Tai Dón
ꪼꪕ ꪒꪮꪙꫀ[1]
Tai Dón as written in SyyDai font
Pronunciation/taj˦.dɔn˦˥/
Native toLaos, Vietnam, China (Mengla Township of Jinping)
EthnicityWhite Tai
Native speakers
(500,000 cited 1995–2002)[2]
Kra–Dai
Tai Viet
Language codes
ISO 639-3twh
Glottologtaid1250

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.

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

Initial consonants in Tai Dón[4]: 9–10 
LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Stop/Affricate voiced bd
voiceless unaspirated ptt͡ɕ[lower-alpha 1]kʔ
voiceless aspirated pʰtʰt͡ɕʰkʰ
Nasal mnɲŋ
Fricative voiced v[lower-alpha 2]
voiceless fsxh
Approximant lj[lower-alpha 3]
  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 

PhonemeExamplePhonemeExamplePhonemeExamplePhonemeExamplePhonemeExample
/b//bɤn˨˨/ ꪚꪷꪙ "moon"/d//dɔn˦˥/ ꪒꪮꪙꫀ "white"
/p//pɔ˦˥˦/ ꪝ꪿ꪮ "father"/t//tu˨˨/ ꪔꪴ "door"/t͡ɕ//t͡ɕɔn˧˩ʔ/ ꪋꪮꪙꫂ "spoon"/k//kaːŋ˨˨/ ꪀꪱꪉ "middle"/ʔ//ʔaːŋ˦˥/ ꪮꪱꪉꫀ "basin"
/pʰ//pʰaː˨˦ʔ/ ꪞꪱꫂ "cloth"/tʰ//tʰiw˨˨/ ꪖꪲꪫ "to whistle"/t͡ɕʰ//t͡ɕʰaj˦˥/ ꪼꪌꫀ "egg"/kʰ//kʰo˨˦ʔ/ ꪂꪺꫂ "to cook"
/m//mɯŋ˦˦/ ꪣꪳꪉ "you"/n//naː˨˦ʔ/ ꪘꪱꫂ "face"/ɲ//ɲuŋ˦˦/ ꪶꪑꪉ "mosquito"/ŋ//ŋaːj˦˥˦/ ꪉꪱꪥꫀ "easy"
/v//vaːn˨˨/ ꪪꪱꪙ "sweet"
/f//faː˨˨/ ꪠꪱ "lid"/s//sɔŋ˨˨/ ꪎꪮꪉ "two"/x//xaj˨˨/ ꪼꪄ "tallow"/h//hɤ˦˥/ ꪬꪷꫀ "sweat"
/l//loŋ˦˦/ ꪩꪺꪉ "dragon"/j//jɔj˧˩ʔ/ ꪥꪮꪥꫂ "to drool"

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

Initial consonant clusters in Tai Dón[4]: 10 
ClusterExample
kw/kwaː˦˥˦/ ꪁꪫꪱꫀ "to visit"
kʰw/kʰwe˦˥/ ꪂꪫꪸꫀ "to dig"
ŋw/ŋwaː˦˥˦/ ꪉꪫꪱꫀ "fig"
xw/xwan˦˦/ ꪅꪫꪽ "smoke"

Final consonants

Final consonants in Tai Dón[4]: 10–11 
LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Stop ptkʔ
Nasal mnŋ
Approximant wjɰ[lower-alpha 1]
  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).

Vowels in Tai Dón[4]: 10 
FrontBack
unroundedrounded
High iɯu
Mid eɤo
Low ɛaaːɔ

Tones

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

Tai Dón tones in smooth syllables[4]: 9 
DescriptionTone lettersExample
level, slightly lower than mid22 (or ˨˨)/kaː˨˨/ ꪀꪱ "crow"
high-rising45 (or ˦˥)/kaː˦˥/ ꪀꪱꫀ "all the way to"
low-rising, glottalized24ʔ (or ˨˦ʔ)/kaː˨˦ʔ/ ꪀꪱꫂ "young rice plant"
level, somewhat higher than mid44 (or ˦˦)/kaː˦˦/ ꪁꪱ "stuck"
level, somewhat higher than mid with a rise and fall454 (or ˦˥˦)/kaː˦˥˦/ ꪁꪱꫀ "price"
falling, glottalized31ʔ (or ˧˩ʔ)/kaː˧˩ʔ/ ꪁꪱꫂ "to trade"

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

Tai Dón tones in checked syllables[4]: 9 
ToneVowel lengthExample
high-risingshort/sat˦˥/ ꪎꪰꪒ "animal"
long/ʔaːp˦˥/ ꪮꪱꪚ "to bathe"
level, somewhat higher than midshort/mot˦˦/ ꪣꪺꪒ "ant"
long/laːt˦˦/ ꪩꪱꪒ "to cover"

References

  1. 1 2 "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. ↑ Tai Dón at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Hudak, T. J. (2008). William J. Gedney’s comparative Tai source book. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
  5. ↑ Fippinger, J. & Fippinger, D. (1970). Black Tai Phonemes, with reference to White Tai. Anthropological Linguistics, 12(3). 83-97.


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