Sümi, also Sema, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Nagaland, India. It is spoken by the Sümi Naga people. It differs from every other Naga languages due to the presence of guttural sounds.[2][3]
| Sümi | |
|---|---|
| Sümi (Naga) | |
| Pronunciation | [sɨ˧ mi˩] |
| Native to | India |
| Region | Nagaland |
| Ethnicity | Sümi Naga |
Native speakers | 350,000 (2011 census)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nsm |
| Glottolog | sumi1235 |
| ELP | Sumi Naga |
Geographical distribution
editSümi is spoken in central and southern Nagaland, mainly in Zünheboto District. There are also good number of speakers in parts of Niuland, Dimapur, Chümoukedima and Kiphire District(s), as well as in 7 villages of Tinsukia District, Assam (Ethnologue).
Dialects
editEthnologue lists the following dialects of Sümi.
- Dayang (Western Sümi)
- Lazami
- Jimomi
- Zumomi
Phonology
editThe transcriptions in this section use the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Vowels
edit
The vowels of Sümi are as follows:[4][5]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
Notes:
- The close front and the close central vowels have been variously described as near-close [i̞, ɨ̞] and close [i, ɨ]. The close back vowel has only been described as close [u].[6][7]
- The mid vowels /e, o/ can be realized as either close-mid [e, o] or open-mid [ɛ, ɔ].[4][9]
- Teo (2012) describes the close-mid allophone of /o/ as slightly advanced [o̟].[6]
- /a/ has been variously described as near-open [ɐ][6] and open [ä].[8]
Consonants
editThe consonants of Sümi are as follows:[5][10]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | plain | m | n | ŋ | |||
| aspirated | mʱ | nʱ | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | q | ||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | qʰ | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | tʃ ~ ts | |||||
| aspirated | tʃʰ ~ tsʰ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | ʃ ~ s | x | h | ||
| voiced | v ~ w | ʒ ~ z | ɣ | ||||
| Approximant | ɹ | j | |||||
| Lateral | plain | l | |||||
| aspirated | lʱ | ||||||
References
edit- ^ "Statement 1: Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011". www.censusindia.gov.in. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ^ Sreedhar (1976).
- ^ Sreedhar (1980).
- ^ a b c Teo (2012), p. 369.
- ^ a b Teo (2014), p. 20.
- ^ a b c Teo (2012), p. 368.
- ^ Teo (2014), pp. 27–28.
- ^ a b c Teo (2014), p. 28.
- ^ Teo (2014), p. 27.
- ^ Teo (2012), p. 366.
Bibliography
edit- Sreedhar, Mangadan Veetil (1976), Sema phonetic reader, Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages
- Sreedhar, Mangadan Veetil (1980), A Sema Grammar, Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages
- Teo, Amos B. (2012), "Sumi (Sema)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 42 (3): 365–373, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000254
- Teo, Amos B. (2014), A phonological and phonetic description of Sumi, a Tibeto-Burman language of Nagaland, Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics, ISBN 978-1-922185-10-5
External links
edit- Sümi DoReCo corpus compiled by Amos Teo. Audio recordings of narrative texts with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level, translations, and time-aligned morphological annotations.
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