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 (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.[2]
Xumi features a very unusual phonemic contrast between voiceless /
ʎ̥/ and voiced /
ʎ/ alveolo-palatal lateral approximants and voiceless and voiced glottal fricatives.[4][5]
The close and close-mid series are the same in both varieties: /
i,ʉ,u,e,o/. The difference lies in the open-mid and open series; in Upper Xumi, these are /
ɛ,ɐ,ɔ,a/, whereas in Lower Xumi, they are /
ɛ,ɐ,ɑ/.[8][9]
At least in Lower Xumi /ʉ/, is phonetically close-mid [
ɵ].[10]
/ɐ/ is closer in Upper Xumi [
ɜ]; in addition, the open central vowel /a/ is phonetically near-open [
ɐ]. For this reason, they may be transcribed with ⟨ɜ⟩ and ⟨ɐ⟩, respectively.[11]
The Lower Xumi /o/ and /ɑ/ generally correspond to Upper Xumi /u/ and /ɔ/, respectively. /ɑ/ is near-open near-back [
ɑ̽] and thus similar to the Upper Xumi /a/, but more back.[10][11]
Nasal
Upper Xumi has the following nasal vowels: /
ĩ,ũ,ɛ̃,ɔ̃,ɐ̃/, as well as the marginal /
ɘ̃/, which occurs only in the word LPmɘ̃da][clarification needed] 'on the roof / upstairs'.[8]
Lower Xumi has the following nasal vowels: /
ĩ,õ,ɛ̃,ɐ̃,ɑ̃/, as well as the marginal /
ə̃/, which occurs only in the word LPmə̃dɐᴿʁo][clarification needed] 'on the roof / upstairs'.[9]/ẽ,õ,ɐ̃,ɑ̃/ generally correspond to Upper Xumi /ĩ,ũ,ɛ̃,ɔ̃/, respectively.[11]
Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013), "Xumi, Part 1: Lower Xumi, the Variety of the Lower and Middle Reaches of the Shuiluo River", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 363–379,
doi:10.1017/S0025100313000157
Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya; Kocjančič Antolík, Tanja (2013), "Xumi, Part 2: Upper Xumi, the Variety of the Upper Reaches of the Shuiluo River", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 381–396,
doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169
Sun Hongkai [孙宏开]. 2014. A study of Shixing [Shixingyu yanjiu 史兴语研究]. Beijing: Minzu University Press.