Palaung language explained

Palaung
Also Known As:	De'ang, Ta'ang ပလောင်ဘာသာ, တအာင်းဘာသာ
States:	Burma, China, Thailand
Ethnicity:	Ta'ang
Speakers:	ca. 560,000
Date:	1982–??
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Austro-Asiatic
Fam2:	Khasi–Palaungic
Fam3:	Palaungic
Fam4:	Palaung–Riang
Script:	Burmese, Tai Le
Lc1:	pll
Ld1:	Shwe
Lc2:	pce
Ld2:	Ruching
Lc3:	rbb
Ld3:	Rumai
Glotto:	pala1336
Glottorefname:	Palaung

Palaung or Ta'ang, also known as De'ang (;), is a Austroasiatic dialect cluster spoken by over half a million people in Burma (Shan State) and neighboring countries. The Palaung people are divided into Palé (Ruching), Rumai, and Shwe, and each of whom have their own language.^{[1] [2]} The Riang languages are reported to be unintelligible or only understood with great difficulty by native speakers of the other Palaung languages.

A total number of speakers is uncertain; there were 150,000 Shwe speakers in 1982, 272,000 Ruching (Palé) speakers in 2000, and 139,000 Rumai speakers at an unrecorded date. Palaung was classified as a "severely endangered" language in UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.^{[3] [4]} The Rulai dialect spoken near Lashio has regular phonological changes and some lexical differences from Ruching.^[5]

Dialects

Yan and Zhou (2012)

Chinese linguists classify "De'ang 德昂" varieties (spoken mostly in Santaishan Ethnic De'ang Township 三台山德昂族乡, Mangshi and Junnong Township 军弄乡, Zhenkang County) as follows (De'angyu Jianzhi). Names in IPA are from Yan & Zhou (2012:154–155)

• Bulei 布雷 [{{IPA|pule}}](representative datapoint: Yunqian 允欠,^[6] Mangshi): spoken in Luxi
  • Bulei 布雷 [{{IPA|pule}}] dialect
  • Raojin 饶进 [{{IPA|raudʑĕŋ}}] dialect
• Liang 梁 [{{IPA|liaŋ}}] (representative datapoint: Xiaochanggou 硝厂沟): spoken in Longchuan and Ruili
• Rumai 汝买 [{{IPA|romai}}], pronounced as /roraumai/) (representative datapoint: Yechaqing 叶茶箐): spoken in Zhenkang and Baoshan

The De'ang 德昂 variously refer themselves as pronounced as /naʔaŋ/, [{{IPA|daʔaŋ}}], [{{IPA|toʔaŋ}}], and [{{IPA|laʔaŋ}}], depending on the dialect (Yan & Zhou 2012:154–155). Another De'ang autonym is pronounced as /ho (rau) khaoʔ/, where pronounced as /rau/ means 'village'. The local Dai people refer to the De'ang as pronounced as /po˧loŋ˧/.

Liu (2006) documents three Palaungic lects, namely:

• Guangka Village, Mengxiu Township, Ruili City (瑞丽市勐休乡广卡村);^[7] [{{IPA|ru˥ mai˦˩˨}}]; tonal
• Mengdan Village, Santaishan Township (三台山勐丹村);^[8] [{{IPA|ʔaŋ}}]; non-tonal
• Guanshuang Village, Mengman Township, Xishuangbanna (西双版纳州勐满乡关双村);^[9] [{{IPA|ar˧˩ vaʔ˩˧}}]; tonal

Ostapirat (2009)

Weera Ostapirat (2009:74) classifies the Palaung languages as follows.^[10] Defining sound changes are given in parentheses.

Palaung

• Ta-ang
• Rumai-Darang (*-ɔŋ > -ɛŋ; *-uŋ > -ɨŋ)
  • Rumai (*-r- > -j-)
  • Ra-ang-Darang (*b, *d, *ɟ, *g > p, t, c, k)
    • Ra-ang
    • Darang (*-on > -uan; *-r > -n)
      • Na-ang
      • Darang
      • Da-ang
      • Dara-ang

Shintani (2008)

Shintani (2008) recognizes two dialects of Palaung, namely Southern Palaung and Northern Palaung. Southern Palaung unvoiced stops correspond to Northern Palaung voiced stops, the latter which Shintani (2008) believes to be retentions from Proto-Palaungic. Southern Palaung dialects studied by Shintani (2008) are those of:

• Kengtung town
• Waanpao village (near Kengtung)
• Chengphong village (near Kengtung)
• Loikhong village (near Mängpeng)
• Mängküng
• Yassaw
• Kalaw

Deepadung et al. (2015)

Deepadung et al. (2015)^[11] classify the Palaung dialects as follows.

