Mày is aVietic language spoken by theMay people ofMinh Hóa district,Quảng Bình province,Central Vietnam. It is a member of theCheut language cluster, which belongs to theVietic branch of theAustroasiatic family. With only several hundred speakers, May is a critically endangered language,^[2] with only about half of the estimated ethnic population of 1,228 people able to speak the language.^[3]

May is spoken in the villages of Ca Oóc, Bai Dinh, and Cha Lo.^[4] The villages are located inMinh Hóa district,Quang Binh province (in the communities orxã ofDân Hóa (formerlyTrung Hóa),Thượng Hóa,Hóa Tiến, andHóa Thanh). Dân Hóa is the only monolingual May village, while the others are mixed with various other ethnic groups.

May phonology preserves many archaic features. Syllable structure is sesquisyllabic. Unique phonological characteristics in May include the coda-ɽ, derived from proto-Vietic *-s, which stands behind a consonant nucleus, in contrast to final-l/-h/-i̯ found in most other Vietic languages.^[5]

May Consonants (Babaev & Samarina 2021):

May vowels (Babaev & Samarina 2021):

In "di-syllables" or sesquisyllables, the accent is rising; the firstsyllable/mora is a minor one and has its vowel length reduced while the second syllable is always the strong and stressed syllable.

May pronouns often have shorter forms withoutʔa. They are syntactically distinct. The full forms occupy the Subject/Agent role in transitive verb phrase that is located at the absolute beginning of the phrase and the direct object role after a transitive verb. The shorter forms are used to denote possessive constructions and pronominal dative/benefactive objects.

May has a limited inventory of affixes and clitics. Some morpheme clitics may host multiple functions that could only be distinguished by context.

• Transitivizingpa-
• NominalizingpV-,ʔa-,ʔu-,-Vn-,kV-,tV-,cV-
• Stativizingta-
• Pluralizingpa=
• Singularmu=,m̤=,ma=
• Dative-Obliquepa=
• Negationku=
• Imperative/Causativeci=

As an isolating language, May can only utilize word order and particles. The use of clitics and affixes is generally limited and does not undermine the analytical grammar structure. The basic word order of May is SVO. The basic word order in a verbal clause is S-V-P-OBL. Depending on speeches, the word order may undergo ellipsis in cases that the speech is comprehensive enough to the listener.

• Babaev, Kirill; Samarina, Irina (2021). Sidwell, Paul (ed.).A Grammar of May: An Austroasiatic Language of Vietnam. Brill.ISBN 978-9-00446-108-6.

• Vietic languages
• Languages of Laos
• Languages of Vietnam
• Endangered Austroasiatic languages

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