| Tai | |
|---|---|
| Zhuang–Tai, Daic | |
| Geographic distribution | SouthernChina (esp.Guangxi,Guizhou,Yunnan andGuangdong),Southeast Asia,Northeast India |
| Linguistic classification | Kra–Dai |
| Proto-language | Proto-Tai |
| Subdivisions |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 /5 | tai |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | daic1237 |
 Distribution of Tai languages: Northern Tai / Northern Zhuang Central Tai / Southern Zhuang Southwestern Tai / Thai | |
TheTai,Zhuang–Tai,[1] orDaic languages[2] (Ahom: 𑜁𑜪𑜨 𑜄𑜩 or 𑜁𑜨𑜉𑜫 𑜄𑜩kwáam tái ;Shan:ၵႂၢမ်းတႆး;Thai:ภาษาไท orภาษาไต,RTGS: phasa thaior phasa tai;Lao:ພາສາໄຕ,phasa tai) are a branch of theKra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including StandardThai or Siamese, the national language ofThailand;Lao or Laotian, the national language ofLaos;Myanmar'sShan language; andZhuang, a major language in the Southwestern China'sGuangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, spoken by theZhuang people (壯), the largest minority ethnic group inChina,[3] with a population of 15.55 million, living mainly inGuangxi, the rest scattered acrossYunnan,Guangdong,Guizhou, andHunan provinces.
Cognates with the nameTai (Thai,Dai, etc.) are used by speakers of many Tai languages. The termTai is now well-established as the generic name in English. In his book The Tai-Kadai Languages, Anthony Diller claims that Lao scholars he has met are not pleased with Lao being regarded as a Tai language.[4] For some, Thai should instead be considered a member of the Lao language family.[4] One or more Ancient Chinese characters for 'Lao' may be cited in support of this alternative appellation.[4] Some scholars, includingBenedict (1975), have usedThai to refer to a wider (Tai) grouping and one sees designations likeproto-Thai andAustro-Thai in earlier works.[4] In the institutional context in Thailand, and occasionally elsewhere, sometimesTai (and its corresponding Thai-script spelling, without a final -y symbol) is used to indicate varieties in the language family not spoken in Thailand or spoken there only as the result of recent immigration.[4] In this usage,Thai would not then be considered aTai language.[4] On the other hand,Gedney,Li and others have preferred to call the standard language of ThailandSiamese rather thanThai, perhaps to reduce potentialThai/Tai confusion, especially among English speakers not comfortable with making aword-initial unaspirated voiceless sound forTai, which in any event might sound artificial or arcane to outsiders.
According toMichel Ferlus, the ethnonyms Tai/Thai (or Tay/Thay) would have evolved from the etymon*k(ə)ri: 'human being' through the following chain:kəri: >kəli: >kədi:/kədaj (-l- >-d- shift in tense sesquisyllables and probable diphthongization of-i: >-aj).[5][6] This in turn changed todi:/daj (presyllabic truncation and probable diphthongization-i: >-aj). And then to*dajA (Proto-Southwestern Tai) >tʰajA2 (in Siamese and Lao) or >tajA2 (in the other Southwestern and Central Tai languages by Li Fangkuei).Michel Ferlus' work is based on some simple rules of phonetic change observable in the Sinosphere and studied for the most part byWilliam H. Baxter (1992).[6]
The Central Tai languages are calledZhuang in China andTay andNung inVietnam.
