Sila
Sida
Native toLaos, Vietnam
EthnicitySi La people
Native speakers
4,100 (2015 & 2019 censuses)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3slt
Glottologsila1247
ELPSila

Sila (also called Sida[2]) is a Loloish language spoken by 2,000 people in Laos and Vietnam (Bradley 1997). Sila speakers are an officially recognized group in Vietnam, where they are known as the Si La.

Phonology[2]

Consonants

Sila Consonants
Labial Dental/

Alveolar

 Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop plain p t tɕ k
aspirated pʰ tʰ tɕʰ kʰ
Fricative voiceless f s x
voiced ɣ
Approximant voiceless l̥
voiced w l j

Unaspirated plosives are usually realised as voiced stops. Phonetically, /l̥/ is realized as [͡l̥l]. The palatal nasal is noted as /ɲ/ although the phonetic realisation is closer to [ȵ], with the blade of the tongue remaining at a short distance from the palate.

Example contrasts

/p/ vs. /pʰ/: /pa33la33/ ‘moon’ vs. /ɐ31pʰa31/ ‘leaf’

/t/ vs. /tʰ/: /ta31/ ‘to look at’ vs. /tʰa33/ ‘PROHIBITIVE’

/tɕ/ vs. /tɕʰ/: /tɕɐ31/ ‘to have, to exist’ vs. /tɕʰɐ31/ ‘to speak’

/k/ vs. /kʰ/: /ki55lɯ55/ ‘green’ vs. /a31kʰi55/ ‘foot’

/f/ vs. /s/: /fɔ31/ ‘to protect vs. /sɔ31/ ‘to study’

/x/ vs. /ɣ/: /xɯ55/ ‘gold’ vs. /ɣɯ55/ ‘good’

/m/ vs. /n/: /ma̰31/ ‘person’ vs. /na̰31/ ‘deep’

/ɲ/ vs. /ŋ/: /ɲa55/ ‘frost’ vs. /ŋa55/ ‘salty’

/w/ vs. /j/: /wa33/ ‘careless’ vs. /ja31/ ‘child’

/l/ vs. /l̥/: /lɐ33wa33/ ‘palm of hand’ vs. /l̥a33/ ‘to fall down’

Vowels

Front Back
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
Close i y ɯ u
Close-mid e ø ɤ o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a ɐ

All vowels can be creaky vowels, which are contrastive.

Sila diphthongs are /ɤi/, /ai/, /ao/, /oa/.

Example contrasts

/i/ vs. /e/ vs. /ɛ/: /pi33/ ‘to win’ vs. /pe33/ ‘to divide up’ vs. /pɛ33jo31/ ‘dragon’

/y/ vs. /ø/: /tʰy31/ ‘to spit out/ vs. /tʰø31/ ‘to wrap up’

/ɯ/ vs. /ɤ/: /tɯ31/ ‘to hit’ vs. /tɤ31/ ‘to soak’

/u/ vs. /o/ vs. /ɔ/: /tʰu55/ ‘thick’ vs. /tʰo55/ ‘to open a hole’ vs. /tʰɔ55/ ‘number of times/

/a/ vs. /ɐ/: /tɕa31/ ‘to eat’ vs. /tɕɐ31/ ‘to have, to exist/

Tones

Sila has three lexical tonemes and two grammatical tonemes.

Toneme Class
55 Lexical
35 Grammatical
53 Grammatical
33 Lexical
31 Lexical

Phonotactics

All consonants can occur as onsets, with /m/ able to form a syllabic nasal.

/j/ and /l/ may occur as medials, but /j/ only after bilabial and velar stops and /m/, and /l/ only after bilabial stops and /m/.

Unvoiced stops and nasals can occur as codas, but these are only found in words recently borrowed from Lao

Distribution

According to Edmondson (2002), the Sila number about 700 people in Vietnam and live in the following 3 villages.

According to the elderly Sila, seven Sila families had emigrated from Mường U and Mường Lá of Phongsaly Province, Laos, 175 years ago. They initially arrived at a location called Mường Tùng, and relocated several times before arriving at their present locations.

In Laos, Sila is spoken in:[3]

References

  1. ↑ Sila at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. 1 2 Badenoch, Nathan; Hayashi, Norihiko. 2017. Phonological Sketch of the Sida Language of Luang Namtha, Laos. JSEALS Volume 10.1 (2017).
  3. ↑ https://mpi-lingweb.shh.mpg.de/numeral/Sila.htm
  4. ↑ Kingsadā, Thō̜ngphet, and Tadahiko Shintani. 1999 Basic Vocabularies of the Languages Spoken in Phongxaly, Lao P.D.R. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
  5. ↑ Shintani, Tadahiko, Ryuichi Kosaka, and Takashi Kato. 2001. Linguistic Survey of Phongxaly, Lao P.D.R. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
  6. ↑ Kato, Takashi. 2008. Linguistic Survey of Tibeto-Burman languages in Lao P.D.R. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).

Sources

  • Edmondson, Jerold A. 2002. "The Central and Southern Loloish Languages of Vietnam". Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: Special Session on Tibeto-Burman and Southeast Asian Linguistics (2002), pp. 1–13.
  • Ma Ngọc Dung. 2000. Văn hóa Si La. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất ban văn hóa dân tôc.
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