| Tai Dón | |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /lang=twh/ |
| States: | Laos, Vietnam, China (Mengla Township of Jinping) |
| Ethnicity: | White Tai |
| Speakers: | 500,000 |
| Date: | 1995–2002 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Kra–Dai |
| Fam2: | Tai |
| Fam3: | Southwestern (Thai) |
| Fam4: | Chiang Saen |
| Script: | Tai Viet |
| Iso3: | twh |
| Glotto: | taid1250 |
| Glottorefname: | Tai Don |
Tai Dón (pronounced as /lang=twh/[1]), also known as Tai Khao or White Tai, is a Tai language of northern Vietnam, Laos and China.
Tai Dón is classified as belonging to the Tai-Kadai language group, located in the Tai languages and Southwestern Tai languages subgroups.
In China, White Tai (Tai Khaw 傣皓) people are located in the following townships of Yunnan province, with about 40,000 people (Gao 1999).[2]
Each syllable has at least one onset, one nucleus, and one tone.[3] The following sections present the consonants, vowels, and tones in Tai Dón.
The following table presents the above consonant phonemes in words reported in Hudak's (2008) book.[3]
| Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /b/ | /bɤn˨˨/ "moon" | /d/ | /dɔn˦˥/ "white" | |||||||
| /p/ | /pɔ˦˥˦/ "father" | /t/ | /tu˨˨/ "door" | /t͡ɕ/ | /t͡ɕɔn˧˩ʔ/ "spoon" | /k/ | /kaːŋ˨˨/ "middle" | /ʔ/ | /ʔaːŋ˦˥/ "basin" | |
| /pʰ/ | /pʰaː˨˦ʔ/ "cloth" | /tʰ/ | /tʰiw˨˨/ "to whistle" | /t͡ɕʰ/ | /t͡ɕʰaj˦˥/ "egg" | /kʰ/ | /kʰo˨˦ʔ/ "to cook" | |||
| /m/ | /mɯŋ˦˦/ "you" | /n/ | /naː˨˦ʔ/ "face" | /ɲ/ | /ɲuŋ˦˦/ "mosquito" | /ŋ/ | /ŋaːj˦˥˦/ "easy" | |||
| /v/ | /vaːn˨˨/ "sweet" | |||||||||
| /f/ | /faː˨˨/ "lid" | /s/ | /sɔŋ˨˨/ "two" | /x/ | /xaj˨˨/ "tallow" | /h/ | /hɤ˦˥/ "sweat" | |||
| /l/ | /loŋ˦˦/ "dragon" | /j/ | /jɔj˧˩ʔ/ "to drool" |
There are four consonant clusters that occur at the beginning of a syllable.
| Cluster | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| kw | /kwaː˦˥˦/ "to visit" | |
| kʰw | /kʰwe˦˥/ "to dig" | |
| ŋw | /ŋwaː˦˥˦/ "fig" | |
| xw | /xwan˦˦/ "smoke" |
| Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | t | k | ʔ | |
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Approximant | j | ɰ |
Tai Dón has nine short vowels, and one long vowel. However, the short vowels are phonetically realized as long in final position[3] (e.g., /e/ is phonetically [eː] in final position).
| Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! colspan="4" | unrounded ! | rounded | ||||
| High | i | ɯ | u | |||
| Mid | e | ɤ | o | |||
| Low | ɛ | a | aː | ɔ | ||
There are six tones on a smooth syllable (an open syllable or a closed syllable ending in a sonorant).[3]
| Description | Tone letters | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| level, slightly lower than mid | 22 (or ˨˨) | /kaː˨˨/ "crow" | |
| high-rising | 45 (or ˦˥) | /kaː˦˥/ "all the way to" | |
| low-rising, glottalized | 24ʔ (or ˨˦ʔ) | /kaː˨˦ʔ/ "young rice plant" | |
| level, somewhat higher than mid | 44 (or ˦˦) | /kaː˦˦/ "stuck" | |
| level, somewhat higher than mid with a rise and fall | 454 (or ˦˥˦) | /kaː˦˥˦/ "price" | |
| falling, glottalized | 31ʔ (or ˧˩ʔ) | /kaː˧˩ʔ/ "to trade" |
Two of the six tones occur on a checked syllable (a syllable ending in a stop).
| Tone | Vowel length | Example |
|---|---|---|
| high-rising | short | /sat˦˥/ "animal" |
| long | /ʔaːp˦˥/ "to bathe" | |
| level, somewhat higher than mid | short | /mot˦˦/ "ant" |
| long | /laːt˦˦/ "to cover" |