Palaung

• Ta-ang: Namhsan, Khun Hawt, Htan Hsan
• (core Palaung)
  • Pule: Pang Kham, Man Loi, Meng Dan, Chu Dong Gua
  • Dara-ang: Pan Paw, Noe Lae, Nyaung Gone, Pong Nuea (?), Xiang Cai Tang 香菜塘
  • Rumai: Nan Sang, Guang Ka, Mang Bang
  • ? Cha Ye Qing 茶叶箐

Phonology

Chen, et al. (1986) lists the following consonants for Palaung:

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal		Glottal
Stop		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Nasal		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/
		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Fricative		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
		pronounced as /link/
Rhotic			pronounced as /ink/
			pronounced as /ink/
Approximant			pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
			pronounced as /ink/

A final /r/ can be heard as a voiceless sound [ɹ̥], and following a /u/ it is heard as [ɫ̥].

	Front	Back
	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Near-close	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Mid	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Open	pronounced as /ink/

/ɤ/ can be heard in rapid speech as a central vowel [ə], and is heard as [ɤ] elsewhere. /a/ can be heard as fronted [æ] before /k, ŋ/, and [ɛ] before /n, t/.

According to Shorto (1960), /ɤ/ does not occur alone in primary stressed syllable, but only in an unstressed syllable or as the second member of a diphthong. There are also a large number of diphthongs, including /eo/, /eɤ/, /aɤ/, /ɔɤ/, /oɤ/, /uɤ/, and /iɤ/.

Although Milne (1921) includes the vowels /ü, ö, ɪ/ in her transcriptions, Shorto (1960) did not find these as vowel phonemes in his work.

(Note that the words cited below in the Syntax section come from Milne (1921), so their phonetic representations may need revision.)

Syntax

The examples below are form Milne (1921).

Nouns and noun phrases

The order of elements in the noun phrase is N – (possessor) – (demonstrative).

Consider the following examples:

kwɔɔn	ai	öö
child	we two	this
this child of ours

Prepositions and prepositional phrases

Shwe Palaung has prepositions, as in the following example.

ta	khuun	hɔɔkhəm
to	great	king
to the great king

Sentences

Shwe Palaung clauses generally have subject–verb–object (SVO) word order.

əən	dii	d͡ʒüür	gaaŋ
he	future	buy	house
He will buy a house.

Text sample

The following part of a story in Shwe Palaung is from Milne (1921:146–147).

Naaŋ̩	rashööh,	naaŋ	jü	grai	ta	khuun	hɔɔkhəm	naaŋ	daah,
lady	awake	lady	narrative:past	said	to	great	king	lady	say
The queen awoke and said to the king

öö

ka

tööm

rɪɪnpoo

hlai

uu

lööh

khənjaa

öö

ai

lɔh

shoktee

haa

öö

oh

neg

ever

dream

even

one

time

ruler

oh

we two

come

fast

place

this

'Oh, I never dreamed (like this) before, oh Ruler, (since) we two came to this place to fast

Phadiiu

nɔ

la

puur

shəŋii,

ɔɔ

rɪɪnpoo

khuun

phii

leeh

today

full

good

seven

day

I

dream

great

spirit

come down

seven days ago, I dreamed that the great spirit came down

dɛh

ɔɔ

hɔɔm

makmon

kəəm

ŋaam

hnjo hnjo

give

me

eat

long mango

gold

sweet

very

and gave me long mangoes of gold to eat. They were very sweet.'

References

Sources

• Book: Shintani, Tadahiko . The Palaung language: the comparative lexicon of its southern dialects . 2008 . Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) . Tokyo . 9784863370135 . en . Shintani Tadahiko.

