Bunu | |
---|---|
Pu Nu | |
Buod Nuox | |
Native to | China |
Region | Guangxi and bordering regions |
Ethnicity | Yao |
Native speakers | 359,474 (2001) [1] |
Dialects |
|
Latin | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Glottolog | buna1273 |
Bunu is a Hmongic language of southern China. Bunu speakers are classified ethnically as Yao by the People's Republic of China.
Meng (2001) lists the following language varieties for Bunu. [1]
The Shaoyang Prefecture Gazetteer (1997:533) reports that the Miao of Xinning County, Hunan, speak a Bunu-branch language.
The Yunnan Province Gazetteer (1989) reports that a Bunu dialect known as pu55ʐa11 (布咋) is spoken by about 7,000 people in Guichao (归朝乡) and Dongbo (洞波瑶族乡) (including in Dadongzhai 大洞寨, Saxiangdong Village 三湘洞村 [3] ) townships of Funing County, Yunnan.
The following may be alternative names for speakers of Bunu languages. [4]
This section presents the phonology of the Dongnu variety of Qibainong (七百弄) Township, Dahua Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi as representative. [10]
Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Retroflex | (Alveolo-) palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | pal. | plain | sib. | lat. | plain | lab. | pal. | |||||
Nasal | voiceless | m̥ | m̥ʲ | n̥ | ɲ̟̊ | ŋ̊ | ŋ̊ʷ | |||||
voiced | m | mʲ | n | ɲ̟ | ŋ | ŋʷ | ||||||
Stop | voiceless | p | pʲ | t | ʈ | k | kʷ | kʲ | ||||
aspirated | pʰ | pʲʰ | tʰ | ʈʰ | kʰ | kʷʰ | kʲʰ | |||||
prenasal | ᵐp | ᵐpʲ | ⁿt | ᶯʈ | ᵑk | ᵑkʷ | ᵑkʲ | |||||
prenasal asp. | ᵐpʰ | ᵐpʲʰ | ⁿtʰ | ᶯʈʰ | ᵑkʰ | ᵑkʷʰ | ||||||
Affricate | voiceless | tɬ | tɕ | |||||||||
aspirated | tɬʰ | tɕʰ | ||||||||||
prenasal | ⁿtθ | ⁿts | ⁿtɬ | ᶮtɕ | ||||||||
prenasal asp. | ⁿtθʰ | ⁿtsʰ | ⁿtɬʰ | ᶮtɕʰ | ||||||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | θ | s | ɬ | ʂ | ɕ | h | ||||
aspirated | θʰ | sʰ | ||||||||||
voiced | v | ʐ | ʑ | ɣ | ɦ | |||||||
Approximant | l |
Sounds /tɬ, tɬʰ, ⁿtɬ, ⁿtɬʰ/ may be pronounced as [pl, plʰ, ᵐpl, ᵐplʰ] in some areas. [11]
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i | ɯ | u | |
Close-mid | e | ə | o | |
Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ||
Open | a |
Vowel | Example word |
---|---|
i | pi43 'fruit' |
ɯ | tɯ13 'speak' |
u | ɬu41 'iron' |
e | he33 'open (a door)' |
ə | shə43 'on top' |
o | no13 'person' |
ɛ | hɛ33 'fast' |
ɔ | tɔ41 'kill' |
a | ka33 'chicken' |
Qibainong Dongnu has seven diphthongs: /ei/, /ai/, /au/, /ou/, /ɔi/, /iu/, and /eu/. [12] Of these, /ɔi/, /iu/, and /eu/ only appear in recent loans from Chinese and Zhuang. [13] Examples of words with diphthongs appear in the table below; yellow background is for those diphthongs that appear only in recent borrowings.
Diphthong | Example word |
---|---|
/ei/ | tei35 'team' |
/ai/ | mpai41 'pig' |
/au/ | sau41 'satiated' |
/ou/ | |
/ɔi/ | sɔi221 'crime' |
/iu/ | ʐiu221 'cotton tree' |
/eu/ |
Several vowels in Qibainong Dongnu permit a nasal consonant following, either /n/ or /ŋ/; most vowels permit one or the other, but not both. [12] Qibainong also permits the rime /iaŋ/, despite not having a diphthong /ia/; /iaŋ/ is used only in recent loans. [14] The possible combinations of vowel with final nasal, organized by the position of the vowel, appear in the table below.
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i ŋ | u ŋ | ||
Close-mid | e n | ə n , ə ŋ | ||
Open-mid | ɔ n , ɔ ŋ | |||
Open | a n , a ŋ |
Rime | Example |
---|---|
i ŋ | iŋ33 'bitter' |
u ŋ | muŋ33 'sick' |
e n | pen13 'flower' |
ə n | |
ə ŋ | nəŋ33 'snake' |
ɔ n | |
ɔ ŋ | nɔŋ13 'eat' |
a n | man43 'village' |
a ŋ | aŋ33 'water' |
i a ŋ |
Qibainong Dongnu has eight tones, with four having an alternate realization, giving a total of 12 tone values. [15]
Tone number | Tone class | Tone value | Example word |
---|---|---|---|
1 | A1 | 33 | tɔ33 'deep' |
1′ | A1′ | 55 | ven55 'winnowing basket' |
2 | A2 | 13 | tɔ13 'come' |
2′ | A2′ | 35 | ven35 'garden' |
3 | B1 | 43 | tɔ43 'hit' |
3′ | B1′ | 54 | pe54 'bowl' |
4 | B2 | 232 | tɔ232 'read' |
4′ | B2′ | 454 | pe454 'handle' |
5 | C1 | 41 | tɔ41 'kill' |
6 | C2 | 221 | tɔ221 'die' |
7 | D1 | 32 | tɔ32 'affix (a seal)' |
8 | D2 | 21 | tɔ21 'bite' |
According to Meng (2001), Bunu has 12 parts of speech, namely, nouns, pronouns, numerals, classifiers, adjectives, verbs, intensifiers (状词), adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliaries, and interjections. [16]
Personal pronouns in Bunu exhibit a three-way distinction in both person and number, yielding nine contrasting terms. [17]
Bunu also has pronouns for 'oneself' and 'everyone', as well as a set of interrogative pronouns. [18]
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