Sumi phonology

Amos Teo, University of Melbourne

amosbteo@gmail.com
HG345 Field Methods, Guest lecture
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (14/02/11)

Sumi (also known as Sema, Simi)

spoken mainly in Zunheboto district of Nagaland, with a substantial number of speakers

in Dimapur and Kohima
2001 census estimates 242,000 speakers of Sumi (Lewis, 2009)
Four main dialects of Sumi identified: the Western dialect; the Eastern dialect; the
Chizolimi dialect; and the Central dialect (Sreedhar 1976: 4-5).
Central dialect from Zunheboto town taken as the official standard by the Sumi
Literature Board

Vowel inventory
Front

Central

Back

High

Low

/l/

ali

pot

/l/

ale

song

/kl/

akl

warmth

/l/

ala

path

/l/

alu

field

/alo/

alo

good

Sumi phonology, HG345 Field Methods, NTU, Singapore (14/02/11)

Consonant inventory
Labial

Labiodental

Alveolar

Postalveolar

Palatal

Velar
h

pp b

apu

father

//

ashi

meat

ph /ph/

aphu

village

//

aji

blood

/b/

aba

dung

/xn/

axone

/tt/

atutu

long yam

fermented
soya beans

th

/athuthu/

athuthu

steam

//

aghi

bone

/d/

ado

time

/ahu/

ahu

tooth

m /m/

amhi

body hair

m /m/

ami

fire

n /n/

anha

snot

/n/

ana

(cooked) rice

/a/

anga

baby

/l/

alha

layer

/l/

ala

path

/m/

muras

snow / hail

/aje/

ayeghi

earth

/k/

fv

m m

qq

n n

l l

aki

house

kh /akhi/

akhi

bee

/ag/

agi

face

/q/

aqo

pit

qh /qh/

aqho

brain

akichi

mouth

h /khi/

akichhi

breast

/f/

afo

older sister

/avi/

avi

mithun

/k/

kk g

Glottal

Plosive
Affricate
Fricative
Nasal
Approximant
Lateral
Approximant

/p/

tt d

Uvular

(bovine sp.)
(Sreedhar 1980 does not give // as a phoneme)

Sumi phonology, HG345 Field Methods, NTU, Singapore (14/02/11)

Areally unusual features:

Uvular stops /q/ and /qh/

Gloss

Sumi
(fieldnotes)

Angami
(Giridhar, 1987)

mother animal

-q

-kr (female)

hundred

a-qhe

kri

kri

-tri

moon / month

-qh

th -khr

-khr

-thr

brain

-qh

-khr

-khri

-thr

Mao
(Giridhar, 1994)

Khezha
(Kapfo, 2007)
-tr

Velar fricatives // and /x/

Gloss

Sumi
(fieldnotes)

Khezha
(Kapfo, 2007)

Mongsen Ao
(Coupe, 2007)

Proto-TB
(Matisoff, 2003)

bone

-ru

[t]-t

*rus ~ *rew

war

a-i

-ri

six

ts

sr

pick; cut (wood)

r pluck; cut

pick (fruit)

xo

rho pluck

head louse

-x

-rhi

*ran
tuk

*d-ruk

*ruk
[a]-tshk

*s-rik

Marginal alveolar rhotic

Lack of voiceless approximants
Alveolar fricatives and affricates [s], [z], [ts] and [tsh] are allophones of the
postalveolar fricatives and affricates (before central vowels / i/ and /a/):
ashi
//
a i ]
meat
asa
/a/
a sa ]
(head) hair
akichi /k/ [a ki i ] mouth
akts /ki/ [a ki tsi ]
head

Additional comments on phoneme inventory:

Six vowel system (no phonemic diphthongs)

Breathy sonorants
[w] is an allophone of /v/ before back vowels, e.g. awo /v/ a wo ] pig
Three-way VOT contrast for stops; voiced stops less common
Two-way contrast in aspiration for affricates; no labio-dental affricate series
3

Sumi phonology, HG345 Field Methods, NTU, Singapore (14/02/11)

Syllable structure
Canonical Sumi syllable:

