Pumi language

Pumi
Primi
Spoken in	People's Republic of China
Region	Sichuan, Yunnan
Ethnicity	Pumi
Native speakers	54,000  (1999)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) Qiangic Northern Pumi
Writing system	none
Language codes
ISO 639-3	either: pmi – Northern Pumi pmj – Southern Pumi

The Pumi language (also known as Prinmi) is a Tibeto-Burman language used by the Pumi people, an ethnic group from Yunnan, China.^[1][2] Most native speakers live in Lanping, Ninglang, Lijiang, Weixi and Muli. There are two branches of Pumi (southern and northern), and they are not mutually intelligible.

In some areas Pumi used the Tibetan script, mainly for religious purposes, although gradually it fell into disuse. A pinyin-based Roman script has been proposed, but is not commonly used.

Sounds

Grammar

Example

Pumi manuscript in Tibetan script

Pumi	English
Tèr gwéjè dzwán thèr phxèungphxàr sì. Timitae llìnggwe zreungzrun stìng.	He have broken several hammers. This man is crying and shouting all the time.

References

1. ^ Ding, Picus S. 2003. Prinmi: a sketch of Niuwozi. In Graham Thurgood and Randy LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages, pp. 588-601. London: Routledge Press.
2. ^ Lu, S. 2001. Dialectal Studies of the Pumi Language. Beijing: Nationalities Press.