Tày or Thổ (a name shared with the unrelated Thổ and Cuoi languages) is the major Tai language of

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, spoken by more than a million Tày people in Northeastern Vietnam.

Distribution

: northern provinces (including Cao Bang Province and Quang Ninh Province) *

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

: northern region. 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 China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Varieties

Tày linguistic varieties include the following: *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

* The Cao Bẳng Tày dialect is the only variety to have the sounds .

Vowels

* There are also three semivowels that mainly occur in syllable-coda position in combination with other vowel sounds. are typically realized as consonant sounds . follows front vowels and central vowels . follows back vowels as well as central vowels . However, only follows .

Tones

Six tones are present in Cao Bẳng Tày:

Vocabulary

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tay Language Languages of Vietnam Tai languages Analytic languages Isolating languages