Pangpin 胖品.
- Svantesson (1991:67) documents the U dialect of Pã Xɛp (Bangxie, 邦协), Shahe Township 沙河乡, Shuangjiang County.
There are two main dialects of U in Shuangjiang County: one spoken in Gongnong (公弄, now part of Mengku Town, 勐库镇) and one spoken in Bangbing (邦丙) and Dawen Mangga (大文乡忙嘎); the Dawen dialect is reportedly mutually intelligible with that of Shidian County (Shuangjiang County Ethnic Gazetteer 1995:160).
Avala (autonym: a21 va21 la21) is spoken in Bangliu (邦六), Manghuai Township (芒怀乡), Yun County (云县), Yunnan, China.
02Phonology
U has four tones, high, low, rising, falling, which developed from vowel length and the nature of final consonants.
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Laryngeal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | plain | p | t | c | k | q | ʔ |
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | cʰ | kʰ | qʰ | ||
| Affricate | plain | ts | |||||
| aspirated | tsʰ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | χ | h | ||
| voiced | v | ʕ | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||
- /ʕ/ only occurs in coda position. It may be heard as, first, similar to [ʕ] in Cairo Arabic. Eg. [suʕ˥] "hair". In the second case, it is pronounced as an [ɑ]-like offglide accompanied by a [h]-like sound. Eg. [suɑ̯h˥] "ibid".
03Typology
The Angkuic languages sit on the typological extreme end of the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area. As a result, U is morphologically isolating, with head-first syntactic structure and subject-verb-object word order in clausal structure.
ʔò
I
ŋê
kill
líʕ
pig
ʔò ŋê líʕ
I kill pig
'I killed a pig.'
tsɨ̀
name
ʔò
I
mə̀
COP
ʔaj
Ay
tìt
Tit
tsɨ̀ ʔò mə̀ ʔaj tìt
name I COP Ay Tit
'My name is Ay Tit.'
04Lexicon
Pronouns
| singular | dual | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ʔò | ʔǎj | ʔè |
| 2nd person | mî | pʰâj | pʰé |
| 3rd person | ʔə̀t | kǎj | ké |
Numerals
Comparison of U (Pɑ᷉ χɛ̀p (邦协) and Gantang (甘塘) dialects) numerals with Proto-Palaungic reconstructions by Sidwell (2015).
| Gloss | Pɑ᷉ χɛ̀p U | Gantang U | proto-Palaungic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mò | mu³³ | *moːh |
| 2 | ʔá | ʔa⁵¹ | *ləʔaːr |
| 3 | wáj | ʔoi⁵¹ | *ləʔɔːj |
| 4 | pʰón | pʰon⁵¹ | *poːn |
| 5 | sàt | sat⁵⁵ | *pəsan |
| 6 | ntʰò | tʰo³¹ | *tɔːl |
| 7 | mpʰùn | pʰun³¹ | *təpuːl |
| 8 | tʰà | tʰa⁵⁵ | *taːʔ |
| 9 | tʰìp | tʰip⁵⁵ | *tiːm |
| 10 | tsʰò | tʂʰo⁵¹ | *kɤːl |
| 100 | m̀.tsʰâ | pʰia³³ | *prjah |
| 1000 | , | tɕʰen³ | *sreːŋ |
Body parts
| Gloss | U | proto-Palaungic |
|---|---|---|
| arm, hand | tʰí | *tiːʔ |
| belly | tû | *kəɗɤl |
| bone | saʔáɑ̃ | *cəʔaːŋ |
| breast | pú | *ɓuːʔ |
| ear | sǔʕ | *ʰjoːk |
| eye | ŋâj | *ˀŋaːj |
| foot | kíɑ̃ | *ɟɤːŋ |
| hair | súʕ | *suk |
| liver | tsʰɔm | *kətɔːm |
| nose | tì | *kəɗɤːʔ |
| tongue | ntʰǎʕ | *-taːk |
Fauna
| Gloss | U | proto-Palaungic |
|---|---|---|
| buffalo | qhǎʕ | *traːk |
| bear | χí | *kreːs |
| bird | pacʰìp | *ciːm |
| cat | mɛ̂m | *miɛw |
| crab | tʰám | *kətaːm |
| dog | sò | *cɔːʔ |
| fowl | jɛ́ | *ʔiɛr |
| goat | pè | *bɛʔ |
| horse | ŋqʰàʕ | *mraŋ |
| louse | ncʰí | *ciːʔ |
| pig | líʕ | *-leːk |
| sambar deer | jǎʕ | *tjaːk |
| termite | ŋqʰùt | *ŋruːɲ |
| tiger | ʔavâj | *rəʋaːj |
Flora & nature
| Gloss | U | proto-Palaungic |
|---|---|---|
| black | làʕ | *laŋ |
| bamboo | χɨ̀ʕ | *ʰrɤŋ |
| conifer | sì kí | *-geʔ |
| earth | tʰè | *kəteːʔ |
| flower | χâɑ̃ | *raːŋ |
| fruit | ŋχí | *pleeʔ |
| green | saŋɛ̂n | *cəŋaːl |
| leaf | là sì | *hlaʔ |
| millet | kʰoi⁵⁵ | *skɔɔj |
| rain | salè | *cleːʔ |
| red | saŋ³³ | *rooŋ |
| rice grain | ŋkʰù | *rəŋkoːʔ |
| salt | qʰìʕ | pleːŋ |
| sky | qú | bluːʔ |
| yellow | lɨ́ɑ̃ | *rmiit |
Tools and concepts
| Gloss | U | proto-Palaungic |
|---|---|---|
| axe | mmè | *ˀmɤːj |
| bow, crossbow | ʔǎʕ | *ʔaːk |
| bran, chaff, husk | ŋkʰám | *səkaːm |
| bridge (<ladder, stair) | tʰúʕ | *tɔ(ː)ŋ |
| charcoal | sé | *kətsas |
| clothes | sapè | *-ɓeʔ |
| comb | sanà | *cənaːs |
| drum | satʰùʕ | *cətuŋ |
| grave | mút | *-muːc |
| house | káɑ̃ | *gaaŋ |
| human being, person | ʔú | *ʔuːʔ |
| iron | ʔaŋàʕ | *rəŋɔ/aŋ |
| left side | fè | *-ʋeʔ |
| mortar | pʰaw | *pal |
| pestle | ŋqhì | *-reʔ |
| wall | ntʰìʕ | *ti(ː)ŋ |
| war | nàn | *naːɲ |
| weave | tʰán | *taːɲ |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “U language”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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