Na (or Narua, Mosuo) is a language of the Naish subbranch of the Naic group of the Sino-Tibetan languages.
| Na | |
|---|---|
| Narua | |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Sichuan |
| Ethnicity | Mosuo |
Native speakers | 47,000 (2010)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nru |
| Glottolog | yong1270 |
Varieties
editYongning Na, which is spoken in Yongning Township, Ninglang County, Lijiang, Yunnan, China, has been documented by Jacques and Michaud (2011).[2]
Lataddi Narua is notable for having only two tonal levels.[3]
Phonology
editConsonants
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Alveolo- palatal |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | (ɳ) | ɲ | (ŋ) | ||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | (ʈ) | k | q | (ʔ) | ||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | (ʈʰ) | kʰ | qʰ | ||||
| voiced | b | d | (ɖ) | ɡ | ɢ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | t͡ʂ | t͡ɕ | |||||
| aspirated | t͡sʰ | t͡ʂʰ | t͡ɕʰ | ||||||
| voiced | d͡z | d͡ʐ | d͡ʑ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʂ | ɕ | (x) | h | ||
| voiced | (v) | z | ʐ | ʑ | ɣ | (ʁ) | |||
| Lateral | fricative | ɬ | |||||||
| glide | l | (ɭ) | |||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||||
- /t, tʰ, d, n, l/ can be heard as [ʈ, ʈʰ, ɖ, ɳ, ɭ] when preceding vowel sounds /ɯ, u, v̩, ɤ, æ/.
- /p, pʰ, b, m, w/ can be heard as [ʙ̥, ʙ̥ʰ, ʙ, ɱ, v] when preceding vowel sounds /ɯ, u, v̩/.
- /ɣ/ can also be heard as uvular [ʁ] in word-initial position.
- /w, h/ is also heard as voiceless [w̥, x] in free variation.
- /n/ is heard as velar [ŋ] when before velar stops.
- [ʔ] is heard in initial position before vowels.[4]
Vowels
edit| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɯ | u | |
| Mid | ɛ | ə | ɤ | ɔ |
| Open | æ, æ̃ | ɑ | ||
| Syllabic | v̩ | |||
- /ɯ/ can be heard as [ɨ] in syllable-initial position and as retroflex [ɻ̩] when after retroflex consonants.[5]
References
edit- ^ Na at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
- ^ Jacques, Guillaume, and Alexis Michaud. 2011. "Approaching the historical phonology of three highly eroded Sino-Tibetan languages." Diachronica 28:468-498.
- ^ Dobbs, Roselle, and La Mingqing. 2016 "The two-level tonal system of Lataddi Narua." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, Vol. 39:1 (2016), 67–104. doi:10.1075/ltba.39.1.04dob
- ^ Lidz, Liberty A. (2010). A Descriptive Grammar of Yongning Na (Mosuo). University of Texas at Austin.
- ^ Zhenhong, Yang (2009). An overview of the Mosuo language. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 32. pp. 1–43.
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