| Tai Lue | |
| Nativename: | , kam tai lue |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /khb/ |
| Script: | Tai Tham alphabet, Thai alphabet, New Tai Lue alphabet |
| States: | China, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam |
| Region: | Yunnan, China |
| Ethnicity: | Tai Lue |
| Speakers: | 550,000 |
| Date: | 2000–2013 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Kradai |
| Fam2: | Tai |
| Fam3: | Southwestern (Thai) |
| Fam4: | Chiang Saen |
| Iso3: | khb |
| Minority: |  China Thailand Myanmar |
| Glotto: | luuu1242 |
| Glottorefname: | Lu |
| Notice: | Indic |
| Notice2: | IPA |
Tai Lue (New Tai Lü:
, Tai Tham:, kam tai lue, pronounced as /khb/) or Xishuangbanna Dai is a Tai language of the Lu people, spoken by about 700,000 people in Southeast Asia. This includes 280,000 people in China (Yunnan), 200,000 in Burma, 134,000 in Laos, 83,000 in Thailand and 4,960 in Vietnam.[1] The language is similar to other Tai languages and is closely related to Kham Mueang or Tai Yuan, which is also known as Northern Thai language. In Yunnan, it is spoken in all of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, as well as Jiangcheng Hani and Yi Autonomous County in Pu'er City.In Vietnam, Tai Lue speakers are officially recognised as the Lự ethnic minority, although in China they are classified as part of the Dai people, along with speakers of the other Tai languages apart from Zhuang.
Tai Lue has 21 syllable-initial consonants, 9 syllable-finals and six tones (three different tones in checked syllables, six in open syllables).
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labial | |||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ ᦖ,ᦙ | pronounced as /link/ ᦐ,ᦓ | pronounced as /link/ ᦄ ,ᦇ | |||||
| Plosive | tenuis | pronounced as /link/ ᦔ,ᦗ | pronounced as /link/ ᦎ,ᦑ | pronounced as /link/ ᦂ,ᦅ | pronounced as /link/ ᦦ,ᦨ | pronounced as /link/ ᦀ ,ᦁ | ||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ ᦕ,ᦘ | pronounced as /link/ ᦏ,ᦒ | ||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ ᦢ,ᦥ | pronounced as /link/ ᦡ,ᦤ | ||||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /link/ ᦈ,ᦋ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ ᦚ,ᦝ | pronounced as /link/ ᦉ,ᦌ | pronounced as /link/ ᦃ,ᦆ | pronounced as /link/ ᦧ,ᦩ | pronounced as /link/ ᦠ,ᦣ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ ᦛ,ᦞ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ ᦜ,ᦟ | pronounced as /link/ ᦊ,ᦍ | ||||||
The initials pronounced as /t͡s/- and pronounced as /s/- are palatalized before front vowels (which in the language are pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink/, and pronounced as /ink/) and become pronounced as /t͡ɕ-/ and pronounced as /ɕ-/, respectively. For example, pronounced as //t͡síŋ// "hard" and pronounced as //si᷄p// "ten" are pronounced as pronounced as /[t͡ɕiŋ˥]/ and pronounced as /[ɕip˧˥]/ respectively. (Some textbooks denote pronounced as /t͡s/ as pronounced as /c/).
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ ᧄ | pronounced as /link/ ᧃ | pronounced as /link/ ᧂ | |||
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ ᧇ | pronounced as /link/ ᧆ | pronounced as /link/ ᧅ | pronounced as /link/ ᦰ | ||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ ᧁ |
Each vowel quality occurs in long-short pairs: these are distinct phonemes forming distinct words in Tai Lue.
