Tai Nuea language explained

Tai Nuea
Nativename:
Tai Le
Pronunciation:pronounced as /tai˥.lə˧/
Script:Tai Le script
States:China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos
Region:Southwest China
Ethnicity:Tai Nua
Speakers:720,000
Date:1983–2007
Ref:e18
Familycolor:Kradai
Fam2:Tai
Fam3:Southwestern (Thai)
Fam4:Northwestern
Nation:China (Dehong, co-official)
Iso3:tdd
Glotto:tain1252
Glottoname:Tai Nua
Notice:IPA

Tai Nuea or Tai Nüa (; Thai: ภาษาไทเหนือ, in Thai pronounced as /pʰāːsǎː tʰāj nɯ̌a/), also called Dehong Tai (; Thai: ภาษาไทใต้คง, in Thai pronounced as /pʰāːsǎː tʰāj tâːj.kʰōŋ/) and Chinese Shan, is one of the languages spoken by the Dai people in China, especially in the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in the southwest of Yunnan Province. It is closely related to the other Tai languages and could be considered a dialect of Shan. It should not be confused with Tai Lü (Xishuangbanna Dai).

Names

Most Tai Nuea people call themselves Tai Le (pronounced as /tai˥.lə˧/), which means 'Upper Tai' or 'Northern Tai'. Note that this is different from Tai Lue, which is pronounced pronounced as /tai˥.lɪ˦˧/ in Tai Nuea.

Another autonym is pronounced as /tai˥ taɯ˧˩ xoŋ˥/, where pronounced as /taɯ˧˩/ means 'bottom, under, the lower part (of)' and pronounced as /xoŋ˥/ means 'the Hong River' (Luo 1998). Dehong is a transliteration of the term pronounced as /taɯ˧˩ xoŋ˥/.

The language is also known as Tai Mau, Tai Kong and Tai Na.[1]

Dialects

Zhou (2001:13) classifies Tai Nuea into the Dehong (Chinese: 德宏) and Menggeng (Chinese: 孟耿) dialects. Together, they add up to a total of 541,000 speakers.

Phonology

Tai Nuea is a tonal language with a very limited inventory of syllables with no consonant clusters. 16 syllable-initial consonants can be combined with 84 syllable finals and six tones.

Consonants

Initials

LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
plainsibilant
Nasalpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Plosivetenuispronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
aspiratedpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/(pronounced as /link/)*(pronounced as /link/)*
Fricativepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Approximantpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
*pronounced as /(kʰ) and (tsʰ)/ occur in loanwords

Finals

LabialAlveolarPalatalVelar
Nasalpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Plosivepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Approximantpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/


Vowels and diphthongs

Tai Nuea has ten vowels and 13 diphthongs:

FrontCentral-BackBack
Highpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Midpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Lowpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/

Tai Nuea's diphthongs are pronounced as /iu, eu, ɛu; ui, oi, ɔi; əi, əu; ai, aɯ, au; aːi, aːu/

Tones

Tai Nuea has six tones:

  1. rising pronounced as /[˨˦]/ (24)
  2. high falling pronounced as /[˥˧]/ (53) or high level pronounced as /[˥]/ (55)
  3. low level pronounced as /[˩]/ (11)
  4. low falling pronounced as /[˧˩]/ (31)
  5. mid falling pronounced as /[˦˧]/ (43) or high falling pronounced as /[˥˧]/ (53)
  6. mid level pronounced as /[˧]/ (33)

Syllables with p, t, k as final consonants can have only one of three tones (1., 3., or 5.).

Writing system

See main article: Tai Le script. The Tai Le script is closely related to other Southeast-Asian writing systems such as the Thai script and is thought to date back to the 14th century.

The original Tai Nuea spelling did not generally mark tones and failed to distinguish several vowels. It was reformed to make these distinctions, and diacritics were introduced to mark tones. The resulting writing system was officially introduced in 1956. In 1988, the spelling of tones was reformed; special tone letters were introduced instead of the earlier Latin diacritics.

The modern script has a total of 35 letters, including the five tone letters.

The transcription below is given according to the Unicode tables.

Consonants

Letter Transcription IPA Letter Transcription IPA Letter Transcription IPA
k [k] x [x] ng [ŋ]
ts [ts] s [s] y [j]
t [t] th pronounced as /[tʰ]/ l [l]
p [p] ph pronounced as /[pʰ]/ m [m]
f [f] v [w]
h [h] q pronounced as /[ʔ]/
kh pronounced as /[kʰ]/ tsh pronounced as /[tsʰ]/ n [n]

Vowels and diphthongs

Consonants that are not followed by a vowel letter are pronounced with the inherent vowel [a]. Other vowels are indicated with the following letters:

Letter Transcription IPA Letter Transcription IPA
a pronounced as /[aː]/
i [i] u [u]
ee [e] oo [o]
eh pronounced as /[ɛ]/ o pronounced as /[ɔ]/
ue pronounced as /[ɯ]/ e [ə]
aue pronounced as /[aɯ]/ ai [ai]

Diphthongs are formed by combining some vowel letters with the consonant [w] and some vowel letters with ᥭ [ai]/[j].

Tones

In the Thai and Tai Lü writing systems, the tone value in the pronunciation of a written syllable depends on the tone class of the initial consonant, vowel length and syllable structure. In contrast, the Tai Nuea writing system has a very straightforward spelling of tones, with one letter (or diacritic) for each tone.

Tone marks were presented via the third reform (1963) as diacritics. Then the fourth reform (1988) changed them into tone letters. A tone mark is put at the end of syllable whatever it is consonant or vowel. Examples in the table show the syllable [ta] in different tones.

Number New (1988) Old (1963) Pitch
1. 35
2. 55
3. 11
4. 42
5. 54
6. 33

The sixth tone (mid level) is not marked. And if a syllable with -p, -t, -k finals have the fifth tone, the tone mark is not written.

Grammar

Pronouns

MeaningPlural
1st personᥐᥝ (kau33)ᥖᥧ (tu33)
ᥞᥝᥰ (hau55)
2nd personᥛᥬᥰ (maɯ55)ᥔᥧᥴ (su35)
3rd personᥛᥢᥰ (man55)ᥑᥝᥴ (xau35)

Syntax

Tai Nuea uses an SVO word order.

Adverb

Word Meaning
ᥔᥒᥴ (sang35) What
Why
ᥐᥤᥱ (ki11) How many
ᥚᥬᥴ (phaɯ35) Who
ᥗᥬᥴ (thaɯ35) Where

Language use

Tai Nuea has official status in some parts of Yunnan (China), where it is used on signs and in education. Yunnan People's Radio Station (Yúnnán rénmín guǎngbō diàntái 云南人民广播电台) broadcasts in Tai Nuea. On the other hand, however, very little printed material is published in Tai Nuea in China. However, many signs of roads and stores in Mangshi are in Tai Nuea.

In Thailand, a collection of 108 proverbs was published with translations into Thai and English.[2]

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2001-10-06 . Revised Proposal for Encoding the Tai Le script in the BMP of the UCS . en . unicode.org.
  2. Thawi Swangpanyangkoon and Edward Robinson. 1994. (2537 Thai). Dehong Tai proverbs. Sathaban Thai Suksa, Chulalankorn Mahawitayalai.