Pholo language

Pholo (autonym: pʰo55 lo55) is an unclassified Loloish language of Yunnan, China. Although culturally associated with the Phula languages, Pelkey (2011) does not consider it to be linguistically related to the Phula languages.

Pholo
Black Phula
Native toChina
EthnicityPhula
Native speakers
30,000 (2011)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3yip
Glottologphol1235

Pholo speakers are also referred to as Black Phula and Flowery Phula (Pelkey 2011:176).

Classification

Pelkey (2011:353)[2] specifically excludes Pholo, noting that it does not share the defining features of Southeastern Loloish. However, Lama (2012) classifies Pholo as a Southeastern Loloish language, and considers it to be most closely related to Zokhuo

Distribution

Pholo speakers are most densely concentrated in (Pelkey 2011:176):

Other Pholo speakers are found in (Pelkey 2011:176):

Vocabulary

The following Pholo lexical items along with their Proto-Ngwi (Proto-Loloish) reconstructed proto-forms are from Pelkey (2011:390).

GlossPholoProto-Ngwi
beebjɯ³³*bya²
tarobjɑ⁵³*blum²
silverpʰi³³*plu¹
facepʰjɔ⁵⁵*pyu²
destroype̠⁴⁵*pyakH
changepʰjɑ̠⁴⁵*C-plekL
pusᵐbjɑ³³*m-bliŋ¹
fullphɑ̠²¹*m-bliŋ³
fly (v.)bi⁵³*b-yam¹
lightning*b-lyapL
releasepʰjɑ³³*pyiŋ²
eagleto³³*ʔ-glaŋ²
stab*m-gya²
excrementtʰæ³³*ʔ-kle²
load (v.)ʦɯ⁵⁵*ʔ-kun³/²

Most, but not all, of the Pholo words above do not share the following innovations that define Southeastern Ngwi (Pelkey 2011:365).

  1. Proto-Ngwi *ʔ-k and *ʔ-ɡl > Proto-Southeastern Ngwi * (modern reflexes: tɬ, kɬ, k, t, ɬ, etc.)
  2. Proto-Ngwi *pl/j and *ʔ-kl > Proto-Southeastern Ngwi *tɬʰ (modern reflexes: tɬʰ, kɬʰ, kʰ, tʰ, ɬ, etc.)
  3. Proto-Ngwi *bl/j and *ɡl > Proto-Southeastern Ngwi * (modern reflexes: dɮ, ɡɮ, ɡ, d, etc.)
  4. Proto-Ngwi *m-pl/j and *m-bl/j > Proto-Southeastern Ngwi *ndɮ (modern reflexes: ndɮ, ŋɡɮ, nd, etc.)

Other Pholo words from Pelkey (2011:301):

  • qɑ̠⁴⁵lɑ̠⁴⁵ (neck)
  • ᵐbjɑ⁵⁵ʑɛ²¹ (pus)
  • phɑ̠²¹ (full)
  • χɑ⁵⁵ (long)
  • mɑ⁵⁵ (name)
  • mɑ̠⁴⁵ (cooked)

More Pholo words are documented in YYFC (1983),[3] part of which are quoted in Lama (2012).

References

  1. Pholo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Jamin Pelkey, 2011, Dialectology As Dialectic: Interpreting Phula Variation
  3. YYFC (Yunnan University for Nationalities and Guiding Committee of Studying and Working on Yunnan Minority Languages 云南民族大学格云南民族语文指导工作委员会编). 1983. 云南彝语方言 词语汇编 [A Collection of Yi Dialects’ Lexicon in Yunnan] (Handwritten Mimeograph).
  • Lama, Ziwo Qiu-Fuyuan. 2012. Subgrouping of Nisoic (Yi) Languages. Ph.D. thesis: University of Texas at Arlington.
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