Tai Lü leid

Tai Lue
ᨣᩴᩣᩱᨴᩭ kam tai
Native tae	Mainly: Cheenae. Ithers: Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam
Region	Yunnan, Cheenae
Ethnicity	Lu
Native speakers	550,000 (2000–2013)
Leid faimily	Tai–Kadai Tai Soothwastren (Thai) Chiang Saen Tai Lue
Writin seestem	Tai Tham alphabet, Thai alphabet, New Tai Lue alphabet
Offeecial status
Recognised minority leid in	Cheenae native tae Xishuangbanna Laos Thailand Myanmar
Leid codes
ISO 639-3	khb
Glottolog	luuu1242

Tai Lü (or Tai Lue, Tai Le [tâi lɯ̀]; Xishuangbanna Dai; Cheenese: 傣仂语 Dǎilèyǔ; Thai: ภาษาไทลื้อ (phaasǎa thailéu); Vietnamese: Lự or Lữ) is a leid spoken bi aboot 670,000 fowk in Sootheast Asie. This includes 250,000 fowk in Cheenae, 200,000 in Burma, 134,000 in Thailand, an 5,000 in Vietnam. The leid is similar tae ither Tai leids.

In Vietnam, Tai Lü speakers are offeecially recognised as the Lự ethnic minority, although in Cheenae they are classified as pairt o the Dai fowk, alang wi speakers o the ither Tai leids (except Zhuang).

Phonology

Tai Lü haes 21 seellable-initial consonants, 91 seellable finals an sax tones (three different tones in checked seellables, sax in ither seellables).

Initials

p	pʰ	b	m		f	v
t	tʰ	d	n	l
ts					s	j
k			ŋ		x
kʷ					xʷ
ʔ					h

The initials ts- an s- are palatalised afore i, e an ɛ an become tɕ- an ɕ-, respectively.

Finals

	aː	iː	eː	ɛː	uː	oː	ɔː	ɯː	əː
ai	aːi				ui	oi	ɔi	ɯi	əi
au	aːu	iu	eu	ɛu					əu
am	aːm	im	em	ɛm	um	om	ɔm	ɯm	əm
an	aːn	in	en	ɛn	un	on	ɔn	ɯn	ən
aŋ	aːŋ	iŋ	eŋ	ɛŋ	uŋ	oŋ	ɔŋ	ɯŋ	əŋ
ap	aːp	ip	ep	ɛp	up	op	ɔp	ɯp	əp
at	aːt	it	et	ɛt	ut	ot	ɔt	ɯt	ət
ak	aːk	ik	ek	ɛk	uk	ok	ɔk	ɯk	ək
aʔ		iʔ	eʔ	ɛʔ	uʔ	oʔ	ɔʔ	ɯʔ	əʔ

Tones

There are sax tones for unchecked seellables, although ae three are alloued in checked seellables (those endin wi -p, -t or -k).

Description	Contour	Transcription
high	55	á
mid	33	a (not marked)
low	11	à
falling	51	â
high rising	35	á̄
low rising	13	à̄

Grammar

Wird order is uisually Subject - Verb - Object; Modifiers (e.g. adjectives) follae nouns.

Vocabulary

Tai Lü haes mony loanwirds frae Pali, as well as frae the local Cheenese dialect an modren Staundart Cheenese.

Numbers

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	100	10,000	100,000	1,000,000
nɯŋ	sɔ́ŋ	sám	sī́ː	hā̀ː	hók	tɕet	pɛ̄́t	kā̀u	síp	hɔ̀i	mɯ̄́n	sɛ́n	làn

Writin seestems

Tai Lü is written in twa different alphabets. The auld writin seestem wis reformed in the 1950s, but is still in uise an haes recently regained government support. The new alphabet is a simplified version o the auld script.

Old Tai Lü

Readable bi the maist fowk an uised in Burma, Laos, Thailand an Vietnam.

New Tai Lü

New Tai Lü is a modrenisation o the Lanna alphabet, similar tae the Thai alphabet, an consists o 42 initial consonant signs (21 hie-tone class, 21 law-tone class), seiven final consonant signs, 16 vowel signs, twa tone letters an ane vouel shortenin letter (or seellable-final glottal stop). Vouels signs can be placed afore or efter the seellable initial consonant.

Similar tae the Thai alphabet, the pronunciation o the tone o a seellable depends on the class the initial consonant belangs ta, seellable structure an vouel length, an the tone mark.

Unicode range ("New Tai Lue"): U+1980 – U+19DF

See an aa

• Tai Nüa leid
• Tai Pong leid
• Tai Dam leid

References

• Dāo Shìxūn 刀世勋: Dǎi-Hàn cídiǎn 傣汉词典 (Dai-Chinese Dictionary; Kūnmíng 昆明, Yúnnán mínzú chūbǎnshè 云南民族出版社 2002). This is a dictionary of Tai Lü in unreformed spelling.
• Yu Cuirong 喻翠荣, Luo Meizhen 罗美珍: Daile-Han cidian 傣仂汉词典 (Tai Lü - Chinese Dictionary; Beijing, Minzu chubanshe 2004).

Freemit airtins

• Lü, a leid o Cheenae Archived 2012-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
• SeaSite: Tai Lue, unner construction Archived 2018-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
• SIL Dai Banna Fonts
• Omniglot - Tai Lue script