| Front | Central-Back | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | ||
| Close | [{{IPA link|i|iʔ}}] ◌ᦲᦰ | [{{IPA link|i|i(ː)}}] ◌ᦲ | [{{IPA link|ɯ|ɯʔ}}] ◌ᦹᦰ | [{{IPA link|ɯ|ɯ(ː)}}] ◌ᦹ | [{{IPA link|u|u(ʔ)}}] ◌ᦳ | [{{IPA link|u|uː}}] ◌ᦴ | |
| Mid | [{{IPA link|e|eʔ}}] ᦵ◌ᦰ | [{{IPA link|e|e(ː)}}] ᦵ◌ | [{{IPA link|ɤ|ɤʔ}}] ᦵ◌ᦲᦰ | [{{IPA link|ɤ|ɤ(ː)}}] ᦵ◌ᦲ | [{{IPA link|o|oʔ}}] ᦷ◌ᦰ | [{{IPA link|o|o(ː)}}] ᦷ◌ | |
| Open | [{{IPA link|ɛ|ɛʔ}}] ᦶ◌ᦰ | [{{IPA link|ɛ|ɛ(ː)}}] ᦶ◌ | [{{IPA link|a|aʔ}}] ◌ᦰ | [{{IPA link|a|aː}}] ◌ᦱ | [{{IPA link|ɔ|ɔʔ}}] ◌ᦸᦰ | [{{IPA link|ɔ|ɔ(ː)}}] ◌ᦸ | |
Generally, vowels in open syllables (without codas) occur as long whereas ones in closed syllables are short (except pronounced as //aː// and pronounced as //uː//).
Additionally, Tai Lue uses several diphthongs:
| New Tai Lue | IPA |
|---|---|
| ᦺ◌ | pronounced as /[aj]/ |
| ◌ᦻ | pronounced as /[aːj]/ |
| ◌ᦼ | pronounced as /[uj]/ |
| ◌ᦽ | pronounced as /[oj]/ |
| ◌ᦾ | pronounced as /[ɔj]/ |
| ◌ᦿ | pronounced as /[ɯj]/ |
| ᦵ◌ᧀ | pronounced as /[ɤj]/ |
The table below presents six phonemic tones in unchecked syllables, i.e. closed syllables ending in sonorant sounds such as pronounced as /[m], [n], [ŋ], [w]/, and pronounced as /[j]/ and open syllables.There are six tones for unchecked syllables, although only three are allowed in checked syllables (those ending with -p, -t or -k).
| Description | Contour | Transcription | Example | Old Tai Lue | Meaning | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | 55 | á | pronounced as //káː// | {{script|Talu|ᨠ | ᦂ | crow | |
| high rising | 35 | pronounced as /a᷄/ | pronounced as //ka᷄ː// | {{script|Talu|ᨠ᩵ᩣ | ᦂᧈ | to go | |
| low rising | 13 | pronounced as /a᷅/ | pronounced as //ka᷅ː// | {{script|Talu|ᨠ᩶ᩣ | ᦂᧉ | rice shoots | |
| falling | 51 | â | pronounced as //kâː// | {{script|Talu|ᨣᩤ | ᦅ | to be stuck | |
| mid | 33 | a (not marked) | pronounced as //kaː// | {{script|Talu|ᨣ᩵ᩤ | ᦅᧈ | price | |
| low | 11 | à | pronounced as //kàː// | {{script|Talu|ᨣ᩶ᩤ | ᦅᧉ | to do business |
The table below presents two phonemic tones in checked syllables, i.e. closed syllables ending in a glottal stop pronounced as /[ʔ]/ and obstruent sounds which are pronounced as /[p], [t]/, and pronounced as /[k]/.
| Tone | Example | New Tai Lue | Phonemic | gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| high-risinɡ | ᦜᧅᧈ | pronounced as //la᷄k// | post | ||
| mid | ᦟᧅᧈ | pronounced as //lāk// | steal | ||
| high-risinɡ | ᦜᦱᧅᧈ | pronounced as //la᷄ːk// | differ from others | ||
| mid | ᦟᦱᧅᧈ | pronounced as //lāːk// | draɡ, pull |
| Singular Familiar | Singular | Deferential | Plural Familiar | Plural | Deferential | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | exclusive | – | ||||||
| inclusive | – | |||||||
| 2nd person | – | |||||||
| 3rd person | – | |||||||
Word order is usually subject–verb–object (SVO); modifiers (e.g. adjectives) follow nouns.
| Word | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| ᦉᧂ (saŋ1) | What | |
| ᦌᦹ (sɯɯ4) | Why | |
| ᦂᦲᧈ (kii1) | How many | |
| ᦺᦕ (pʰaj1) | Who | |
| ᦺᦐ (naj1) | Where |
As in Thai and Lao, Tai Lue has borrowed many Sanskrit and Pali words and affixes. Among the Tai languages in general, Tai Lue has limited intelligibility with Shan and Tai Nua and shares much vocabulary with, the other Southwestern Tai languages. Tai Lue has 95% lexical similarity with Northern Thai (Lanna), 86% with Central Thai, 93% with Shan, and 95% with Khun.
