The language noted in this paper is that of the Hwa Lisu in the western-most frontier of Yunnan, which contains twenty-eight consonant-phonemes and ten vowel-phonemes as perceived and recorded by the writer. According to the manner of articulation we may distinguish five classes of Lisu consonants as follows:
(1) Plosives: p p’ b t t’ d k k’ g
(2) Affricatives: ts ts’ dz tc tc’ dz
(3) Nazals: m n □ □
(4) Lateral: l
(5) Fricatives: w v s r c j h □
Of the ten vowel-phonemes, one is apical represented by the symbol [□], and the other nine are palatal as shown in the following table:
Front Back
High i y □ u
Mid e □ o
Low a □
In addition to the ten vowels there are five diphthongs; they are: [ie], [ia], [u□], [□e], [□□]. The vowels together with the diphthongs make up fifteen finals of the Lisu language.
The tones of the Lisu syllables are six in number represented by the "tone-letters" of Dr. Y. R. Chao as, l. "□" high level, 2. "□" high rising, 3. "□" mid
level, 4. "□" low rising, 5. "□"low level, and 6. "□" low abrupt.
The writer concludes that the Lisu is monosyllabic but polytonic. Every syllable consists of one initial consonant (with few exceptions which have no initials) and one vowel or diphthong as the final without any consonantal auslaut. The borrowed word from Chinese having a nazal auslaut generally becomes a word or syllable with its final nazalized.
The Lisu script devised by the western missionaries is a set of thirty-eight letters (capital Roman letters with some of them inverted or reversed owing to the necessity of using thirty-eight such letters) as recorded in Mr. J. O. Frazer's Handbook of the Lisu (Yawyin) Language. It seems to the writer that they cannot comprise all the known sounds of the Lisu language, such as the consonants [v], [□], apical vowel [□], and diphthongs [ia], [u□] described in this paper have not been included in the script. As to the tone marks the writer suggests some of the noteworthy systems rather better than that of the punctuation marks used by the missionaries.