Sui language
| Sui | |
|---|---|
| Suī | |
| Native to | China, Vietnam |
| Region | Guizhou (93%), Guangxi, Yunnan |
| Ethnicity | Sui |
Native speakers | 300,000 (2023) |
| Latin script, Sui script, Chinese characters | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | swi |
| Glottolog | suii1243 |
| Linguasphere | 47-ABB-b |
The Sui language (simplified Chinese: 水语; traditional Chinese: 水語; pinyin: Shuǐyǔ) is a Kam–Sui language spoken by the Sui people of Guizhou province in China. According to Ethnologue, it was spoken by around 300,000 people in 2007. Sui is also unique for its rich inventory of consonants, with the Sandong (三洞) dialect having as many as 70 consonants. The language also has its own script, known as "Shuishu" (水書) in Chinese, which is used for ritual purposes.
Some regionally atypical features of the Sui language include voiceless nasals (hm, hn), palatal stops, postvelar stops, prenasalized stops (mb, nd), and pre-glottalized stops and nasals (i.e. ʔb, ʔm).