(C) V, where C is any consonant and V is any vowel

consonant clusters not allowed

closed syllables not allowed

Preference for disyllabic words

Sesquisyllabic verbs in Sumi (sesquisyllabic = 1.5 syllables, coined by Matisoff, 1973):
kulo
kla
mla

/k.l/
/k.l/
/ .l/

[k.l] ~ [kl] to spin

[k.l] ~ [kl] to marry
m.l]
to be easy

Comparison of segmental features and phonotactic constraints of Sumi with other languages of Nagaland

Ao languages

Sumi

Angami-Pochuri
languages

closed syllables permitted

only open syllables

only open syllables

no syllable-onset
consonant clusters

no syllable-onset
consonant clusters

syllable-onset consonant
clusters permitted

no phonemic voiced stops

phonemic voiced stops

present, but rare

phonemic voiced stops

present

no phonemic voiced
affricates

no phonemic voiced
affricates

phonemic voiced affricates

present

no labio-dental affricates
(except Lotha)

no labio-dental affricates

labio-dental affricates
present

Sumi phonology, HG345 Field Methods, NTU, Singapore (14/02/11)

Sumi tone system

3 contrastive tones:
Low

/p/

apu

father

/k/

akts

black

Mid

/apu/

apu

water scoop

/ki/

akts

head

High

/p/

apu

son

/k/

akts

rotten

Phonetic realization of tones

Figure 1: Average F0 realisations of L, M and H tones across a time-normalised segment (female speaker)

Mean F0 realisations of tone (female speaker)

Tone

Mean (Hz)

Standard deviation

No. of tokens

164

11

725

191

13

385

222

15

206
5

Sumi phonology, HG345 Field Methods, NTU, Singapore (14/02/11)

Figure 2: Boxplot showing distribution of F0 values for each tone (female speaker)
The thick horizontal black lines in the boxes indicate the median F 0 value for each tone. The boxes represent 50%
of all F0 values for each tone, while the area between the top and bottom whiskers represents 90% of all F 0 values
for each tone. White circles indicate outliers.

Comparison of tone system with other languages of Nagaland

Mao
(Giridhar, 1984)

Angami (Kohima)
(Kuolie, 2006)

Lotha
(Acharya, 1983)

Ao (Mongsen)
(Coupe, 2007)

Ao (Chungli)
(Temsunungsang,
2009)

no. of contrastive tones

phonemic contours

no

no

no

yes (2)

yes (2) no

Angami
(Khonoma)

Khezha
(Kapfo, 2005)

Ao languages

Sumi (fieldnotes)

Angami-Pochuri languages

no

Sumi phonology, HG345 Field Methods, NTU, Singapore (14/02/11)

References
Acharya, K. P. (1983). Lotha Grammar. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Burling, R. (2003). The Tibeto-Burman languages of Northeastern India. In G. Thurgood &
R. LaPolla (Eds.), The Sino-Tibetan Languages (pp. 169-191). London: Routledge.
Giridhar, P. P. (1987). Angami-English-Hindi Dictionary. Mysore: Central Institute of
Indian Languages.
Giridhar, P. P. (1994). Mao Naga grammar. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Kapfo, K. (2005). The ethnology of the Khezhas and the Khezha grammar. Mysore: Central
Institute of Indian Languages.
Kapfo, K. (2007). Kuzhale-Chahale Dikshneri (Khezha-English Dictionary). Mysore:
Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Kuolie, D. (2006). Structural description of Tenyidie: a Tibeto-Burman language of
Nagaland. Kohima: Ura Academy Publication Division. (pp. 85-7).
Lewis, M. P. (Ed.). (2009). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. (16th ed.). Dallas, Texas:
SIL International. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/)
Matisoff, J. (1973). Tonogenesis in Southeast Asia. In L. Hyman (Ed.), Consonant types and
tone (Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics 1) (pp. 71-95). Los
Angeles: University of Southern California.
Sreedhar, M. V. (1976). Sema phonetic reader. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian
Languages.
Sreedhar, M. V. (1980). A Sema grammar. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Temsunungsang, T. (2008). Tonality and the analysis of sub-minimal words in Ao. In S.
Morey & M. Post (Eds.), North East Indian linguistics (pp. 45-64). New Delhi:
Cambridge University Press India.