Tai Dón language

Tai language spoken in China and Southeast Asia

Tai Dón

ꪼꪕ ꪒ꪿ꪮꪙ[1]

Tai Dón as written in SyyDai font

Pronunciation| /taj˦.dɔn˦˥/
Native to| Laos, Vietnam, China (Mengla Township of Jinping)
Ethnicity| White Tai

Native speakers

| (500,000 cited 1995–2002)[2]

Language family

Kra–Dai

* Tai
* Southwestern (Thai)
* Chiang Saen
* Tai Dón

Writing system

| Tai Viet
Language codes
ISO 639-3| `twh`
Glottolog| `taid1250`

Tai Dón (ꪼꪕ ꪒ꪿ꪮꪙ, /taj˦.dɔn˦˥/[1]), also known as Tai Khao or White Tai, is a Tai language of northern Vietnam, Laos and China.

## Classification

[edit]

Tai Dón is classified as belonging to the Tai-Kadai language group, located in the Tai languages and Southwestern Tai languages subgroups.

## Geographical distribution

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

#### Initial consonants

[edit]

Initial consonants in Tai Dón[4]: 9–10 | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal

|
|
|
|
|

Stop/Affricate | voiced | b | d |  |  |
voiceless unaspirated | p | t | t͡ɕ[a] | k | ʔ
voiceless aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | t͡ɕʰ | kʰ |
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ |
Fricative | voiced | v[b] |  |  |  |
voiceless | f | s |  | x | h
Approximant |  | l | j[c] |  |

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

Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

/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 Cluster | Example

|

kw | /kwaː˦˥˦/ ꪁꪫꪱꫀ "to visit"
kʰw | /kʰwe˦˥/ ꪂꪫꪸꫀ "to dig"
ŋw | /ŋwaː˦˥˦/ ꪉꪫꪱꫀ "fig"
xw | /xwan˦˦/ ꪅꪫꪽ "smoke"

#### Final consonants

[edit]

Final consonants in Tai Dón[4]: 10–11 | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal

|
|
|
|
|

Stop | p | t |  | k | ʔ
Nasal | m | n |  | ŋ |
Approximant | w |  | j | ɰ[a]

1. ^ "/ɰ/ occurs after /a/ (e.g., /baɰ˨˨/ ꪻꪚ "leaf")[4]: 11

### Vowels

[edit]

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 | Front | Back

|
|

unrounded | rounded
High | i |  |  | ɯ | u
Mid | e |  |  | ɤ | o
Low | ɛ | a | aː |  | ɔ

### Tones

[edit]

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 Description | Tone letters | Example

|
|

level, slightly lower than mid | 22 (or ˨˨) | /kaː˨˨/ ꪀꪱ "crow"
high-rising | 45 (or ˦˥) | /kaː˦˥/ ꪀꪱꫀ "all the way to"
low-rising, glottalized | 24ʔ (or ˨˦ʔ) | /kaː˨˦ʔ/ ꪀꪱꫂ "young rice plant"
level, somewhat higher than mid | 44 (or ˦˦) | /kaː˦˦/ ꪁꪱ "stuck"
level, somewhat higher than mid with a rise and fall | 454 (or ˦˥˦) | /kaː˦˥˦/ ꪁꪱꫀ "price"
falling, glottalized | 31ʔ (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 Tone | Vowel length | Example

|
|

high-rising | short | /sat˦˥/ ꪎꪰꪒ "animal"
long | /ʔaːp˦˥/ ꪮꪱꪚ "to bathe"
level, somewhat higher than mid | short | /mot˦˦/ ꪣꪺꪒ "ant"
long | /laːt˦˦/ ꪩꪱꪒ "to cover"

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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.

## External links

[edit]

* Preliminary proposal to encode the Tai Khao script in UCS
* A response to Kushim Jiang, “Preliminary proposal to encode the Tai Khao script in UCS”
* https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2022/22098-tai-don.pdf
* https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2022/22099-tai-don-comment.pdf

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