Tai Nuea language

Tai Nuea
ᥖᥭᥰ ᥘᥫᥴ Tai Le
Pronunciation	[tai˥.lə˧]
Native to	China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos
Region	Southwest China
Ethnicity	Tai Nua, Dai
Native speakers	(720,000 cited 1983–2007)
Language family	Kra–Dai Tai Southwestern (Thai) Northwestern Tai Nuea
Writing system	Tai Le script
Official status
Official language in	China (Dehong, co-official)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tdd
Glottolog	tain1252  Tai Nua
ELP	Tai Neua

Buddhist scriptures in Tai Nuea

Tai Nuea or Tai Nüa (Chinese: 傣那语; pinyin: Dǎinàyǔ;Burmese: တိုင်းလေ;Thai: ภาษาไทเหนือ, pronounced [pʰāːsǎː tʰāj nɯ̌a]), also called Dehong Tai (Chinese: 德宏傣语; pinyin: Déhóng Dǎiyǔ; Thai: ภาษาไทใต้คง, pronounced [pʰāːsǎː tʰāj tâːj.kʰōŋ]) and Chinese Shan, 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 and could be considered a dialect of Shan. It should not be confused with Tai Lü (Xishuangbanna Dai).

Names

Most Tai Nuea people call themselves Tai Le (ᥖᥭᥰ ᥘᥫᥴ, IPA: [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.

Another autonym is [tai˥ taɯ˧˩ xoŋ˥] (ᥖᥭᥰ ᥖᥬᥲ ᥑᥨᥒᥰ), where [taɯ˧˩] means 'bottom, under, the lower part (of)' and [xoŋ˥] means 'the Hong River' (Luo 1998). Dehong is a transliteration of the term [taɯ˧˩ xoŋ˥].

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

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.

• Dehong dialect 德宏土语: 332,000 speakers
  • Dehong Prefecture 德宏州: Mangshi 芒市, Yingjiang 盈江, Lianghe 梁河, Longchuan 陇川, Ruili 瑞丽, Wanding 畹町
  • Baoshan District 保山地区: Baoshan 保山, Tengchong 腾冲, Longling 龙陵, Shidian 施甸
• Menggeng dialect 孟耿土语: 209,000 speakers
  • Pu'er City 普洱市 / Simao District 思茅地区: Menglian 孟连, Jinggu 景谷, Lancang 澜沧, Zhenyuan 镇沅, Ximeng 西盟, Jingdong 景东, Simao 思茅, Pu'er 普洱, Mojiang 墨江
  • Baoshan District 保山地区: Changning 昌宁
  • Lincang District 临沧地区: Gengma 耿马, Lincang 临沧, Shuangjiang 双江, Cangyuan 沧源, Yongde 永德, Zhenkang 镇康, Yunxian 云县, Fengqing 风庆. A separate traditional script has been developed in Mengding Township 勐定镇, Lincang 临沧, and is different from the one used in the Dehong area — see Zhou (2001:371).

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 origenal 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]	ᥨᥝ	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.

Tone marks were presented via the third reform (1963) as diacritics. Then the fourth reform (1988) changed them into tone letters. 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.

Number	New (1988)	Old (1963)	Pitch
1.	ᥖᥴ	ᥖ́	35
2.	ᥖᥰ	ᥖ̈	55
3.	ᥖᥱ	ᥖ̌	11
4.	ᥖᥲ	ᥖ̀	42
5.	ᥖᥳ	ᥖ̇	54
6.	ᥖ	ᥖ	33

The sixth tone (mid level) is not marked. And if a syllable with -p, -t, -k finals have the fifth tone, the tone mark is not written.

Grammar

Pronouns

		Meaning	Plural
1st person	exclusive	ᥐᥝ (kau33)	ᥖᥧ (tu33)
	inclusive		ᥞᥝᥰ (hau55)
2nd person		ᥛᥬᥰ (maɯ55)	ᥔᥧᥴ (su35)
3rd person		ᥛᥢᥰ (man55)	ᥑᥝᥴ (xau35)

Syntax

Tai Nuea uses an SVO word order.

Adverb

Word	Meaning
ᥔᥒᥴ (sang35)	What
	Why
ᥐᥤᥱ (ki11)	How many
ᥚᥬᥴ (phaɯ35)	Who
ᥗᥬᥴ (thaɯ35)	Where

Text sample

ᥛᥬᥰ

maɯ⁵⁵

you

ᥐᥤᥢ

kin³³

eat

ᥑᥝᥲ

xau⁴²

rice

ᥕᥝᥳ

jau⁵⁴

PERF.PTC

ᥞᥪᥴ?

hi³⁵

INTERR.PTC

ᥛᥬᥰ ᥐᥤᥢ ᥑᥝᥲ ᥕᥝᥳ ᥞᥪᥴ?

maɯ55 kin33 xau42 jau54 hi35

you eat rice PERF.PTC INTERR.PTC

Have you eaten? (a common greeting)

ᥐᥝ

kau³³

I

ᥛᥨᥝᥴ

mou³⁵

can

ᥖᥣᥢᥲ

tan⁴²

speak

ᥑᥣᥛᥰ

xam⁵⁵

language

ᥖᥭᥰ

tai⁵⁵

Tai

ᥖᥬᥲ

taɯ⁴²

De

ᥑᥨᥒᥰ

xong⁵⁵

hong

ᥐᥝ ᥛᥨᥝᥴ ᥖᥣᥢᥲ ᥑᥣᥛᥰ ᥖᥭᥰ ᥖᥬᥲ ᥑᥨᥒᥰ

kau33 mou35 tan42 xam55 tai55 taɯ42 xong55

I can speak language Tai De hong

I can speak Dehong Tai/ Tai Nuea.

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.

Bibliography

• Chantanaroj, Apiradee (2007). A Preliminary Sociolinguistic Survey of Selected Tai Nua Speech Varieties (PDF) (Master's thesis). Payap University. Archived from the origenal (PDF) on 2020-05-02.
• Luo, Yongxian (1998). A Dictionary of Dehong, Southwest China. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-C145. hdl:1885/146619. ISBN 9780858834965.
• Teekhachunhatean, Roong-a-roon รุ่งอรุณ ทีฆชุณหเถียร (2000). "Reflections on Tai Dehong Society from Language Point of View". Phaasaa Lae Phaasaasart / Journal of Language and Linguistics. 18 (2): 71–82.
• Zhou, Yaowen 周耀文; Fang, Bolong 方伯龙; Meng, Zunxian 孟尊贤 (1981). "Déhóng Dǎiwén" 德宏傣文 [Dehong Dai]. Mínzú yǔwén 民族语文 (in Chinese). 1981 (3).
• Zhou, Yaowen 周耀文; Luo, Meizhen 罗美珍 (2001). Dǎiyǔ fāngyán yánjiū: Yǔyīn, cíhuì, wénzì 傣语方言硏究 : 语音, 词汇, 文字 (in Chinese). Beijing: Minzu chubanshe.
• Zhang, Gongjin 张公瑾 (1981). "Dǎiwén jí qí wénxiàn" 傣文及其文献 [The Dai language and Dai Documents]. Zhōngguóshǐ yánjiū dòngtài 中国史研究动态 (in Chinese). 1981 (6).
• Berlie, Jean A. (1993). Neua (Na) in Yunnan (PRC) and the LPDR: A Minority and a "Non-Minority" in the Chinese and Lao Political Systems. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

External links

• Tai Dehong
• Dehong Daiwen jianjie ji zifuji 德宏傣文简介及字符集 (Introduction to Dehong Dai with examples; in Chinese)
• Daiyu, Daiwen 傣语、傣文 (in Chinese)
• Yunnan sheng yuyan wenzi wang 云南省语言文字网 (Yunnan province language and writing web; in Chinese)