Tai Nüa language

Tai Nüa language
Tai Nüa
ᥖᥭᥰᥖᥬᥳᥑᥨᥒᥰ
Pronunciation [tai taɯ xoŋ][need tone]
Spoken in China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos
Region Southwest China
Native speakers 650,000  (1983–2001)
Language family
Tai–Kadai
  • Tai
    • Southwestern
      • East Central
        • Northwestern
          • Tai Nüa
Official status
Regulated by No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-3 tdd

Tai Nüa (also called Dehong Dai or Chinese Shan; own name: [tai lə], which means "upper Tai" or "northern Tai", or ᥖᥭᥰᥖᥬᥳᥑᥨᥒᥰ [tai taɯ xoŋ]; Chinese: Dǎinǎyǔ 傣哪语 or Déhóng Dǎiyǔ 德宏傣语; Thai: ภาษาไทยเหนือ [pʰaːsaː tʰai nɯːa] or ภาษาไทใต้คง [pʰaːsǎː tʰai tǎikʰoŋ]) 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.[citation needed] It should not be confused with Tai Lü (Xishuangbanna Dai). There are also Tai Nüa speakers in Thailand.

The ISO-639 Code tai covers all Tai languages that do not have their own code (Thai, Lao, Shan and Zhuang), including Ahom, Bouyei, Tai Dam, Tai Pong, and others.

Note: To view Tai Nüa letters, you will have to download a Unicode font that contains Tai Nüa glyphs.

Contents

Phonology

Tai Nüa 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

Tai Nüa has 17 consonants:

p, pʰ, f, m
t, tʰ, ts, s, n
k, x, ŋ
ʔ, h, l, j, w

All consonants except for n can occur at the beginning of a syllable. Only the following consonants can occur at the end of a syllable: /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ/.

Vowels and diphthongs

Tai Nüa has ten vowels and 13 diphthongs:

a, aː, ɛ, e, i, ɯ, ə, ɔ, o, u
iu, eu, ɛu; ui, oi, ɔi; əi, əu; ai, aɯ, au; aːi, aːu

Tones

Tai Nüa 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)

(1 is the lowest, 5 the highest pitch)

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

Writing system

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

The original Tai Nüa 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 alphabet has a total of 35 letters, including the five tone letters. It is encoded under the name "Tai Le" in the Basic Multilingual Plane of Unicode at U+1950-U+1974.

The Tai Nüa numerals are similar to Myanmar numerals; they are in fact unified with Myanmar's numerals in Unicode (U+1040-U+1049) despite some glyph variations.

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 [tʰ] l [l]
p [p] ph [pʰ] m [m]
f [f] v [w]
h [h] q [ʔ]
kh [kʰ] tsh [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 [aː]
i [i] u [u]
ee [e] oo [o]
eh [ɛ] o [ɔ]
ue [ɯ] e [ə]
aue [aɯ] ai [ai]

Diphthongs are formed by combining some vowel letters with the consonant [w] and some vowel letters with [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 Nüa writing system has a very straightforward spelling of tones, with one letter (or diacritic) for each tone. The first tone is not marked.

Examples in the table show the syllable [ta] in different tones, in old (1956) and new (1988) spellings.

Number New Old
1.
2. ᥖᥰ ̈
3. ᥖᥱ ̌
4. ᥖᥲ ᥖ̀
5. ᥖᥳ ̈
6. ᥖᥴ ᥖ́

Language use

Tai Nüa 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 Nüa. On the other hand, however, very little printed material is published in Tai Nüa in China.

References

  • Roong-a-roon Teekhachunhatean รุ่งอรุณ ทีฆชุณหเถียร: Reflections on Tai Dehong Society from Language Point of View. In: Journal of Language and Linguistics 18.2 (January–June 2000), pp. 71–82.
  • Zhōu Yàowén周耀文, Fāng Bólóng 方伯龙, Mèng Zūnxiàn 孟尊贤: Déhóng Dǎiwén 德宏傣文 (Dehong Dai). In: Mínzú yǔwén《民族语文》 1981.3.
  • Zhāng Gōngjǐn 张公瑾: Dǎiwén jí qí wénxiàn 傣文及其文献 (The Dai language and Dai documents). In: Zhōngguóshǐ yánjiū dòngtài《中国史研究动态》 1981.6.
  • Neua (Na) in Yunnan (PRC) and the LPDR: a minority and a "non-minority" in the Chinese and Lao political systems, Jean A. Berlie, School of Oriental and African Studies editor, University of London, London, United Kingdom 1993.

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Tai Lü language — Tai Lü (or Tai Lue, Tai Le; tai51 lIPA|ɯ11; Xishuangbanna Dai; Chinese: 傣仂语 Dǎilèyǔ; Vietnamese: Lự or Lữ) is a language spoken by about 670,000 people in South East Asia. This includes 250,000 people in China, 200,000 in Burma, 134,000 in… …   Wikipedia

  • Idioma Tai Nüa — Tai Nüa es uno de los idiomas hablados por las personas Dai en China, especialmente en Dehong. Es relativamente relacionada con otras lenguas Tai. Los hablantes de este idioma en la frontera de Myanmar son conocidos como Shan. No debería… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Tai Nüa — ISO 639 3 Code : tdd ISO 639 2/B Code : ISO 639 2/T Code : ISO 639 1 Code : Scope : Individual Language Type : Living …   Names of Languages ISO 639-3

  • Tai Le — may refer to:* Tai Le script * Tai Nüa language / Tai Le languageee also*Tai Lü/ Tai Le …   Wikipedia

  • Tai Le script — Infobox Writing system name=Dehong Dai/Tai Le type=abugida unicode= [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0E80.pdf U+1950 ndash;U+197F] iso15924=TaleTai Le is a script used for the Tai Nüa language. Unicode The Unicode range for Tai Le is U+1950… …   Wikipedia

  • Tai peoples — Thai peoples redirects here. For the subgroup of the Tai, see Thai people Tai Tai women in Yunnan. Regions with significant populations China (Dai), Myanmar/Burma (Shan) …   Wikipedia

  • Tai languages — Infobox Language family name=Tai altname= region=Southern China (esp. Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan), Southeast Asia familycolor=Tai Kadai fam1=Tai Kadai child1=Northern child2=Central child3=Southwestern iso2=taiThe Tai languages ( th. ภาษาไต) are a… …   Wikipedia

  • Tai–Kadai languages — For the Indian cooking utensil, see Kadai. Tai–Kadai Kadai, Daic, Kradai Geographic distribution: Southern China, Hainan, Indochina, Northeast India Linguistic classification: One of the world s primary language families, with …   Wikipedia

  • Tai languages — Family of closely related languages spoken in Southeast Asia and southern China by more than 80 million people. According to a widely used classification, Tai comprises three branches. The Southwestern group includes Thai, the national language… …   Universalium

  • Isan language — For the Papuan language, see Finisterre languages. Isan ภาษาอีสาน phasa isan, ภาษาลาว Spoken in Thailand Region Isan Native speakers 20 million  (2004) …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”