Hu (, ), also Angku or Kon Keu, is a Palaungic language of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China. Its speakers are an unclassified ethnic minority; the Chinese government counts the Angku as members of the Bulang nationality, but the Angkuic languages is not intelligible with Bulang.
Distribution According to Li (2006:340), there are fewer than 1,000 speakers living on the slopes of the "Kongge" Mountain ("控格山") in Na Huipa village (纳回帕村), Mengyang township (勐养镇), Jinghong (景洪市, a county-level city).
Hu speakers call themselves the , and the local Dai peoples call them the "black people" (黑人), as well as , meaning 'surviving souls'. They are also known locally as the Kunge people (昆格人) or Kongge people (控格人).
Phonology The Hu data presented in the studies was collected from the Xiao Mĕngyăng area in Jǐnghóng County, Yunnan, China.
Word structure Hu phonological word strongly tends to be monosyllabic. Disyllabic words are all iambic. There is one trisyllabic form in the data: ʔapalàw "fish". Thus, the maximal structure in Hu is (C1(a(C2))).ˈCi(Cm)V(Cf)T.
Suprasegmentals (tones) Hu has two tones: high and low. The tonal system reflects historical vowel length contrasts (low < long; high < short) that are no longer phonemic today, with residual length distinctions still perceptible.
Subsequent secondary changes and mergers have introduced distributional asymmetries: syllables with final glottal stops consistently bear high tone; the high vowels /i, u/ take high tone in closed syllables, but low tone only in open syllables and before /-ʁ/.
Consonants Initials + Hu initial consonantsLabialDental/AlveolarPalatalVelarUvularGlottalcentralsibilantPlosiveplainaspiratedprenasalizedaspirated prenasalizedFricativevoicelessprenasalizedvoicedNasalvoicelessvoicedApproximant
Codas +Hu codasBilabialAlveolarPalatalVelarUvularGlottal Plosive Fricative Nasal Lateral Semivowel Complex onsets Hu complex onsets found in the files are /pʁ pʰʁ pʰl kʁ kl ŋkh ŋʁ sʁ/.
Presyllables Svantesson presents the following presyllables in Hu: /pa ka ʔa pʰa tʰa tsa kʰa pʰl ma na m̩ n̩ ɲ̩ ŋ̩ θa sa sŋ/. The presyllables are always unstressed.
Vowels +Hu vowelsFrontCentralBackCloseMidOpen-midOpen
Lexicon Pronouns singular dual plural 1st person ʔɔ́ʔ ʔàj ʔéʔ 2nd person méʔ pʰáw pʰéʔ 3rd person ʔə́n káw kéʔ Numerals Comparison of Hu numerals with proto-Palaungic reconstructions by Sidwell (2015). Numbers larger than five have been replaced by Tai loans. Gloss Hu proto-Palaungic 1 ʔàmo *moːh 2 kaʔà *ləʔaːr 3 kaʔɔ̀j *ləʔɔːj 4 ʔapʰòn *poːn 5 paθán *pəsan 6 (Tai loan) *tɔːl 7 – *təpuːl 8 – *taːʔ 9 – *tiːm 10 – *kɤːl 100 – *prjah 1000 – *sreːŋ
Body parts Gloss Hu proto-Palaungic hair θúk *suk bone kaʔàŋ *cəʔaːŋ foot cèŋ *ɟɤːŋ nose katə́ʔ *kəɗɤːʔ belly katúl *kəɗɤl ear nasòk *ʰjoːk eye saŋàj *ˀŋaːj tongue ntʰàk *-taːk arm tʰíʔ *tiːʔ breast tʰút *tuːs
Animals Gloss Hu proto-Palaungic buffalo tʰʁàk *traːk ant/termite maʁúɲ *ŋruːɲ horse maʁáŋ *mraŋ bear ʔaxèt *kreːs sambar deer pʰòt *poːs pig lèk *-leːk bird ʔasím *ciːm louse nsíʔ *ciːʔ dog sɔ́ʔ *cɔːʔ fowl ʔìʁ *ʔiɛr
References
Further reading
External links RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage) Hu in RWAAI Digital Archive Hu recordings in Kaipuleohone include a word list, sentence elicitation and interview.