Lisu language

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Lisu
Spoken in: China, India, Myanmar, Thailand
Total speakers: 723,000
Language family: Sino-Tibetan
 Sino-Tibetan
  Tibeto-Burman
   Lolo-Burmese
    Loloish
     Northern Loloish
      Lisu 
Writing system: Fraser Alphabet (Latin Based) 
Official status
Official language of: Weixi Lisu Autonomous County, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture (PRC)
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: --
ISO 639-2: --
ISO 639-3: lis

Lisu is a Sino-Tibetan tonal language spoken in Yunnan (southwestern China), northern Burma, and Thailand and a small part of India. It is the language of the Lisu minority. Lisu has three dialects: Hua Lisu, Pai Lisu, and Lu Shi Lisu. Although they are mutually intelligible, some have many more loan words from Chinese than others.

The Lisu language is closely related to the Lahu, Akha, and Yi languages.

Contents

[edit] Orthography

Main article: Fraser alphabet

Around 1915, James O. Fraser, a christian missionary with the China Inland Mission developed a Lisu alphabet. Many Lisu Christians have since 1915 used this script so that they could read the Bible in there own language. A new alphabet based on pinyin was created for them 1957. Most Lisu still used there old alphabet though, and in 1992 it was officially recognized by the Chinese government. Since then they have encouraged Lisu people to use it.

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

[edit] Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Palato-Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Voiceless Unaspirated p t ʦ ʧ ʨ k ʔ
Voiceless Aspirated ʦʰ ʧʰ ʨʰ
Voiced b d ʣ ʤ ʥ g
Voiceless fricative f s ʃ ɕ x h
Voiced fricative v z ʒ ʑ ɤ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ ɦ
Approximant w l ɹ j

[edit] External links

In other languages