Lisu
Sino-Tibetan (Loloish)
Lisu is a Loloish (Yi-branch) Tibeto-Burman language with multiple competing scripts. The Fraser script invented by missionary James O. Fraser in 1915 uses rotated and inverted Latin letters to mark tone, and is now encoded in Unicode (U+A4D0-U+A4FF). Spoken across China (Yunnan), Myanmar, Thailand, and India.
Where it is spoken
20 core words in Lisu
Water
yi
/ji/
Fire
a-mi
/ami/
Sun
mei-lo
/mejlo/
Moon
cha-mi
/tʃami/
Mother
ma
/ma/
Father
a-pa
/apa/
Eat
dza
/tsa/
Drink
dao
/dao/
Love
gu-hpa
/ɡupʰa/
Heart
ni-ma
/nima/
Tree
shi-pa
/ʃipa/
House
hkyim
/tɕim/
Dog
kwe
/kwɛ/
Cat
a-nyi
/aɲi/
Hand
la
/la/
Eye
mai-mei
/majmei/
Hello
ngo-lan
/ŋolan/
Thank you
ti-tu
/titu/
One
ti
/ti/
Good
nyi
/ɲi/
Sources
Words compared
Compared with related Sino-Tibetan (Loloish) languages
| Meaning | Lisu | Sikkimese | Dzongkha | Kurtöp | Ladakhi | Tokelauan | Balti |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | yi /ji/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | khwe /kʰwe/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ | vai /vai/ | ཆུ /tɕʰu/ |
| Fire | a-mi /ami/ | མེ /me/ | མེ /me/ | mi /mi/ | མེ /me/ | afi /afi/ | མེ /me/ |
| Sun | mei-lo /mejlo/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | ningpe /niŋpe/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ | la /la/ | ཉི་མ /ɲima/ |
| Moon | cha-mi /tʃami/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ | lai /lai/ | ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ | malama /malama/ | ཟླ་བ /dawa/ |
| Mother | ma /ma/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | amai /amai/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ | matua /matua/ | ཨ་མ /ama/ |
| Father | a-pa /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | apai /apai/ | ཨ་པ /apa/ | tamana /tamana/ | ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ |
| Eat | dza /tsa/ | ཟ /za/ | བཟའ /za/ | za /za/ | ཟ /za/ | kai /kai/ | ཟ /za/ |
| Drink | dao /dao/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | thung /tʰuŋ/ | འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ | inu /inu/ | ཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ |
| Love | gu-hpa /ɡupʰa/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | དགའ་བ /ɡawa/ | ga /ɡa/ | དགའ /ɡa/ | alofa /alofa/ | དགའ་བ /ɡaba/ |
| Heart | ni-ma /nima/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | nying /ɲiŋ/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ | fatu /fatu/ | སྙིང /ɲiŋ/ |
| Tree | shi-pa /ʃipa/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ | shing /ɕiŋ/ | ཤིང /ʃiŋ/ | lakau /lakau/ | ཤིང /ɕiŋ/ |
| House | hkyim /tɕim/ | ཁྱིམ /tɕim/ | ཁྱིམ /tɕim/ | khim /kʰim/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ | fale /fale/ | ཁང་པ /kʰaŋpa/ |
| Dog | kwe /kwɛ/ | ཁྱི /tɕʰi/ | ཁྱི /tɕi/ | khwi /kʰwi/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ | kuli /kuli/ | ཁྱི /kʰi/ |
| Cat | a-nyi /aɲi/ | ཞི་མི /ʑimi/ | བྱི་ལ /bila/ | byila /bila/ | བྱི་ལ /pila/ | pusi /pusi/ | བྱི་ལ /bjila/ |
| Hand | la /la/ | ལག /lak/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | lak /lak/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ | lima /lima/ | ལག་པ /lakpa/ |
| Eye | mai-mei /majmei/ | མིག /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | mik /mik/ | མིག /mik/ | mata /mata/ | མིག /mik/ |
| Hello | ngo-lan /ŋolan/ | ཁམས་བཟང /kʰamsaŋ/ | སྐུ་གཟུགས་བཟང་པོ་ལ /kuzu zaŋpo la/ | kuzu zangpo /kuzu zaŋpo/ | ཇུ་ལེ /dʑule/ | malo ni /malo ni/ | ཨ་སི་ལམ /asilam/ |
| Thank you | ti-tu /titu/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕe/ | བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ /kadrintɕe/ | kadrinche /kadrintɕe/ | ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ /tʰuktɕetɕʰe/ | fakafetai /fakafetai/ | བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ /kadrintɕʰe/ |
| One | ti /ti/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | thê /tʰe/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ | tahi /tahi/ | གཅིག /tɕik/ |
| Good | nyi /ɲi/ | ལེགས་པོ /lekpo/ | ལེགས་ཤོམ /lekɕom/ | lekpo /lekpo/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ | lelei /lelei/ | ཡག་པོ /jakpo/ |
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