Hu language

Hu (Hu pronunciation: [xúˀ], Chinese: 户语; pinyin: Hùyǔ), 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 xuʔ55, and the local Dai peoples call them the "black people" (黑人), as well as xɔn55kɤt35, 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

Codas

Complex onsets

Hu complex onsets found in the files are /pʁ pʰʁ pʰl kʁ kl ŋkh ŋʁ sʁ/.

Vowels

Lexicon

Pronouns

Numerals

Comparison of Hu numerals with proto-Palaungic reconstructions by Sidwell (2015). Numbers larger than five have been replaced by Tai loans.

Body parts

Animals

Further reading

• Jiang, Guangyou 蒋光友; Shi, Jian 时建 (2016). Kūngéyǔ cānkǎo yǔfǎ 昆格语参考语法 [A Reference Grammar of Kunge [Hu]] (in Chinese). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe. ISBN 978-7-5161-8444-8.
• Li, Jinfang 李锦芳 (2006). Xīnán dìqū bīnwēi yǔyán diàochá yánjiū 西南地区濒危语言调查研究 [Studies on Endangered Languages in the Southwest China] (in Chinese). Beijing: Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe.
• Svantesson, Jan-Olof (1991). "Hu – a Language with Unorthodox Tonogenesis". In Davidson, Jeremy H.C.S. (ed.). (PDF). London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. pp. 67–80.
• Yan, Qixiang 颜其香; Zhou, Zhizhi 周植志 (2012). Zhōngguó Mèng-Gāomián yǔzú yǔyán yǔ Nányǎ yǔxì 中国孟高棉语族语言与南亚语系 [Mon-Khmer Languages of China and the Austroasiatic Family]. Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe. ISBN 978-7-5097-2860-4.
• Sidwell, Paul (2015). The Palaungic Languages: Classification, Reconstruction and Comparative Lexicon. München: Lincom Europa.

External links

• Hu recordings in Kaipuleohone include a word list, sentence elicitation and interview.