The Phake language or Tai Phake language (, ) is a Tai language spoken in the Buri Dihing Valley of

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is closely related to the other Southwestern Tai languages in Assam: Aiton, Khamti, Khamyang, and Turung.

Distribution

Buragohain (1998) lists the following Tai Phake villages. *Man Phake Tau (Namphake village,

) *Man Tipam (Tipam Phake village,

) *Man Phake Neu (Bor Phake village,

) *Man Mo (Man Mo village,

) *Man Phaneng (Phaneng village,

) *Man Long (Long village,

) *Man Nonglai (Nonglaui village,

) *Man Monglang (Monglang village,

) *Man Nigam (Nigam village,

) *Man Wagun (Wagun village,

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

) *Man Lung Kung (Lung Kung village,

) The corresponds to the modern Thai ''ban'' () and Shan ''wan'' (), which mean 'village'. (Note: For an explanation of the notation system for Tai tones, see Proto-Tai language#Tones.)

Phonology

Initial consonants

Tai Phake has the following initial consonants

Final consonants

Tai Phake has the following final consonants: - occurs after front vowels and , - occurs after back vowels and .

Vowels

Tai Phake has the following vowel inventory:

Writing system

The Tai Phake have their own writing system called 'Lik-Tai', which they share with the Khamti people and Tai Aiton people. It closely resembles the Northern

Shan script Shan may refer to; People and languages *Shan (surname), or 单 in Chinese, a Chinese surname *Shan, a variant of the Welsh given name usually spelled Siân *Occasionally used as a short form of Shannen/Shannon (given name), Shannon Ethnic grou ...

of Myanmar, which is a variant of the

Burmese script Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (horse) ...

, with some of the letters taking divergent shapes.

Consonants

Vowels

Notes

References

*Buragohain, Yehom. 1998. "Some notes on the Tai Phakes of Assam, in Shalardchai Ramitanondh Virada Somswasdi and Ranoo Wichasin." In ''Tai'', pp. 126–143. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Chiang Mai University. *Morey, Stephen. 2005. ''The Tai languages of Assam: a grammar and texts''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. {{Languages of Northeast India Languages of Assam Southwestern Tai languages Endangered languages of India