Sümi, also Sema, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Nagaland, India. It is spoken by the Sümi Naga people. It differs from every other Naga languages due to the presence of guttural sounds.[2][3]
The close front and the close central vowels have been variously described as near-close [i̞,ɨ̞] and close [i,ɨ]. The close back vowel has only been described as close [u].[6][7]
In the word-medial position, /ɨ/ can be realized as mid [ə].[4][8]
The mid vowels /e,o/ can be realized as either close-mid [e,o] or open-mid [ɛ,ɔ].[4][9]
Teo (2012) describes the close-mid allophone of /o/ as slightly advanced [o̟].[6]
/a/ has been variously described as near-open [ɐ][6] and open [ä].[8]
After uvular stops, /a/ can be realized as open back unrounded [ɑ].[8]
Sümi DoReCo corpus compiled by Amos Teo. Audio recordings of narrative texts with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level, translations, and time-aligned morphological annotations.