Tai Lue (Tai Lü: , ''kam tai lue'', , Tai Tham: ) or Tai Lɯ, Tai Lü, Thai Lue, Tai Le, Xishuangbanna Dai (; my, လူးရှမ်း, luu Shan; lo, ພາສາໄຕລື້; th, ภาษาไทลื้อ, ''phasa thai lue'', ; vi, tiếng Lự or ), is a

Tai language The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages ( th, ภาษาไท or , transliteration: or ) are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including Standard Thai or S ...

of the

Lu people The Tai Lü people ( Tai Lue: ᦺᦑᦟᦹᧉ, , ''Dǎi lè'', lo, ລື້, ''Lư̄'', th, ไทลื้อ, , vi, Người Lự) are an ethnic group of China, Laos, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam. They speak a Southwestern Tai lang ...

, spoken by about 700,000 people in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

. This includes 280,000 people in China (

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

), 200,000 in Burma, 134,000 in Laos, 83,000 in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and 4,960 in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

. The language is similar to other

Tai languages The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages ( th, ภาษาไท or , transliteration: or ) are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including Standard Thai or S ...

and is closely related to Kham Mueang or Tai Yuan, which is also known as

Northern Thai language Kam Mueang ( nod, , กำเมือง) or Northern Thai language ( th, ภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ) is the language of the Northern Thai people of Lanna, Thailand. It is a Southwestern Tai language that is closely rela ...

. In Yunnan, it is spoken in all of

Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture Xishuangbanna, Sibsongbanna or Sipsong Panna ( Tham: , New Tai Lü script: ; ; th, สิบสองปันนา; lo, ສິບສອງພັນນາ; shn, သိပ်းသွင်ပၼ်းၼႃး; my, စစ်ဆောင်� ...

, as well as Jiangcheng Hani and Yi Autonomous County in Pu'er City. In Vietnam, Tai Lue speakers are officially recognised as the Lự ethnic minority, although in China they are classified as part of the

Dai people The Dai people ( Burmese: ရှမ်းလူမျိုး; khb, ᨴᩱ/ᨴᩱ᩠ᨿ; lo, ໄຕ; th, ไท; shn, တႆး, ; , ; ) refers to several Tai-speaking ethnic groups living in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and ...

, along with speakers of the other

apart from Zhuang.

Phonology

Tai Lue has 21 syllable-initial consonants, 9 syllable-finals and six tones (three different tones in checked syllables, six in open syllables).

Consonants

Initials

The initials - and - are palatalized before

front vowel A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherw ...

s (which in the language are , , and ) and become and , respectively. For example, "hard" and "ten" are pronounced as and respectively. (Some textbooks denote as ).

Finals

Vowels

Generally, vowels in

open syllables A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...

(without codas) occur as long whereas ones in

closed syllables A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...

are short (except and ).

Tones

Contrastive tones in unchecked syllables

The table below presents six phonemic tones in unchecked syllables, i.e. closed syllables ending in sonorant sounds such as , and and open syllables. There are six tones for unchecked syllables, although only three are allowed in checked syllables (those ending with -p, -t or -k).

Contrastive tones in checked syllables

The table below presents two phonemic tones in checked syllables, i.e. closed syllables ending in a

glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...

and obstruent sounds which are , and .

Grammar

Pronouns

Syntax

Word order is usually subject–verb–object (SVO); modifiers (e.g. adjectives) follow nouns.

Interrogatives

Tai Lü Dictionary
– Webonary

Vocabulary

As in Thai and Lao, Tai Lue has borrowed many

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

and

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

words and

affixes In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...

. Among the Tai languages in general, Tai Lue has limited intelligibility with Shan and

Tai Nua Tai Nuea or Tai Nüa (Tai Nüa: ; also called Tai Le, Dehong Dai or Chinese Shan; own name: ''Tai2 Lə6'', which means "Upper Tai" or "Northern Tai" or , ; Chinese: ''Dǎinàyǔ'', 傣那语 or ''Déhóng Dǎiyǔ'', 德宏傣语; th, ภาษ� ...

and shares much vocabulary with, the other Southwestern Tai languages. Tai Lue has 95%

lexical similarity In linguistics, lexical similarity is a measure of the degree to which the word sets of two given languages are similar. A lexical similarity of 1 (or 100%) would mean a total overlap between vocabularies, whereas 0 means there are no common words. ...

with Northern Thai (Lanna), 86% with Central Thai, 93% with Shan, and 95% with

Khun Khum may refer to: *Khun (, long vowel, middle tone) is the colloquial Thai name for the Golden Shower Tree. *Khun (courtesy title) (, short vowel, middle tone) is a common Thai honorific *Khun (noble title) (, short vowel, rising tone) is a former ...

. Below, some Thai Lue words are given with standard Central Thai equivalents for comparison. Thai words are shown on the left and Tai Lue words, written in New Tai Lue script, are shown on the right.

