| Phake | |
| Nativename: | (တႝ)ၸႃကေ |
| States: | India |
| Region: | Assam |
| Ethnicity: | Tai Phake people |
| Speakers: | 2,000 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Kradai |
| Fam2: | Tai |
| Fam3: | Southwestern |
| Fam4: | Northwestern |
| Script: | Burmese script (Phake variation, called Lik-Tai)[1] |
| Iso3: | phk |
| Glotto: | phak1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Phake |
The Phake language or Tai Phake language (တႝၸႃကေ,) is a Tai language spoken in the Buri Dihing Valley of Assam, India. It is closely related to the other Southwestern Tai languages in Assam: Aiton, Khamti, Khamyang, and Turung.
Buragohain (1998) lists the following Tai Phake villages.
| Translation of Tai name | c=03 | Assamese/English name | c=04 | District | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c=01 | ma꞉n3 pha꞉4 ke꞉5 taü3 | c=02 | Lower Phake village | c=03 | Namphakey | c=04 | Dibrugarh | |
| c=01 | ma꞉n3 pha꞉k4 ta꞉5 | c=02 | Other side of the river village | c=03 | Tipam Phake | c=04 | Dibrugarh | |
| c=01 | ma꞉n3 pha꞉4 ke꞉5 nɔ6 | c=02 | Upper Phake village | c=03 | Borphake | c=04 | Tinsukia | |
| c=01 | niŋ1 kam4 | c=02 | Ning kam Nagas | c=03 | Nigam Phake | c=04 | Tinsukia | |
| c=01 | ma꞉n3 pha꞉4 naiŋ2 | c=02 | Red sky village | c=03 | Faneng | c=04 | Tinsukia | |
| c=01 | məŋ2 la꞉ŋ2 | c=02 | Country of the Lang Nagas | c=03 | Mounglang | c=04 | Tinsukia | |
| c=01 | məŋ2 mɔ1 | c=02 | Mine village | c=03 | Man Mau | c=04 | Tinsukia | |
| c=01 | ma꞉n3 loŋ6 | c=02 | Big village | c=03 | Man Long | c=04 | Tinsukia | |
| c=01 | nauŋ1 lai6 | c=02 | Nong Lai Nagas | c=03 | Nonglai | c=04 | - |
The pronounced as /maːn˧/ corresponds to the modern Thai ban (Thai: บ้าน) and Shan wan (Shan: ဝၢၼ်ႈ), which mean 'village'.(Note: For an explanation of the notation system for Tai tones, see Proto-Tai language#Tones.)
Tai Phake has the following initial consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless | voiced | voiceless | voiced | voiceless | voiced | voiceless | voiced | voiceless | ||
| Plosive | Tenuis | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| Semi-vowel | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
Tai Phake has the following final consonants:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless | voiced | voiceless | voiced | voiced | voiceless | voiced | voiceless | ||
| Plosive | Tenuis | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Semi-vowel | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
-[w] occurs after front vowels and [a]-, -[j] occurs after back vowels and [a]-.[1]
Tai Phake has the following vowel inventory:[2]
| Front | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unr. | unr. | rnd. | |||
| short | short | long | short | ||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
See also: Burmese script and Burmese alphabet. The Tai Phake have their own writing system called 'Lik-Tai', which they share with the Khamti people and Tai Aiton people.[1] It closely resembles the Northern Shan script of Myanmar, which is a variant of the Burmese script, with some of the letters taking divergent shapes.[3]