Nùng language (Tai) should not be confused with Nung language (Sino-Tibetan).
| Nùng | |
| States: | Vietnam, China, Laos |
| Ethnicity: | Nung |
| Speakers: | 968,800 |
| Date: | 2009 census |
| Script: | Latin (modified Vietnamese alphabet) Sawndip |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Kradai |
| Fam2: | Kam–Tai? |
| Fam3: | Be–Tai |
| Fam4: | Tai |
| Fam5: | Central Tai |
| Iso3: | nut |
| Glotto: | nung1283 |
| Glottorefname: | Nung (Viet Nam) |
| Notice: | IPA |
Nùng is a Kra–Dai language spoken mostly in Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn provinces in Vietnam and also in China and Laos. It is also known as Nong, Tai Nùng, Tay, and Tày Nùng. Nùng is the name given to the various Tai languages of northern Vietnam that are spoken by peoples classified as Nùng by the Vietnamese government. The Nùng were originally Zhuang people who migrated into Vietnam in the 16th and 18th centuries.
In the 1999 census, it had about 856,000 speakers. It had about 968,800 speakers in the 2009 census.
In Vietnam, Nùng is spoken in all of the Northeast Region (Except Phu Tho Province) and parts of the South Central Region (Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Lam Dong Provinces).
In China, Nùng is spoken in the Wenshan Prefecture of Yunnan and neighbouring parts of Guangxi. Speakers of the Nùng language in China are classified as Zhuang.
In Laos, Nùng is spoken in three villages of Luang Prabang Province. Speakers are known as the Yang people.
The Nùng people of Laos (Yang) believed to originated from a border crossing in Vietnam to Laos from Dien Bien Province to Son La Province and later to Luang Prabang Province. This was during the Vietnam War.
The following are the sounds of the Nùng language:[1]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /m/ | pronounced as /n/ | pronounced as /ɲ/ | pronounced as /ŋ/ | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /p/ | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /tʃ/ | pronounced as /k/ | pronounced as /ʔ/ | |||
| aspirated | pronounced as /pʰ/ | pronounced as /tʰ/ | pronounced as /kʰ/ | ||||||
| implosive | pronounced as /ɓ/ | pronounced as /ɗ/ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /f/ | pronounced as /s/ | pronounced as /h/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /v/ | pronounced as /ʐ/ | |||||||
| lateral | pronounced as /ɬ/ | ||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /w/ | pronounced as /l/ | pronounced as /j/ | pronounced as /j̈/ | |||||
| Phoneme | Allophone | |
|---|---|---|
| pronounced as //kʰ// | [{{IPA|kˣ}}] | |
| /pronounced as /w// | [{{IPA|u̯}}] | |
| /pronounced as /j// | [{{IPA|i̯}}] | |
| /pronounced as /j̈// | [{{IPA|ɨ̯}}], [{{IPA|ɰ}}] |
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | pronounced as /i iː/ | pronounced as /ɨ ɨː/ | pronounced as /u uː/ | |
| High-mid | pronounced as /eː/ | pronounced as /oː/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /əː/ | |||
| Low-mid | pronounced as /ɔ ɔː/ | |||
| Low | pronounced as /æ æː/ | pronounced as /a aː/ |
| Phoneme | Allophone | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| /pronounced as /eː// | [{{IPA|eᵊ}}] | in closed syllables | |
| /pronounced as /æ// | [{{IPA|ɛ}}] | ||
| /pronounced as /ɨ// | [{{IPA|ɯ}}] | ||
| /pronounced as /ɨː// | [{{IPA|ɯː}}] | ||
| /pronounced as /əː// | [{{IPA|ə}}] | in closed syllables | |
| /pronounced as /uː// | [{{IPA|uᵊ}}] | before /pronounced as /n// | |
| /pronounced as /oː// | [{{IPA|oᵊ}}] | before /pronounced as /n// | |
| /pronounced as /ɔː// | [{{IPA|ɒ}}] | ||
| /pronounced as /ɔ// | [{{IPA|ɔʷ}}] | before /pronounced as /ŋ// |
The Nùng language has six tones:
| Tones | ||
|---|---|---|
| á | pronounced as /˦/ | |
| a | pronounced as /˧/ | |
| à | pronounced as /˨/ | |
| a᷆ | pronounced as /˨˩/ | |
| á+glottal | pronounced as /˦ʔ/ | |
| à+glottal | pronounced as /˨ʔ/ | |
Nùng consists of many varieties, some of which are listed below.[2] [3]
Nùng Vên (En), a language formerly undistinguished from surrounding Central Tai (Nùng) dialects, was discovered to be a Kra language by Hoàng Văn Ma and Jerold A. Edmondson in 1998. Its speakers are classified as Nùng by the Vietnamese government.