Tai Lü language
Encyclopedia
Tai Lü is a language spoken by about 670,000 people in South East Asia. This includes 250,000 people in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, 200,000 in Burma, 134,000 in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, and 5,000 in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. The language is similar to other Tai languages
Tai languages
The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages are a branch of the Tai–Kadai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including standard Thai or Siamese, the national language of Thailand; Lao or Laotian, the national language of Laos; Burma's Shan language;...

.

In Vietnam, Tai Lü speakers are officially recognised as the Lự
Lu people
The Tai Lü people are an ethnic group of Vietnam, China, and Thailand. In Vietnam, most Lu live in the Lai Chau Province, and their population was 4,964 in 1999. In China, they are officially recognized as part of the Dai ethnic group. They speak a Tai language.Lu is the indigenous people in Mường...

 ethnic minority, although in China they are classified as part of the Dai people
Dai people
The Dai peoples is one of several ethnic groups living in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture , but by extension can apply to groups in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Burma when Dai is used to mean specifically Tai Lue, Chinese Shan or even...

, along with speakers of the other Tai languages
Tai languages
The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages are a branch of the Tai–Kadai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including standard Thai or Siamese, the national language of Thailand; Lao or Laotian, the national language of Laos; Burma's Shan language;...

 apart from Zhuang.

Phonology

Tai Lü has 21 syllable-initial consonants, 91 syllable finals and six tones (three different tones in checked syllables, six in syllables).

Initials

p b m f v
t d n l
ts s j
k ŋ x
ʔ h


The initials ts- and s- are palatalised before i, e and ɛ and become tɕ- and ɕ-, respectively.

Finals

ɛː ɔː ɯː əː
ai aːi ui oi ɔi ɯi əi
au aːu iu eu ɛu əu
am aːm im em ɛm um om ɔm ɯm əm
an aːn in en ɛn un on ɔn ɯn ən
aːŋ ɛŋ ɔŋ ɯŋ əŋ
ap aːp ip ep ɛp up op ɔp ɯp əp
at aːt it et ɛt ut ot ɔt ɯt ət
ak aːk ik ek ɛk uk ok ɔk ɯk ək
ɛʔ ɔʔ ɯʔ əʔ

Tones

There are six tones for unchecked syllables, although only three are allowed in checked syllables (those ending with -p, -t or -k).
Description Contour Transcription
high 55 á
mid 33 a (not marked)
low 11 à
falling 51 â
high rising 35 á̄
low rising 13 à̄

Grammar

Word order is usually Subject - Verb - Object; Modifiers (e.g. adjectives) follow nouns.

Vocabulary

Tai Lü has many loanwords from Pali, as well as from the local Chinese dialect and modern Standard Chinese.

Numbers

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 100 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
nɯŋ sɔ́ŋ sám sī́ː hā̀ː hók tɕet pɛ̄́t kā̀u síp hɔ̀i mɯ̄́n sɛ́n làn

Writing systems

Tai Lü is written in two different alphabets. The old writing system was reformed in the 1950s, but is still in use and has recently regained government support. The new alphabet is a simplified version of the old script.

New Tai Lü

New Tai Lü is a modernisation of the Lanna alphabet, similar to the Thai alphabet, and consists of 42 initial consonant signs (21 high-tone class, 21 low-tone class), seven final consonant signs, 16 vowel signs, two tone letters and one vowel shortening letter (or syllable-final glottal stop). Vowels signs can be placed before or after the syllable initial consonant.

Similar to the Thai alphabet, the pronunciation of the tone of a syllable depends on the class the initial consonant belongs to, syllable structure and vowel length
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...

, and the tone mark.

Unicode range ("New Tai Lue"): U+1980 – U+19DF

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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