Puzzling over Phula: toward the synthesis and statement of a sub-branch

• Main Author: Pelkey, Jamin R.
• Other Authors: La Trobe University
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities; Tibeto-Burman; Yi
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177957
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The ethnonym 'Phula' has long been used to refer to the speakers of a series of Ngwi (Loloish) languages in SE Yunnan Province, China, and North Vietnam. Until recently, however, very little had been done to describe. document, and compare these varieties. In recent years Wang (2004), Pelkey (2004), Edmondson (2003). HHYC (2002). Fried (2000). Edmondson and Ziwo (1999). and Wu (1996) have offered preliminary descriptions of several Phula varieties, but the greater contextual panorama to which these lects belong has remained puzzling and undefined. In addition, much about Phula interrelationships. distribution. population, history. and genetic affiliation has remained fragmented and unclear. In response, this article seeks to present a summarized but holistic overview of the reported Phula varieties. Drawing on personal field research and insights gleaned from Chinese and English sources, the article presents a history of Phula languages and linguistics, sifts through the current complexities of Phula classification, and reports on a newly described Phula language. Phowa. The article also furthers the work of situating Phula genetically within the Ngwi branch. offering evidence in support of Bradley's (2002) proposal that Phula be assigned to a fourth sub-branch of Ngwi. While only a summary introduction to (as opposed to a conclusive definition ot) what remains a largely unresearched array of language varieties. this article can be a substantial foundation for future definitions and research on the languages called Phula.