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Pholo language

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

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 speakers are also referred to as Black Phula and Flowery Phula.[2]

Classification

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Pelkey (2011:353) 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

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Pholo speakers are most densely concentrated in:[2]

Other Pholo speakers are found in:[2]

Vocabulary

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

Gloss Pholo Proto-Ngwi
bee bjɯ³³ *bya²
taro bjɑ⁵³ *blum²
silver pʰi³³ *plu¹
face pʰjɔ⁵⁵ *pyu²
destroy pe̠⁴⁵ *pyakH
change pʰjɑ̠⁴⁵ *C-plekL
pus ᵐbjɑ³³ *m-bliŋ¹
full phɑ̠²¹ *m-bliŋ³
fly (v.) bi⁵³ *b-yam¹
lightning *b-lyapL
release pʰjɑ³³ *pyiŋ²
eagle to³³ *ʔ-glaŋ²
stab *m-gya²
excrement tʰæ³³ *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.[3]

  1. Proto-Ngwi *ʔ-k and *ʔ-ɡl > Proto-Southeastern Ngwi *tɬ (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 *dɮ (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):

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

Notes

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  1. ^ Pholo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c Pelkey (2011), p. 176.
  3. ^ Pelkey (2011), p. 365.

References

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  • Lama, Ziwo Qiu-Fuyuan (2012). Subgrouping of Nisoic (Yi) Languages: A Study From the Perspectives of Shared Innovation and Phylogenetic Estimation (PhD thesis). University of Texas at Arlington. hdl:10106/11161.
  • Pelkey, Jamin R. (2011). Dialectology as Dialectic: Interpreting Phula Variation. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. doi:10.1515/9783110245851. ISBN 978-3-11-024585-1.
  • Yunnan minzu daxue ge yunnan minzu yuwen zhidao gongzuo weiyuan (YYFC) 云南民族大学格云南民族语文指导工作委员会编, ed. (1983). Yúnnán Yíyǔ fāngyán cíyǔ huìbiān 云南彝语方言词语汇编 [A Collection of Yi Dialects’ Lexicon in Yunnan] (in Chinese). Kunming: Yunnan minzu xueyuan chubanshe. (Handwritten Mimeograph).