Tày language

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

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Tày is also spoken by emigrants in the Central highlands region of Vietnam (such as in Lam Dong Province).

There are also some Tày speakers in western countries. The region of Vietnam where Tày is spoken is bordered by China.

Varieties

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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

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Consonants

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Tày consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain pal.
Plosive voiceless p t c k
aspirated pʰʲ
voiced b 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

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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 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 a ɐ/. [i̯] follows back vowels /u o ɔ/ as well as central vowels a ɐ/. However, [ɯ̯] only follows /ə/.[4]

Tones

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Six tones are present in Cao Bẳng Tày:

Tày tones
˥
a᷄ ˦˥
á ˦
ā ˧
à ˨
a᷆ ˨˩

Writing systems

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Chữ Nôm Tày

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The Tày people used to write their ritual texts and then songs with the logographic script, known as chữ Nôm Tày. The script is similar to sawndip[5] and was created during 2nd century CE,[6] based on Chinese characters. Some of the characters, like Vietnamese Nôm, are borrowed directly from Han characters, while others are created locally from Chinese components.

Tày-Nùng orthography (1961)

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The current Tày-Nùng orthography was created in 1961 on the basis of chữ Quốc ngữ, and then was approved by the government of Vietnam following the Decree 206-CP.[7][8]

Consonants

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Tày consonants
Phoneme IPA Examples
B b /ɓ/ bươn ("month")
Bj bj /ɓʲ/ bjoóc ("flower")
C c/K k/Q q /k/ cần ("human")
Ch ch /t͡ɕ/ châư ("breath")
D d /z ~ j/ dú ("in, at")
Đ đ /ɗ/ đeng ("red")
F f /f/ fạ ("sky")
G g[a] /ɣ/ gương ("mirror")
H h /h/ hả ("five")
Kh kh / ~ x/ khao ("white")
L l /l/ lình ("monkey")
M m /m/ mường ("place")
Mj mj // mjề ("wife")
N n /n/ nặm ("water")
Ng ng /ŋ/ ngườm ("cave")
Nh nh /ɲ/ nhả ("grass")
P p /p/ pi ("year")
Pj pj // pja ("fish")
Ph ph // phân ("rain")
Phj phj /pʰʲ/ phja ("mountain")
R r /r/ rườn ("house")
Sl sl /ɬ/ slao ("girl")
T t /t/ ta̱ ("river")
Th th // tha ("eye")
V v /v/ vằn ("day")
X x /s/ xao ("spider")
  1. ^ Only used in Vietnamese loanwords

Vowels

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Tày vowels
Phoneme IPA Examples
A a /a/ xam ("to ask")
Ă ă /ă/ ăn ("the")
 â /ə̆/ bân ("sky")
E e /ɛ/ te ("he/she/it")
Ê ê /e/ bên ("to fly")
I i /i/ mi ("bear")
O o /ɔ/ co ("tree")
Ô ô /o/ tối ("to change")
Ơ ơ /ə/ nớ ("okay?")
U u /u/ tu ("door")
Ư ư /ɯ/ mừ ("hand")

Tones

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Tày tones[9]
Tone name Chao tone contour Description Diacritic Example with "ma"
khoang ˧ (33) mid level ma ("dog")
pàn ˧˨ (32) falling ◌̀ mà ("to come")
thỏi ˨˩˧ (213) low rising ◌̉ mả ("tomb")
pắc ˧˥ (35) high rising ◌́ má ("to soak")
lộm/chặm ˧˨ˀ (32ʔ) falling, glottalized ◌̣ mạ ("horse")
lươ̲ng ˩ (11) low level ◌̲ ma̲ ("blur")

Vocabulary

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English Tày Zhuang Thai Vietnamese Middle Chinese Proto Tai
one nâng, đeo, êt it nueng หนึ่ง, -et -เอ็ด nừng (obsolete word meaning few)[10] ʔiɪt̚ *nɯːŋᴮ
two sloong, nhỉ ngeih song สอง ȵiɪH *soːŋᴬ, from Middle Chinese (MC ʃˠʌŋ, "two")
three slam sam sam สาม sɑm *saːm (“three”), from Middle Chinese (MC sɑm, "three")
four slí seiq si สี่ siɪH *siːᴮ (“four”), from Middle Chinese (MC siɪH, "four")
five hả haj ha ห้า ŋuoX *haːꟲ (“five”), from Old Chinese (OC *ŋaːʔ, "five")
six hốc, hôc, xốc loek hok หก lɨuk̚ *krokᴰ (“six”), from Old Chinese (OC *ruɡ, "six")
seven chêt caet chet เจ็ด t͡sʰiɪt̚ *cetᴰ (“seven”), from Middle Chinese (MC t͡sʰiɪt̚, "seven")
eight pet bed paet แปด pˠɛt̚ *peːtᴰ (“eight”), from Middle Chinese (MC pˠat̚, "eight")
nine cẩu giuj kao เก้า kɨuX *kɤwꟲ (“nine”), from Middle Chinese (MC kɨuX, "nine")
ten slip cib sip สิบ d͡ʑiɪp̚ From Middle Chinese (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 (MC mʉɐnH)
language tiểng siang เสียง (sound) tiếng ɕiᴇŋ

References

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  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. ^ Holm, David (2020). "The Tày and Zhuang vernacular scripts: Preliminary comparisons". Journal of Chinese Writing Systems. Department of Ethnology, National Chengchi University.
  6. ^ Hoàng Nhật Thanh; Dương Triều Ân; Hoàng Tuấn Nam (2003). Từ điển chữ Nôm Tày [Dictionary of Nom Tay]. Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội.
  7. ^ Đào Thị Lý (2015). Lương Bèn (ed.). Tiếng Tày cơ sở [Tày Basics]. Thái Nguyên: Nhà xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên.
  8. ^ Đào Thị Tấm; Nguyễn Hồng Cúc (2013). Phạm Thị Phương Thái (ed.). Học tiếng Tày [Learn Tày]. Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội.
  9. ^ Ayaka Hirano (2019). "The Differences between the Tay and Nung Languages in the Trang Dinh District of Lang Son Province". Topics in Middle Mekong Linguistics. Kobe: Kobe City University of Foreign Studies.
  10. ^ Nguyễn, Trãi. "Quốc âm thi tập". 竹椿軒永工欺意能某山僧𬈋伴吟