Tai_Dón_language

Tai Dón language

Tai Dón language

Tai language spoken in China and Southeast Asia

Tai Dón (ꪼꪕ ꪒꪮꪙꫀ, /taj˦.dɔn˦˥/[1]), also known as Tai Khao or White Tai, is a Tai language of northern Vietnam, Laos and China.

Quick Facts Pronunciation, Native to ...

Classification

Tai Dón is classified as belonging to the Tai-Kadai language group, located in the Tai languages and Southwestern Tai languages subgroups.

Geographical distribution

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).[3]

  • Jinping County 金平县: Mengla Township 勐拉乡 and Zhemi Township 者米乡 (along the banks of the Zhemi River 者米河 and Tengtiao River 藤条)
  • Malipo County 麻栗坡县: Nanwenhe Township 南温河乡
  • Maguan County 马关县: Dulong Town 都龙镇
  • Jiangcheng County 江城县: Qushui Township 曲水乡 (along the banks of the Tuka River 土卡河)

Phonology

Each syllable has at least one onset, one nucleus, and one tone.[4] The following sections present the consonants, vowels, and tones in Tai Dón.

Consonants

Initial consonants

More information Labial, Alveolar ...
  1. "Hudak (2008)[4]: 9  likely used <c> to transcribe /t͡ɕ/. Fippinger and Fippinger (1970) used <c> to transcribe /t͡ɕ/, by writing "/c/ [č] alveopalatal affricate", for /t͡ɕ/ in Tai Dam, a language closely related to Tai Dón, in an article that compares Tai Dam phonemes to Tai Dón phonemes.[5]: 85 
  2. /v/ is likely a sonorant because of its sonority and low level of friction.[4]: 10  It is also in complementary distribution with [w] which occurs only at the end of a syllable.[4]: 10 
  3. /j/ is often pronounced as [z] in initial position due to the influence of Vietnamese phonology.[4]: 10 

The following table presents the above consonant phonemes in words reported in Hudak's (2008) book.[4]: 9–10 

More information Phoneme, Example ...

There are four consonant clusters that occur at the beginning of a syllable.

More information Cluster, Example ...

Final consonants

More information Labial, Alveolar ...
  1. "/ɰ/ occurs after /a/ (e.g., /baɰ˨˨/ ꪻꪚ "leaf")[4]: 11 

Vowels

Tai Dón has nine short vowels, and one long vowel. However, the short vowels are phonetically realized as long in final position[4]: 10  (e.g., /e/ is phonetically [eː] in final position).

More information Front, Back ...

Tones

There are six tones on a smooth syllable (an open syllable or a closed syllable ending in a sonorant).[4]: 9 

More information Description, Tone letters ...

Two of the six tones occur on a checked syllable (a syllable ending in a stop).

More information Tone, Vowel length ...

References

  1. [1]
    "The White Tai refer to themselves and their language as tay⁴ dɔn², probably because of the white blouses worn by the women. The usual word for 'white' in White Tai is dɔn²" (p. 8). Hudak, T. J. (2008). William J. Gedney’s comparative Tai source book. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
  2. [2]
    Tai Dón at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  3. [3]
    Gao Lishi 高立士. 1999. 傣族支系探微. 中南民族学院学报 (哲学社会科学版). 1999 年第1 期 (总第96 期).
  4. [4]
    Hudak, T. J. (2008). William J. Gedney’s comparative Tai source book. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
  5. [5]
    Fippinger, J. & Fippinger, D. (1970). Black Tai Phonemes, with reference to White Tai. Anthropological Linguistics, 12(3). 83-97.


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