U language

U
U
Pouma
Pronunciation	[ʔu˥]
Region	China
Native speakers	(40,000 cited 2000)
Language family	Austroasiatic Khasi–Palaungic Palaungic Angkuic Northern Angkuic U; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	uuu
Glottolog	uuuu1243
ELP	U
	U is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

The U language (autonym: [ʔu˥] 'human being'), or P'uman (Chinese: 濮满), 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	Laryngeal
Plosive	plain	p	t	c	k	q	ʔ
Plosive	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	cʰ	kʰ	qʰ
Affricate	plain		ts
Affricate	aspirated		tsʰ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s			χ	h
Fricative	voiced	v					ʕ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Lateral			l
Approximant		w		j

/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	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low	ɛ	a	ɔ

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.

ʔò

I

ŋê

kill

líʕ

pig

'I killed a pig.'

tsɨ̀

name

ʔò

I

mə̀

COP

ʔaj

Ay

tìt

Tit

'My name is Ay Tit.'

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

↑ U at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
↑ Svantesson 1988, p. 66.
↑ Svantesson (1988)
↑ "Shuāngjiāng Lāhùzú Wǎzú Bùlǎngzú Dǎizú Zìzhìxiàn Dàwén Xiāng Dàliángzi Cūnwěihuì Pàngpǐn Zìráncūn" 双江拉祜族佤族布朗族傣族自治县大文乡大梁子村委会胖品自然村 [Pangpin Natural Village; Daliangzi Village Committee; Dawen Township; Shuangjiang Lahu, Va, Blang and Dai Autonomous County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
↑ "Yǒngdé Xiàn Měngbǎn Xiāng Hùyā Cūnwěihuì Gāntáng Zìráncūn" 永德县勐板乡户丫村委会甘塘自然村 [Gantang Natural Village, Huya Village Committee, Mengban Township, Yongde County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-01-31.
↑ "Yǒngdé Xiàn Měngbǎn Xiāng Líshù Cūnwěihuì Gāntáng Zìráncūn" 永德县勐板乡梨树村委会甘塘自然村 [Gantang Natural Village, Lishu Village Committee, Mengban Township, Yongde County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
↑ "Shuāngjiāng Lāhùzú Wǎzú Bùlǎngzú Dǎizú Zìzhìxiàn Shāhé Xiāng Bāngxié Cūnmín Wěiyuánhuì Bāngxié Zìráncūn" 双江拉祜族佤族布朗族傣族自治县沙河乡邦协村民委员会邦协自然村 [Bangxie Natural Village; Bangxie Village Committee; Shahe Township; Shuangjiang Lahu, Va, Blang and Dai Autonomous County] (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
↑ "Yúnxiàn Mánghuái Yízú Bùlǎngzú Xiāng Bāngliù Cūnwěihuì" 云县忙怀彝族布朗族乡邦六村委会 [Bangliu Village Committee, Manghuai Yi and Bulang Ethnic Township, Yunxian] (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-08-17. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
↑ Hsiu, Andrew (2017), "The Angkuic Languages: A Preliminary Survey", Presented at the 6th International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics (ICAAL 6), Siem Reap, Cambodia (Handout), Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.1127808, archived from the original on 2020-05-16
↑ Hsiu, Andrew (2017), "Avala Audio Word List", Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.1123297, archived from the original on 2020-10-09
↑ Svantesson 1988, p. 69.
↑ Svantesson 1988, p. 72.
↑ Svantesson 1988, p. 70.
↑ Svantesson 1988, p. 101.

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

[e18-1] U at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[FOOTNOTESvantesson198866-2] Svantesson 1988, p. 66.

[3] Svantesson (1988)

[4] "Shuāngjiāng Lāhùzú Wǎzú Bùlǎngzú Dǎizú Zìzhìxiàn Dàwén Xiāng Dàliángzi Cūnwěihuì Pàngpǐn Zìráncūn" 双江拉祜族佤族布朗族傣族自治县大文乡大梁子村委会胖品自然村 [Pangpin Natural Village; Daliangzi Village Committee; Dawen Township; Shuangjiang Lahu, Va, Blang and Dai Autonomous County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2014-03-14.

[5] "Yǒngdé Xiàn Měngbǎn Xiāng Hùyā Cūnwěihuì Gāntáng Zìráncūn" 永德县勐板乡户丫村委会甘塘自然村 [Gantang Natural Village, Huya Village Committee, Mengban Township, Yongde County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-01-31.

[6] "Yǒngdé Xiàn Měngbǎn Xiāng Líshù Cūnwěihuì Gāntáng Zìráncūn" 永德县勐板乡梨树村委会甘塘自然村 [Gantang Natural Village, Lishu Village Committee, Mengban Township, Yongde County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-01-30.

[7] "Shuāngjiāng Lāhùzú Wǎzú Bùlǎngzú Dǎizú Zìzhìxiàn Shāhé Xiāng Bāngxié Cūnmín Wěiyuánhuì Bāngxié Zìráncūn" 双江拉祜族佤族布朗族傣族自治县沙河乡邦协村民委员会邦协自然村 [Bangxie Natural Village; Bangxie Village Committee; Shahe Township; Shuangjiang Lahu, Va, Blang and Dai Autonomous County] (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-04-04.

[8] "Yúnxiàn Mánghuái Yízú Bùlǎngzú Xiāng Bāngliù Cūnwěihuì" 云县忙怀彝族布朗族乡邦六村委会 [Bangliu Village Committee, Manghuai Yi and Bulang Ethnic Township, Yunxian] (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-08-17. Retrieved 2021-02-22.

[9] Hsiu, Andrew (2017), "The Angkuic Languages: A Preliminary Survey", Presented at the 6th International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics (ICAAL 6), Siem Reap, Cambodia (Handout), Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.1127808, archived from the original on 2020-05-16

[10] Hsiu, Andrew (2017), "Avala Audio Word List", Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.1123297, archived from the original on 2020-10-09

[FOOTNOTESvantesson198869-11] Svantesson 1988, p. 69.

[FOOTNOTESvantesson198872-12] Svantesson 1988, p. 72.

[FOOTNOTESvantesson198870-13] Svantesson 1988, p. 70.

[FOOTNOTESvantesson1988101-14] Svantesson 1988, p. 101.