Further reading

• Book: Mak, Pandora . Golden Palaung: A Grammatical Description . 2012 . Asia-Pacific Linguistics . 978-1-922185-02-0 . Canberra . en . 1885/9558 . free.
• Book: Yan . Qixiang 颜其香 . Zhōngguó Mèng-Gāomián yǔzú yǔyán yǔ nán yǎ yǔxì . Zhou . Zhizhi 周植志 . 2012 . Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe . Beijing . zh . zh:中国孟高棉语族语言与南亚语系 . The Mon–Khmer Languages in China and Austro-Asiatic Languages.
• Harper . Jerod . Phonological Descriptions of Plang Spoken in Man Noi, La Gang, and Bang Deng Villages (in China) . 2009 . M.A. . Payap University . en . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170809082609/https://inter.payap.ac.th/wp-content/uploads/linguistics_students/Jerod_Harper_Thesis.pdf . 2017-08-09.
• Lewis . Emily . Grammatical Studies of Man Noi Plang . 2008 . M.A. . Payap University . en . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170809082821/https://inter.payap.ac.th/wp-content/uploads/linguistics_students/Emily_Lewis_Thesis.pdf . 2017-08-09.
• Book: Liu, Yan 刘岩 . Mèng-Gāomiányǔ shēngdiào yánjiū . 2006 . Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe . Beijing . zh . zh:孟高棉语声调研究 . Tone in Mon-Khmer Languages.
• Book: Chen . Xiangmu 陈相木 . Dé'ángyǔ jiǎnzhì . Wang . Jingliu 王敬骝 . Lai . Yongliang 赖永良 . Minzu chubanshe . 1986 . Beijing . zh . zh:德昂语简志 . Sketch Grammar of De'ang.
• Shorto . H. L. . 1960 . Word and Syllable Patterns in Palaung . Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London . en . 23 . 3 . 544–557 . 10.1017/S0041977X00150608 . 610037. 162222040 .
• Book: Milne, Mrs. Leslie . A Dictionary of English–Palaung and Palaung–English . 1931 . Supdt., Govt. Print. and Stationery . Rangoon . en . Mrs. Leslie Milne.
• Book: Milne, Mrs. Leslie . An Elementary Palaung Grammar . 1921 . The Clarendon Press . Oxford . en. (cp. https://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_pll_ortho-1)

External links

• Palaung Thailand language site
• Palaung Ruch language site

Notes and References

1. Web site: Waddington . Ray . 2003 . The Palaung . 3 May 2012 . The Peoples of the World Foundation . en.
2. Book: Klose, Albrecht . Sprachen der Welt Ein weltweiter Index der Sprachfamilien, Einzelsprachen und Dialekte, mit Angabe der Synonyma und fremdsprachigen Äquivalente / Languages of the World: A Multi-lingual Concordance of Languages, Dialects, and Language-families . 2001 . K.G. Saur . 3-598-11404-4 . 2nd rev. and enl. . München . 403.
3. Web site: UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger . 2020-06-03 . United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization . en.
4. Book: Moseley, Christopher . Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger . 2010 . United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization . 978-92-3-104096-2 . en.
5. Web site: 2016 . Myanmar . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20161010180533/http://www.ethnologue.com/country/MM/languages . 2016-10-10 . Ethnologue: Languages of the World.
6. Web site: Lùxī Shì Sāntáishān Dé'ángzú Xiāng Yǔnqiàn Cūnwěihuì . zh:潞西市三台山德昂族乡允欠村委会 . Yunqian Village Committee, Santaishan Deang Ethnic Township, Luxi City . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20180723212328/http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=98248 . 2018-07-23 . 2016-09-29 . ynszxc.gov.cn . zh.
7. Web site: Ruìlì Shì Měngxiù Xiāng Měngxiù Cūnwěihuì Guǎngkǎ Zìráncūn . zh:瑞丽市勐秀乡勐秀村委会广卡自然村 . Guangka Natural Village, Mengxiu Village Committee, Mengxiu Township, Ruili City . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170202013139/http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=96662 . 2017-02-02 . 2016-10-09 . ynszxc.gov.cn . zh.
8. Web site: Lùxī Shì Sāntáishān Dé'ángzú Xiāng Měngdān Cūnwěihuì . zh:潞西市三台山德昂族乡勐丹村委会 . Mengdan Village Committee, Santaishan Deang Ethnic Township, Luxi City . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170202013232/http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=98245 . 2017-02-02 . 2016-10-09 . ynszxc.gov.cn . zh.
9. Web site: Měnghǎi Xiàn Měngmǎn Zhèn Guānshuāng Cūnwěihuì . zh:勐海县勐满镇关双村委会 . Guanshuang Village Committee, Mengman Town, Menghai County . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170202013225/http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=172883 . 2017-02-02 . 2016-10-09 . ynszxc.gov.cn . zh.
10. Ostapirat . Weera . 2009 . Some Phonological Criteria for Palaung Subgrouping . Journal of Language and Culture . en . 28 . 1 . 63.
11. Deepadung . Sujaritlak . Buakaw . Supakit . Rattanapitak . Ampika . 2015 . A Lexical Comparison of the Palaung Dialects Spoken in China, Myanmar, and Thailand. Mon-Khmer Studies . en . 44 . 19–38 . 10.15144/MKSJ-44.19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180827200200/http://www.mksjournal.org/mks44sujaritlak.pdf . 2018-08-27.