The Central Tai languages include southern dialects of
Zhuang, and various
Nung and
Tày dialects of northern Vietnam.
Central Tai languages differ from
Northern Tai languages
The Northern Tai languages are an established branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia. They include the northern Zhuang languages and Bouyei of China, Tai Mène of Laos and Yoy of Thailand.
Languages Ethnologue
'' Ethnologue'' distin ...
in that Central Tai distinguishes unaspirated and aspirated onsets, while Northern Tai generally does not (Li 1977).
Southwestern Tai
The Southwestern Tai, Southwestern Thai or Thai languages are a branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia. Its dialects include Siamese (Central Thai), Lanna, Lao, Shan and others.
Classification
The internal classification of the Southwe ...
also displays this kind of aspiration contrast.
Classification
William Gedney
William Gale Gedney (October 29, 1932 – June 23, 1989) was an American documentary and street photographer. It wasn't until after his death that his work gained momentum and is now widely recognized. He is best known for his series on rural ...
considers Central Tai to be more closely related to Southwestern Tai than to Northern Tai, while
André-Georges Haudricourt
André-Georges Haudricourt (; 17 January 1911 – 20 August 1996) was a French botanist, anthropologist and linguist.
Biography
He grew up on his parents' farm, in a remote area of Picardy. From his early childhood, he was curious about techno ...
argues for a closer relation to Northern Tai. Pittayaporn's (2009) tentative tree of the Tai branch, however, considers Central Tai to be
paraphyletic
In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...
.
Certain languages in predominantly Central Tai-speaking areas, such as
Caolan and Nùng An in
northern Vietnam
Northern Vietnam ( vi, Bắc Bộ) is one of three geographical regions within Vietnam. It consists of three administrative regions: the Northwest (Vùng Tây Bắc), the Northeast (Vùng Đông Bắc), and the Red River Delta (Đồng Bằng S ...
, display Northern Tai features as well. These appear to be mixed languages that are not fully Central Tai or Northern Tai.
Jerold A. Edmondson calls Caolan a "
tertium quid
Tertium quid refers to an unidentified third element that is in combination with two known ones.[Tertium ...]
."
Jerold Edmondson
Jerold Alan Edmondson (born 1941) (Chinese name: 艾杰瑞 Aì Jiéruì) is an American linguist whose work spans four subdisciplines: historical and comparative linguistics, Asian linguistics, field linguistics, and phonetics. He is a leading spe ...
's (2014)
[Edmondson, Jerold A. ''Tai subgrouping using phylogenetic estimation''. Presented at the 46th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (ICSTLL 46), Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States, August 7–10, 2013 (Session: Tai-Kadai Workshop).] computational phylogenetic analysis of the Tai languages shows
Tay and
Nung to be coherent branches under Central Tai.
;Central Tai
*Core Central Tai: Nung Chau, Pingxiang Zhuang, Leiping Zhuang, Ningming Zhuang
*
Tay: Tay Bao Lac, Tay Khanh Trung,
Cao Lan
*
Nung: Nung Chao (Longzhou Zhuang), Nùng Phạn Slinh, Nung Inh, Western Nung/Nung Din (Nong Zhuang), Nung Yang (Yang Zhuang), Nung An
Languages
Many Central Tai languages are known as Nong 侬 (Nùng in Vietnamese) or Dai 岱 (Tày in Vietnamese).
China
*
Longzhou
*
Ningming
Ningming County (, za, Ningzmingz Yen) is a county in southwestern Guangxi, China. It is famous for being home to the Hua mountain rock paintings World Heritage Site. A diverse range of languages and dialects are spoken alongside Mandarin Chines ...
*
Nong Zhuang
*
Dai Zhuang
Dai Zhuang or Thu Lao is a Tai language spoken in Yunnan, China and northern Vietnam. In China is it spoken in Yanshan, Wenshan, Maguan, Malipo, Guangnan counties of Wenshan Prefecture. It is also spoken in Honghe Prefecture. The largest concentr ...
*
Min Zhuang
*
Yang Zhuang (different from
Yang
Yang may refer to:
* Yang, in yin and yang, one half of the two symbolic polarities in Chinese philosophy
* Korean yang, former unit of currency of Korea from 1892 to 1902
* YANG, a data modeling language for the NETCONF network configuration p ...
)
*
Pyang Zhuang
*
Myang Zhuang
Vietnam
*
Nung
**Nùng Phạn Slinh
**Nùng Cháo
**Nùng Inh
**Nùng An
**Nùng Giang
**Nùng Dín (=Western Nùng ''or'' Nong Zhuang)
*
Tày
**Tày Bảo Lạc
**Tày Trùng Khánh
References
Citations
Sources
* Li, Fang-kuei. 1977. ''Handbook of Comparative Tai''. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaiʼi Press.
* Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. 2009. ''The Phonology of Proto-Tai.'' Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Linguistics, Cornell University.
Tai languages
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