The U language (autonym: 'human being'), or P'uman (), is spoken by 40,000 people in the Yunnan Province of China and possibly Myanmar. It is classified as an Austroasiatic language in the Palaungic branch. In China, U speakers are classified as ethnic Bulang.
U speakers have no ethnonym and refer to themselves as ʔú ʔè ('our people').
Locations
U is spoken in Shuangjiang County of Yunnan and other nearby counties.
Wang & Chen (1981) covers the dialect of Pengpan 碰拚, Dafengshan Township 大凤山乡, Shuangjiang County. Zhou & Yan (1983) covers the dialect of Pangpin 胖品, Yongge Township 永革乡, Shuangjiang County. Yan & Zhou (2012) cover U of Gantang 甘塘, Yongde County as well as U of Pangpin 胖品. Svantesson (1991:67) documents the U dialect of Pã Xɛp (Bangxie, 邦协), Shahe Township 沙河乡, Shuangjiang County.
There are two main dialects of U in Shuangjiang County: one spoken in Gongnong (公弄, now part of Mengku Town, 勐库镇) and one spoken in Bangbing (邦丙) and Dawen Mangga (大文乡忙嘎); the Dawen dialect is reportedly mutually intelligible with that of Shidian County (Shuangjiang County Ethnic Gazetteer 1995:160).
Avala (autonym: a21 va21 la21) is spoken in Bangliu (邦六), Manghuai Township (芒怀乡), Yun County (云县), Yunnan, China.
Phonology U has four tones, high, low, rising, falling, which developed from vowel length and the nature of final consonants.
+ Consonants Labial Dental Palatal Velar Uvular LaryngealPlosiveplainaspiratedAffricateplainaspiratedFricativevoicelessvoicedNasalLateralApproximant /ʕ/ only occurs in coda position. It may be heard as, first, similar to [ʕ] in Cairo Arabic. Eg. [suʕ˥] "hair". In the second case, it is pronounced as an [ɑ]-like offglide accompanied by a [h]-like sound. Eg. [suɑ̯h˥] "ibid".
+ Vowels Front Central Back High Mid Low
Typology The Angkuic languages sit on the typological extreme end of the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area. As a result, U is morphologically isolating, with head-first syntactic structure and subject–verb–object word order in clausal structure.
Lexicon Pronouns singular dual plural 1st person ʔò ʔǎj ʔè 2nd person mî pʰâj pʰé 3rd person ʔə̀t kǎj ké Numerals Comparison of U (Pɑ᷉ χɛ̀p (邦协) and Gantang (甘塘) dialects) numerals with Proto-Palaungic reconstructions by Sidwell (2015). Gloss Pɑ᷉ χɛ̀p U Gantang U proto-Palaungic 1 mò mu³³ *moːh 2 ʔá ʔa⁵¹ *ləʔaːr 3 wáj ʔoi⁵¹ *ləʔɔːj 4 pʰón pʰon⁵¹ *poːn 5 sàt sat⁵⁵ *pəsan 6 ntʰò tʰo³¹ *tɔːl 7 mpʰùn pʰun³¹ *təpuːl 8 tʰà tʰa⁵⁵ *taːʔ 9 tʰìp tʰip⁵⁵ *tiːm 10 tsʰò tʂʰo⁵¹ *kɤːl 100 m̀.tsʰâ pʰia³³ *prjah 1000 – tɕʰen³ *sreːŋ
Body parts Gloss U proto-Palaungic arm, hand tʰí *tiːʔ belly tû *kəɗɤl bone saʔáɑ̃ *cəʔaːŋ breast pú *ɓuːʔ ear sǔʕ *ʰjoːk eye ŋâj *ˀŋaːj foot kíɑ̃ *ɟɤːŋ hair súʕ *suk liver tsʰɔm *kətɔːm nose tì *kəɗɤːʔ tongue ntʰǎʕ *-taːk
Fauna Gloss U proto-Palaungic buffalo qhǎʕ *traːk bear χí *kreːs bird pacʰìp *ciːm cat mɛ̂m *miɛw crab tʰám *kətaːm dog sò *cɔːʔ fowl jɛ́ *ʔiɛr goat pè *bɛʔ horse ŋqʰàʕ *mraŋ louse ncʰí *ciːʔ pig líʕ *-leːk sambar deer jǎʕ *tjaːk termite ŋqʰùt *ŋruːɲ tiger ʔavâj *rəʋaːj
Flora & nature Gloss U proto-Palaungic black làʕ *laŋ bamboo χɨ̀ʕ *ʰrɤŋ conifer sì kí *-geʔ earth tʰè *kəteːʔ flower χâɑ̃ *raːŋ fruit ŋχí *pleeʔ green saŋɛ̂n *cəŋaːl leaf là sì *hlaʔ millet kʰoi⁵⁵ *skɔɔj rain salè *cleːʔ red saŋ³³ *rooŋ rice grain ŋkʰù *rəŋkoːʔ salt qʰìʕ pleːŋ sky qú bluːʔ yellow lɨ́ɑ̃ *rmiit
Tools and concepts Gloss U proto-Palaungic axe mmè *ˀmɤːj bow, crossbow ʔǎʕ *ʔaːk bran, chaff, husk ŋkʰám *səkaːm bridge (<ladder, stair) tʰúʕ *tɔ(ː)ŋ charcoal sé *kətsas clothes sapè *-ɓeʔ comb sanà *cənaːs drum satʰùʕ *cətuŋ grave mút *-muːc house káɑ̃ *gaaŋ human being, person ʔú *ʔuːʔ iron ʔaŋàʕ *rəŋɔ/aŋ left side fè *-ʋeʔ mortar pʰaw *pal pestle ŋqhì *-reʔ wall ntʰìʕ *ti(ː)ŋ war nàn *naːɲ weave tʰán *taːɲ
References
Further reading
Gazetteers and other Chinese government sources with lexical data
Nanjian County Gazetteer Commission [南涧县志编纂委员会编] (ed). 1993. Nanjian County Gazetteer [南涧彝族自治县志]. Chengdu: Sichuan Reference Press [四川辞书出版社]. Na Ruzhen [納汝珍], et al. (eds). 1994. Zhenkang County Ethnic Gazetteer [镇康县民族志]. Kunming: Yunnan People's Press [云南民族出版社]. Simao Prefecture Ethnic Minority Affairs Bureau [思茅行暑民族事务委员会] (ed). 1990. A study of the Bulang people [布朗族研究]. m.s. Xiao Dehua [萧德虎], et al. (eds). 1992. Zhenkang County Gazetteer [镇康县志]. 1992. Chengdu: Sichuan People's Press [四川民族出版社]. Yunnan Gazetteer Commission [云南省地方志编纂委员会] (ed). 1998. Yunnan Provincial Gazetteer, Vol. 59: Minority Languages Orthographies Gazetteer [云南省志. 卷五十九, 少数民族语言文字志]. Kunming: Yunnan People's Press [云南人民出版社].
External links RWAAI | Projects RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage) http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-67B4-3@view U in RWAAI Digital Archive