Tày
Tiểng Tày, Thổ
Native toVietnam
EthnicityTày
Native speakers
1.63 million (2009)[1]
Latin (modified Vietnamese alphabet)
Chữ Nôm Tày
Sawndip
Language codes
ISO 639-3tyz
Glottologtayy1238

Tày or Thổ (a name shared with the unrelated Thổ and Cuoi languages) is the major Tai language of Vietnam, spoken by more than a million Tày people in Northeastern Vietnam.

Distribution

Varieties

Tày linguistic varieties include the following:[2][3]

  • Tày Bảo Lạc – spoken in Bảo Lạc District, western Cao Bang province.
  • Tày Trùng Khánh – spoken in Trùng Khánh District, northeastern Cao Bang province.
  • Thu Lao or Dai Zhuang varieties are considered to be a different language.

Phonology

Consonants

Tày consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain pal.
Plosive voiceless p pʲ t c k
aspirated pʰ pʰʲ tʰ kʰ
voiced b bʲ d
implosive ɓ ɓʲ ɗ
Fricative voiceless f s x h
voiced v z ɣ
lateral ɬ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Trill r
Approximant w l j
  • The Cao Bẳng Tày dialect is the only variety to have the sounds /j w r ɣ b d bʲ/.

Vowels

Tày vowels
Front Central Back
High i ɯ u
High-mid e o
Mid ə əː
Low-mid ɛ ɐ ɔ
Low a
Tày diphthongs
Front Back
Close ie ɯə uo
  • There are also three semivowels [u̯ i̯ ɯ̯] that mainly occur in syllable-coda position in combination with other vowel sounds. [u̯ i̯] are typically realized as consonant sounds [w j]. [u̯] follows front vowels /i e ɛ/ and central vowels /ə a ɐ/. [i̯] follows back vowels /u o ɔ/ as well as central vowels /ə a ɐ/. However, [ɯ̯] only follows /ə/.[4]

Tones

Six tones are present in Cao Bẳng Tày:

Tày tones
a̋ ˥
a᷄ ˦˥
á ˦
ā ˧
à ˨
a᷆ ˨˩

Vocabulary

English Tày Zhuang Thai Vietnamese Middle Chinese Proto Tai
one nâng, đeo, êt it nueng หนึ่ง nừng (obsolete word meaning few)[5] ʔiɪt̚ *nɯːŋᴮ
two sloong, nhỉ ngeih song สอง ȵiɪH *soːŋᴬ, from Middle Chinese 雙 (MC ʃˠʌŋ, “two”)
three slam sam sam สาม sɑm *saːm (“three”), from Middle Chinese 三 (MC sɑm, “three”)
four slí seiq si สี่ siɪH *siːᴮ (“four”), from Middle Chinese 四 (MC siɪH, “four”)
five hả haj ha ห้า ŋaːʔ *haːꟲ (“five”), from Old Chinese 五 (OC *ŋaːʔ, “five”)
six hốc, hôc, xốc loek hok หก *ruɡ *krokᴰ (“six”), from Old Chinese 六 (OC *ruɡ, “six”)
seven chêt caet chet เจ็ด t͡sʰiɪt̚ *cetᴰ (“seven”), from Middle Chinese 七 (MC t͡sʰiɪt̚, “seven”)
eight pet bed paet แปด pˠɛt̚ *peːtᴰ (“eight”), from Middle Chinese 八 (MC pˠat̚, “eight”)
nine cẩu giuj kao เก้า kɨuX *kɤwꟲ (“nine”), from Middle Chinese 九 (MC kɨuX, “nine”)
ten slip cib sip สิบ d͡ʑiɪp̚ From Middle Chinese 十 (MC d͡ʑiɪp̚, “ten”)
hundred pac bak roi ร้อย pˠæk̚ *roːjꟲ
hundred and one pac lình êt bak lingz it nueng roi et หนึ่งร้อยเอ็ด
thousand xiên cien phan พัน t͡sʰen
ten thousand fản fanh muen หมื่น mʉɐnH From Middle Chinese 萬 (MC mʉɐnH)
language tiểng siang เสียง (sound) tiếng ɕiᴇŋ

References

  1. ↑ Tày at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
  2. ↑ Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B., eds. (1997). Comparative Kadai: The Tai Branch. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
  3. ↑ "Map & Language Descriptions". Lesser Known Indigenous Languages of Northern Vietnam. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  4. ↑ Văn Ma, Hoàng (1997). "The Sound System of The Tày Language of Cao Bắng Province, Vietnam". In Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B. (eds.). Comparative Kadai: The Tai branch. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. pp. 221–231.
  5. ↑ Nguyễn, Trãi. "Quốc âm thi tập". 竹椿軒永工欺意能某山僧𬈋伴吟
Tày language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.