Below, some Thai Lue words are given with standard Central Thai equivalents for comparison. Thai words are shown on the left and Tai Lue words, written in New Tai Lue script, are shown on the right.
Many words differ from Thai greatly:
Some words differ in tone only:
Some words differ in a single sound and associated tone. In many words, the initial ร (pronounced as //r//) in Thai is ฮ (pronounced as //h//) in Tai Lue, as is also the case in Lao and Tai Yuan:
Aspirated consonants in the low-class consonant group(อักษรต่ำ pronounced as //ʔàk sɔ̌n tàm//) become unaspirated:
(Note that the vowels also differ greatly between Tai Lue and Thai in many words, even though they are etymologically related and share the same root.)
Though many aspirated consonants often become unaspirated, when an unaspirated consonant is followed by ร (pronounced as //r//) the unaspirated consonant becomes aspirated:
Other differences:
| 1 | ᧚ | ᦓᦹᧂᧈ | ᨶᩧ᩠᩵ᨦ | pronounced as /nɯŋ/ | |
| 2 | ᧒ | ᦉᦸᧂ | ᩈᩬᨦ | pronounced as /sɔ́ŋ/ | |
| 3 | ᧓ | ᦉᦱᧄ | ᩈᩣ᩠ᨾ | pronounced as /sám/ | |
| 4 | ᧔ | ᦉᦲᧈ | ᩈᩦ᩵ | pronounced as /si᷄ː/ | |
| 5 | ᧕ | ᦠᦱᧉ | ᩉᩢᩣ | pronounced as /ha᷅ː/ | |
| 6 | ᧖ | ᦷᦠᧅ | ᩉᩫ᩠ᨠ | pronounced as /hók/ | |
| 7 | ᧗ | ᦵᦈᧆ | ᩮᨧ᩠ᨯ | pronounced as /t͡ɕét/ | |
| 8 | ᧘ | ᦶᦔᧆᧈ | ᩯᨸ᩠ᨯ | pronounced as /pɛ᷄t/ | |
| 9 | ᧙ | ᦂᧁᧉ | ᩮᨠᩢᩢᩣ | pronounced as /ka᷅w/ | |
| 10 | ᧚᧐ | ᦉᦲᧇ | ᩈᩥ᩠ᨷ | pronounced as /síp/ | |
| 100 | ᧚᧐᧐ | ᦣᦾᧉ | ᩁᩢᩭ | pronounced as /hɔ̀i/ | |
| 10,000 | ᧚᧐᧐᧐᧐ | ᦖᦹᧃᧈ | ᩉ᩠ᨾᩨ᩵ᩁ | pronounced as /mɯ᷄n/ | |
| 100,000 | ᧚᧐᧐᧐᧐᧐ | ᦶᦉᧃ | ᩯᩈ᩠ᨶ | pronounced as /sɛ́n/ | |
| 1,000,000 | ᧚᧐᧐᧐᧐᧐᧐ | ᦟᦱᧃᧉ | ᩃᩢᩣ᩠ᨶ | pronounced as /làn/ |
Tai Lue is written in three different scripts. One is the Fak Kham script, a variety of the Thai script of Sukhothai. The second is the Tham script, which was reformed in the 1950s, but is still in use and has recently regained government support. The new script is a simplified version of the old script.
An ancient script, also used in Kengtung, Northern Thailand and Northern Laos centuries ago.
The Tham script is called 老傣文 lao dai wen (Old Dai script) in Chinese. Readable by the most people in Burma, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
New Tai Lue is a modernization of the Lanna alphabet (also known as the Tai Tham script), which is similar to the Thai alphabet, and consists of 42 initial consonant signs (21 high-tone class, 21 low-tone class), seven final consonant signs, 16 vowel signs, two tone letters and one vowel shortening letter (or syllable-final glottal stop). Vowels signs can be placed before or after the syllable initial consonant.
Similar to the Thai alphabet, the pronunciation of the tone of a syllable depends on the class the initial consonant belongs to, syllable structure and vowel length, and the tone mark.
The Bajia people (八甲人), who number 1,106 individuals in Mengkang Village (Chinese: 勐康村), Meng'a Town (Chinese: 勐阿镇), Menghai County, Yunnan, speak a language closely related to Tai Lue. There are 225 Bajia people living in Jingbo Township 景播乡, Menghai County (You 2013:270).[3] The Bajia are also known as the Chinese Dai 汉傣.