ABSTRACT
Spoken by the Pumi and Tibetan nationalities in northwestern Yunnan and southwestern Sichuan, Prinmi (or Pumi) is a member of the Qiangic branch of the Tibeto-Burman languages (H. Sun 1982; Bradley 1997: 35-37). With widespread settlement in the mountain areas, speakers of Prinmi live close to many communities of distinct Tibeto-Burman languages. The two major dialectal groups are Northern Prinmi and Southern Prinmi, with some mutual unintelligibility (Lu 1983: 90). In addition, there are also clan-based sociolects.
