| Tavoyan | |
| Also Known As: | Dawei |
| Region: | Southeast |
| Ethnicity: | incl. Taungyo |
| Speakers: | ca. 440,000 |
| Date: | 2000 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | (Tibeto-Burman) |
| Fam3: | Lolo–Burmese |
| Fam4: | Burmish |
| Fam5: | Southern |
| Fam6: | Burmese |
| Lc1: | tvn |
| Ld1: | Tavoyan proper |
| Lc2: | tco |
| Ld2: | Dawei Tavoyan (Taungyo) |
| Glotto: | tavo1242 |
| Glottoname: | Tavoyan |
| Glotto2: | taun1248 |
| Glottoname2: | Taungyo |
The Tavoyan or Dawei dialect of Burmese (Burmese: ထားဝယ်စကား) is spoken in Dawei (Tavoy), in the coastal Tanintharyi Region of southern Myanmar (Burma).
Tavoyan retains an pronounced as //-l-// medial that has since merged into the pronounced as //-j-// medial in standard Burmese and can form the following consonant clusters: pronounced as //ɡl-//, pronounced as //kl-//, pronounced as //kʰl-//, pronounced as //bl-//, pronounced as //pl-//, pronounced as //pʰl-//, pronounced as //ml-//, pronounced as //m̥l-//. Examples include Burmese: မ္လေ (pronounced as //mlè// → Standard Burmese pronounced as //mjè//) for "ground" and Burmese: က္လောင်း (pronounced as //kláʊɴ// → Standard Burmese pronounced as //tʃáʊɴ//) for "school".[1] Also, voicing can only occur with unaspirated consonants in Tavoyan, whereas in standard Burmese, voicing can occur with both aspirated and unaspirated consonants. Also, there are many loan words from Malay and Thai not found in Standard Burmese. An example is the word for goat, which is hseit (Burmese: ဆိတ်) in Standard Burmese but bê (Burmese: ဘဲ့) in Tavoyan, most likely from Mon pronounced as //həbeˀ// ({{Script/mnw-Mymr|ဗၜေံ) or Thai pronounced as //pʰɛ́ʔ// (แพะ).[2]
In the Tavoyan dialect, terms of endearment, as well as family terms, are considerably different from Standard Burmese. For instance, the terms for "father" and "mother" are Burmese: ဖစု (pronounced as //pʰa̰ òu//) and Burmese: မိစု (pronounced as //mḭ òu//) respectively.[3] Moreover, the honorific Burmese: နောင် (Naung) is used in lieu of Burmese: မောင် (Maung) for young males.
The following is a list of rhyme correspondences unique to the Tavoyan dialect[4]
| Written Burmese | Standard Burmese | Tavoyan dialect | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burmese: -င် -န် -မ် | pronounced as //-ɪɴ -aɴ -aɴ// | pronounced as //-aɴ// | |
| Burmese: -ဉ် -ျင် | pronounced as //-ɪɴ -jɪɴ// | pronounced as //-ɪɴ -jɪɴ// | |
| Burmese: ောင် | pronounced as //-aʊɴ// | pronounced as //-ɔɴ// | |
| Burmese: ုန် | pronounced as //-oʊɴ// | pronounced as //-uːɴ// | |
| Burmese: ုမ် | pronounced as //-aoɴ// | ||
| Burmese: ိမ် | pronounced as //-eɪɴ// | pronounced as //-iːɴ// | |
| Burmese: ုတ် | pronounced as //-oʊʔ// | pronounced as //-ṵ// | |
| Burmese: ုပ် | pronounced as //-aoʔ// | ||
| Burmese: -က် -တ် -ပ် | pronounced as //-ɛʔ -aʔ -aʔ// | pronounced as //-aʔ// | |
| Burmese: -ိတ် -ိပ် | pronounced as //-eɪʔ// | pronounced as //-ḭ// | |
| Burmese: -ည် | pronounced as //-ɛ, -e, -i/// | pronounced as //-ɛ// | |
| Burmese: -စ် -ျက် | pronounced as //-ɪʔ -jɛʔ// | pronounced as //-ɪʔ -jɪʔ// | |
| Burmese: ေွ | pronounced as //-we// | pronounced as //-i// | Burmese: ေ is pronounced as in standard Burmese |
| Open syllables | weak = ə full = i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u | |
| Closed syllables | nasal = iːɴ, ɪɴ, aɪɴ, an, ɔɴ, ʊɴ, uːɴ, aoɴ stop = ɪʔ, aɪʔ, aʔ, ɔʔ, ʊʔ, aoʔ |
According to Michael Aung-Thwin, the Burmese dialect of Dawei/Tavoy preserved the "spelling (and presumably pronunciation)" of the Old Burmese from the Bagan era. As a result, he suggests that it diverged from other Burmese varieties sometime after the Burmese settlement of Lower Burma under the Bagan era, between the 11th and 13th centuries. He attributes this divergence to a migration of Mon speakers into the area north of Dawei in the late 13th century, which would have cut off Dawei from the main Burmese area.[5]