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'' distingu ...
in that Central Tai distinguishes unaspirated and aspirated onsets, while Northern Tai generally does not (Li 1977).
Southwestern Tai
The Southwestern Tai or Thai languages are a branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia. Its languages include Central Thai (Siamese), Northern Thai (Lanna), Lao (including Isan), Shan and others.
Classification
The internal classificatio ...
also displays this kind of aspiration contrast.
Classification
William Gedney considers Central Tai to be more closely related to Southwestern Tai than to Northern Tai, while
André-Georges Haudricourt argues for a closer relation to Northern Tai. Pittayaporn's (2009) tentative tree of the Tai branch, however, considers Central Tai to be
paraphyletic
Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...
.
Certain languages in predominantly Central Tai-speaking areas, such as
Caolan and Nùng An in
northern Vietnam
Northern Vietnam or '' Tonkin'' () is one of three geographical regions in Vietnam. It consists of three geographic sub-regions: the Northwest (Vùng Tây Bắc), the Northeast (Vùng Đông Bắc), and the Red River Delta (Đồng Bằng Sôn ...
, 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".
Jerold Edmondson's (2013)
[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
*
Nong Zhuang
*
Dai Zhuang
*
Min Zhuang
*
Yang Zhuang (different from
Yang)
*
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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