Tày language

Tày
Tày
Tiểng Tày, Thổ
Native to	Vietnam
Ethnicity	Tày
Native speakers	1.63 million (2009)
Language family	Kra–Dai Tai Central Tai Tày; ; ;
Writing system	Latin (modified Vietnamese alphabet); Chữ Nôm Tày
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tyz
Glottolog	tayy1238
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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

Vietnam: northern provinces (including Cao Bang Province and Quang Ninh Province)
China: in the border area of Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan and Guangxi (mainly Jingxi County)
Laos: northern region.

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.	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
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	mis\|*peːtᴰ (“eight”), from Middle Chinese 八 (MC pˠat̚, "eight")
nine	cẩu	giuj	kao เก้า		kɨuX	mis\|*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

^ Tày at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
^ 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.
^ "Map & Language Descriptions". Lesser Known Indigenous Languages of Northern Vietnam. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
^ 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.
^ Nguyễn, Trãi. "Quốc âm thi tập". 竹椿軒永工欺意能某山僧𬈋伴吟

[e19-1] Tày at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)

[Tai-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

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