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Tai Nuea language

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Tai Nuea
ᥖᥭᥰᥖᥬᥲᥑᥨᥒᥰ
Pronunciation[tai˥ taɯ˧˩ xoŋ˥]
Native toChina, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos
RegionSouthwest China
Native speakers
(720,000 cited 1983–2007)[1]
Kra–Dai
Tai Le script
Official status
Official language in
co-official in Dehong, China
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
tdd – Tai Nüa
thi – Tai Long
Glottologtain1252  Tai Nua
tail1247  Tai Long
ELPTai Neua
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
This article contains special characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.

Tai Nuea or Tai Nüa (Tai Nüa: ᥖᥭᥰᥖᥬᥳᥑᥨᥒᥰ; also called Tai Le, Dehong Dai or Chinese Shan; own name: Tai2 Lə6, which means "Upper Tai" or "Northern Tai" or ᥖᥭᥰᥖᥬᥳᥑᥨᥒᥰ, [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.[citation needed] It should not be confused with Tai Lü (Xishuangbanna Dai).

Names

The language is also known as Tai Mau, Tai Kong and Tai Na.[2]

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.

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

Main article: Tai Le script

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
ᥐ k [k] ᥑ x [x] ᥒ ng [ŋ]
ᥓ ts [ts] ᥔ s [s] ᥕ y [j]
ᥖ t [t] ᥗ th [tʰ] ᥘ l [l]
ᥙ p [p] ᥚ ph [pʰ] ᥛ m [m]
ᥜ f [f] ᥝ v [w]
ᥞ h [h] ᥟ q [ʔ]
ᥠ kh [kʰ] ᥡ tsh [tsʰ] ᥢ 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
ᥣ a [aː]
ᥤ i [i] ᥧ u [u]
ᥥ ee [e] ᥨ oo [o]
ᥦ eh [ɛ] ᥩ o [ɔ]
ᥪ ue [ɯ] ᥫ e [ə]
ᥬ aue [aɯ] ᥭ ai [ai]

Diphthongs are formed by combining some vowel letters with the consonant ᥝ [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
1. ᥖᥴ ᥖ́
2. ᥖᥰ ᥖ̈
3. ᥖᥱ ᥖ̌
4. ᥖᥲ ᥖ̀
5. ᥖᥳ ᥖ̇
6. ᥖ ᥖ

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

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.[3]

References

  1. ^ Tai Nüa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Tai Long at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ "Revised proposal for encoding the Tai Le script in the BMP of the UCS" (PDF). 2001-10-06. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ Thawi Swangpanyangkoon and Edward Robinson. 1994. (2537 Thai). Dehong Tai proverbs. Sathaban Thai Suksa, Chulalankorn Mahawitayalai.
  • Chantanaroj, Apiradee. 2007. A Preliminary Sociolinguistic Survey of Selected Tai Nua Speech Varieties. Master's thesis, Payap University.
  • Luo Yongxian. 1998. A dictionary of Dehong, Southwest China. Pacific Linguistics Series C, no. 145. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • 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.
  • Zhou Yaowen, Luo Meizhen / 周耀文, 罗美珍. 2001. 傣语方言硏究 : 语音, 词汇, 文字 / Dai yu fang yan yan jiu: yu yin, ci hui, wen zi. Beijing: 民族出版社 / Min zu chu ban she.
  • 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.
Tai Nuea language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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