Xumi Textbook

Katia Chirkova and Lurong Duoding. Muli Xumi fangyan 木里旭咪方言 (The Xumi Language of Muli). Xue Zangyu 学藏语 བོད་སྐད་སློབ་སྦྱོང་ (Learn Tibetan) Series, Vol. 4. Chengdu 成都: Minzu chubanshe 民族出版社, 2013. ISBN 978-7-5409-5438-3.

This textbook, a trilingual Chinese-Tibetan-Xumi manual with IPA transcriptions and audio recordings, is the fourth in a series of textbooks of languages spoken in Muli, published by the Nationalities Press in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province. Already published volumes include textbooks of Pumi 普米, Kami 呷米, and Lizu 里汝. Our textbook of the Xumi language adds Xumi examples to the standard Chinese and Kham-Tibetan manuscript developed for the series by Dongga Zhuzha 冬嘎珠扎 and his team of editors. The editor-in-chief of the entire series is Wang Feng 王峰.

Here is a sample of our textbook:

The textbook contains a total of 42 chapters. Of these, 34 are situational conversations for everyday life, and 8 are lists of words on topics such as date and time, agriculture, currency, and terms of address. Here are some samples:

The textbook offers Xumi translations of the Chinese and Tibetan sentences (transcribed in Chinese characters and in IPA) and an appendix providing an overview of the phonological system of Xumi and a guide to phonetic symbols.

The textbook is accompanied by a CD with sound files for all 42 chapters. The sound files are also available here: