Colonel William A. Phillips

Not to be confused with Thổ language or Tày Tac language.

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, -et -เอ็ด 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
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A0y_language