Social:Tai Nuea language

Short description: Kra–Dai language spoken in Southeast Asia

Tai Nuea
Template:TaiLe Tai Le
Pronunciation	[tai˥ taɯ˧˩ xoŋ˥]
Native to	China , Myanmar, Thailand, Laos
Region	Southwest China
Ethnicity	Tai Nua
Native speakers	(720,000 cited 1983–2007)
Language family	Kra–Dai Tai Southwestern (Thai) Northwestern Tai Nuea
Writing system	Tai Le script
Official status
Official language in	China (Dehong) co-official
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: tdd – Tai Nüa thi – Tai Long
Glottolog	tain1252  Tai Nua tail1247  Tai Long

Tai Nuea or Tai Nüa (Tai Nüa: Template:TaiLe; also called Tai Le, Dehong Dai or Chinese Shan; own name: Tai2 Lə6, which means "Upper Tai" or "Northern Tai" or Template:TaiLe, [tai taɯ xoŋ]; Chinese: Dǎinàyǔ, 傣那语 or Déhóng Dǎiyǔ, 德宏傣语; Thai: ภาษาไทเหนือ, pronounced [pʰāːsǎː tʰāj nɯ̌a] or ภาษาไทใต้คง, pronounced [pʰāːsǎː tʰāj tâːj.kʰōŋ]) 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. Speakers of this language across the border in Myanmar are known as Shan. It should not be confused with Tai Lü (Xishuangbanna Dai).

Names

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

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

Dehong is a transliteration of the term taɨ˧˩xoŋ˥, where taɨ˧˩ means 'bottom, under, the lower part (of)' and xoŋ˥ means 'the Hong River' (more widely known as the Salween River or Nujiang 怒江 in Chinese) (Luo 1998).

Dialects

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

• Dehong dialect 德宏土语: 332,000 speakers
  • Dehong Prefecture 德宏州: Mangshi 芒市, Yingjiang 盈江, Lianghe 梁河, Longchuan 陇川, Ruili 瑞丽, Wanding 畹町
  • Baoshan District 保山地区: Baoshan 保山, Tengchong 腾冲, Longling 龙陵, Shidian 施甸
• Menggeng dialect 孟耿土语: 209,000 speakers
  • Pu'er City 普洱市 / Simao District 思茅地区: Menglian 孟连, Jinggu 景谷, Lancang 澜沧, Zhenyuan 镇沅, Ximeng 西盟, Jingdong 景东, Simao 思茅, Pu'er 普洱, Mojiang 墨江
  • Baoshan District 保山地区: Changning 昌宁
  • Lincang District 临沧地区: Gengma 耿马, Lincang 临沧, Shuangjiang 双江, Cangyuan 沧源, Yongde 永德, Zhenkang 镇康, Yunxian 云县, Fengqing 风庆. A separate traditional script has been developed in Mengding Township 勐定镇, Lincang 临沧, and is different from the one used in the Dehong area — see Zhou (2001:371).

Ethnologue also recognizes Tai Long of Laos as a separate language. It is spoken by 4,800 people (as of 2004) in Luang Prabang Province, Laos.

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

		Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			plain	sibilant
Nasal		[m]	[n]			[ŋ]
Plosive	tenuis	[p]	[t]	[t͡s]		[k]	[ʔ]
	aspirated	[pʰ]	[tʰ]	(t͡sʰ)*		(kʰ)*
Fricative		[f]		[s]		[x]	[h]
Approximant			[l]		[j]	[w]

*(kʰ) and (tsʰ) occur in loanwords

Finals

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	[m]	[n]		[ŋ]
Plosive	[p]	[t]		[k]
Approximant	[w]		[j]

Vowels and diphthongs

Tai Nuea has ten vowels and 13 diphthongs:

	Front	Central-Back	Back
High	/i/	/ɯ/	/u/
Mid	/e/	/ə/	/o/
Low	/ ɛ/	/a/ /aː/	/ɔ/

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

Tones

Tai Nuea has six tones:

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

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

Writing system

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
Template:TaiLe	k	[k]	Template:TaiLe	x	[x]	Template:TaiLe	ng	[ŋ]
Template:TaiLe	ts	[ts]	Template:TaiLe	s	[s]	Template:TaiLe	y	[j]
Template:TaiLe	t	[t]	Template:TaiLe	th	[tʰ]	Template:TaiLe	l	[l]
Template:TaiLe	p	[p]	Template:TaiLe	ph	[pʰ]	Template:TaiLe	m	[m]
Template:TaiLe	f	[f]	Template:TaiLe	v	[w]
Template:TaiLe	h	[h]	Template:TaiLe	q	[ʔ]
Template:TaiLe	kh	[kʰ]	Template:TaiLe	tsh	[tsʰ]	Template:TaiLe	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
Template:TaiLe	a	[aː]
Template:TaiLe	i	[i]	Template:TaiLe	u	[u]
Template:TaiLe	ee	[e]	Template:TaiLe	oo	[o]
Template:TaiLe	eh	[ɛ]	Template:TaiLe	o	[ɔ]
Template:TaiLe	ue	[ɯ]	Template:TaiLe	e	[ə]
Template:TaiLe	aue	[aɯ]	Template:TaiLe	ai	[ai]

Diphthongs are formed by combining some vowel letters with the consonant Template:TaiLe [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.

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, in old (1956) and new (1988) spellings.

Number	New	Old	Pitch
1.	Template:TaiLe	Template:TaiLe	35
2.	Template:TaiLe	Template:TaiLe	55
3.	Template:TaiLe	Template:TaiLe	11
4.	Template:TaiLe	Template:TaiLe	42
5.	Template:TaiLe	Template:TaiLe	54
6.	Template:TaiLe	Template:TaiLe	33

The sixth tone (mid level) is not marked. And if a checked syllable having the fifth tone, it is also not marked.

Grammar

Pronouns

		Meaning	Plural
1st person	exclusive	ᥐᥝ (kau33)	ᥖᥧ (tu33)
	inclusive		ᥞᥝᥰ (hau55)
2nd person		ᥛᥬᥰ (maɯ55)	ᥔᥧᥴ (su35)
3rd person		ᥛᥢᥰ (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.

References

• Chantanaroj, Apiradee (2007). A Preliminary Sociolinguistic Survey of Selected Tai Nua Speech Varieties (PDF) (Master's thesis). Payap University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-05-02.
• Luo, Yongxian (1998) (in en). A Dictionary of Dehong, Southwest China. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-C145. 
• Teekhachunhatean, Roong-a-roon รุ่งอรุณ ทีฆชุณหเถียร (2000). "Reflections on Tai Dehong Society from Language Point of View" (in en). Phaasaa Lae Phaasaasart / Journal of Language and Linguistics 18 (2): 71–82. 
• Zhou, Yaowen 周耀文; Fang, Bolong 方伯龙; Meng, Zunxian 孟尊贤 (1981). "Déhóng Dǎiwén" (in zh). Mínzú yǔwén 1981 (3). 
• Zhou, Yaowen 周耀文; Luo, Meizhen 罗美珍 (2001) (in zh). Dǎiyǔ fāngyán yánjiū: Yǔyīn, cíhuì, wénzì. Beijing: Minzu chubanshe. 
• Zhang, Gongjin 张公瑾 (1981). "Dǎiwén jí qí wénxiàn" (in zh). Zhōngguóshǐ yánjiū dòngtài 1981 (6). 
• Berlie, Jean A. (1993) (in en). Neua (Na) in Yunnan (PRC) and the LPDR: A Minority and a "Non-Minority" in the Chinese and Lao Political Systems. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. https://books.google.com/books?id=uYWTPgAACAAJ. 

External links

• Tai Dehong
• Dehong Daiwen jianjie ji zifuji 德宏傣文简介及字符集 (Introduction to Dehong Dai with examples; in Chinese)
• Daiyu, Daiwen 傣语、傣文 (in Chinese)
• Yunnan sheng yuyan wenzi wang 云南省语言文字网 (Yunnan province language and writing web; in Chinese)