Shixing (), also rendered Shuhi, is a Qiangic language of Sichuan, China. Two-thirds of its speakers are monolingual.
Shixing is also known by its Tibetan name Xumi (); 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.
+ Consonant phonemes Labial Alveolar Postalveolar Velar Uvular GlottalplainsibilantPalato-alveolarRetroflexAlveolo-palatal Nasalvoiceless 2 2 voiced Plosive/ Affricate aspirated 2 2 plain 2 2 voiced 2 2 Fricative voiceless 2 1 2 1 voiced 2 1 2 1 Lateral voiceless voiced Approximant
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 [孙宏开]. 2014. A study of Shixing [Shixingyu yanjiu 史兴语研究]. Beijing: Minzu University Press.