Different words

Many words differ from Thai greatly: *ยี่สิบ → ᨪᩣ᩠ᩅ (, twenty; cf. Lao: /sáːw/, Northern Thai: /sāw/) *พูด → ᩋᩪᩢ (, to speak; cf. Northern Thai: /ʔu᷇ː/) *พี่ชาย → ᩋᩢᩣ᩠ᨿ (, older brother; cf. Lao: /ʔâːj/, Northern Thai: /ʔa᷇ːj/)

Similar words

Some words differ in tone only: *หนึ่ง → ᨶ᩠ᨦᩧ᩵ (, one) *หก → ᩉᩫ᩠ᨠ (, six) *เจ็ด → ᩮᨧ᩠ᨯ (, seven) *สิบ → ᩈᩥ᩠ᨷ (, ten) *กิน → ᨠᩥ᩠ᨶ (, to eat) Some words differ in a single sound and associated tone. In many words, the initial ร () in Thai is ฮ () in Tai Lue, as is also the case in Lao and Tai Yuan: *ร้อน → ᩁᩢᩬᩁ (, hot; cf. Lao: /hɔ̂n/, Northern Thai: /hɔ́ːn/) *รัก → ᩁᩢ᩠ᨠ (, to love; cf. Lao: /hāk/, Northern Thai: /ha᷇k/) *รู้ → ᩁᩪᩢ (, to know; cf. Lao: /hûː/, Northern Thai: /húː/)

Aspirated consonant In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with ...

s in the low-class consonant group(อักษรต่ำ ) become unaspirated: *เชียงราย → ᨩ᩠ᨿᨦᩁᩣ᩠ᨿ (,

Chiang Rai city Chiang Rai ( th, เชียงราย, ; nod, , เจียงฮาย, ) is the northernmost major city in Thailand, with a population of about 200,000 people. It is located in Mueang Chiang Rai District, Chiang Rai Province. Chiang Ra ...

and

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

) *คิด → ᨣᩧ᩠ᨯ (, to think; cf. Northern Thai: /kɯ́t/) *พ่อ → ᨻᩳ᩵ (, father; cf. Northern Thai: /pɔ̂ː/) *ทาง → ᨴᩤ᩠ᨦ (, way; cf. Northern Thai: /tāːŋ/) (Note that the vowels also differ greatly between Tai Lue and Thai in many words, even though they are etymologically related and share the same root.) Though many aspirated consonants often become unaspirated, when an unaspirated consonant is followed by ร () the unaspirated consonant becomes aspirated: *ประเทศ → ᨷᩕᨴᩮ᩠ᩆ (, country; cf. Northern Thai /pʰa.têːt/) Other differences: *ให้ → ᩉᩨᩢ (, to give, let)

Numbers

Writing systems

Tai Lue is written in three different scripts. One is the

Fak Kham script The Fakkham script ( th, อักษรฝักขาม, "''Tamarind pod-script''") or Thai Lanna script is a Brahmic script, used historically in the Lan Na Kingdom. The script was frequently used in Lan Na stone inscriptions. Origin The Fa ...

, a variety of the Thai script of Sukhothai. The second is the Tham script, which was reformed in the 1950s, but is still in use and has recently regained government support. The new script is a simplified version of the old script.

Fak Kham

An ancient script, also used in

Kengtung th , เชียงตุง , other_name = Kyaingtong , settlement_type = Town , imagesize = , image_caption = , pushpin_map = Myanmar , pushpin_label_position = left , ...

Northern Thailand Northern Thailand, or more specifically Lanna, is geographically characterised by several mountain ranges, which continue from the Shan Hills in bordering Myanmar to Laos, and the river valleys which cut through them. Though like most of Thail ...

and Northern Laos centuries ago.

Tham

The Tham script is called 老傣文 ''lao dai wen'' (Old Tai script) in China. Readable by the most people in Burma, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

New Tai Lue

New Tai Lue is a modernization of the Lanna alphabet (also known as the

Tai Tham script Tai Tham script ('' Tham'' meaning "scripture") is the name given to an abugida writing system used mainly for a group of Southwestern Tai languages i.e., Northern Thai, Tai Lü, Khün and Lao; as well as the liturgical languages of Buddhis ...

), which is similar to the

Thai alphabet The Thai script ( th, อักษรไทย, ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols ( th, พยัญชน ...

, and consists of 42 initial consonant signs (21 high-tone class, 21 low-tone class), seven final consonant signs, 16 vowel signs, two tone letters and one vowel shortening letter (or syllable-final glottal stop). Vowels signs can be placed before or after the syllable initial consonant. Similar to the Thai alphabet, the pronunciation of the tone of a syllable depends on the class the initial consonant belongs to, syllable structure and

vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word ...

, and the tone mark.

Related varieties

The Bajia people ( 八甲人), who number 1,106 individuals in Mengkang Village (), Meng'a Town (), Menghai County, Yunnan, speak a language closely related to Tai Lue. There are 225 Bajia people living in Jingbo Township 景播乡, Menghai County (You 2013:270). The Bajia are also known as the Chinese Dai 汉傣.

References

External links

SeaSite: Tai Lue, under construction

Tai Lue dictionary online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tai Lu Language Tai languages Languages of China Languages of Myanmar Languages of Laos Languages of Thailand Languages of Vietnam