Citing the fact that both the Zhuang and Thai peoples have the sameexonym for theVietnamese,kɛɛuA1,[a] derived from the name ofJiaozhi in Vietnam, and that the indigenousBai Yue were given family names by their northern rulers during theNorthern and Southern dynasties, while the Thai didn't have family names into the 19th century,Jerold A. Edmondson of theUniversity of Texas at Arlington posited that the split between Zhuang (aCentral Tai language) and theSouthwestern Tai languages happened no earlier than the founding of Jiaozhi in 112 BCE but no later than the 5th–6th century AD.[7] Based on layers of Chinese loanwords in Proto-Southwestern Tai and other historical evidence, Pittayawat Pittayaporn (2014) suggests that the dispersal of Southwestern Tai must have begun sometime between the 8th and 10th centuries AD.[8]
The Tai languages descend fromproto-Tai-Kadai, which has been hypothesized to originate in the Lower Yangtze valleys. Ancient Chinese texts refer to non-Sinitic languages spoken across this substantial region and their speakers as"Yue". Although those languages are extinct, traces of their existence could be found in unearthed inscriptional materials, ancient Chinese historical texts and non-Han substrata in various Southern Chinese dialects. Thai, as the most-spoken language in theTai-Kadai language family, has been used extensively in historical-comparative linguistics to identify the origins of language(s) spoken in the ancient region of South China. One of the very few direct records of non-Sinitic speech in pre-Qin and Han times having been preserved so far is the"Song of the Yue Boatman" (Yueren Ge 越人歌), which was transcribed phonetically in Chinese characters in 528 BC, and found in the 善说 Shanshuo chapter of the Shuoyuan 说苑 or 'Garden of Persuasions'. In the early 1980s theZhuang linguist Wei Qingwen using reconstructed Old Chinese for the characters discovered that the resulting vocabulary showed strong resemblance tomodern Zhuang.[9] Later, Zhengzhang Shangfang (1991) followed Wei's insight but usedThai orthography for comparison, since this orthography dates from the 13th century and preserves archaisms vis-à-vis the modern pronunciation.[10]
Haudricourt emphasizes the specificity of Dioi (Zhuang) and proposes to make a two-way distinction between the following two sets.[11] The original language names used in Haudricourt's (1956) are provided first; alternative names are given in parentheses.
Characteristics of the Dioi group pointed out by Haudricourt are
Li Fang-Kuei divided Tai into three sister branches.
Li's Northern group corresponds to Haudricourt's Dioi group, while his Central and Southwestern groups correspond to Haudricourt's Tai proper. The three last languages in Haudricourt's list of 'Tai proper' languages areTho (Tày),Longzhou, andNung, which Li classifies as 'Central Tai'.
This classification scheme has long been accepted as standard in comparative Tai linguistics. However, Central Tai does not appear to be amonophyletic group.
Gedney (1989) considers Central and Southwestern Tai to form a subgroup, of which Northern Tai is a sister. The top-level branching is in agreement with Haudricourt (1956).
Luo Yongxian (1997) classifies the Tai languages as follows, introducing a fourth branch calledNorthwestern Tai that includesAhom,Shan,Dehong Dai, andKhamti. All branches are considered to be coordinate to each other.[12]
Pittayawat Pittayaporn (2009) classifies the Tai languages based on clusters of shared innovations (which, individually, may be associated with more than one branch) (Pittayaporn 2009:298). In Pittayaporn's preliminary classification system of the Tai languages,Central Tai is considered to beparaphyletic and is split up into multiple branches, with theZhuang varieties ofChongzuo in southwesternGuangxi (especially in theZuo River valley at the border to Vietnam) having the most internal diversity. TheSouthwestern Tai andNorthern Tai branches remain intact as inLi Fang-Kuei's 1977 classification system, and several of the Southern Zhuang languages allocated ISO codes are considered to beparaphyletic. The classification is as follows.[13]
Standard Zhuang is based on the dialect of Shuangqiao (双桥),Wuming District.
The following phonological shifts occurred in the Q (Southwestern), N (Northern), B (Ningming), and C (Chongzuo) subgroups (Pittayaporn 2009:300–301).
| Proto-Tai | Subgroup Q[b] | Subgroup N[c] | Subgroup B | Subgroup C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *ɤj, *ɤw, *ɤɰ | *aj, *aw, *aɰ | *i:, *u:, *ɯ: | *i:, *u:, *ɯ: | – |
| *ɯj, *ɯw | *iː, *uː[d] | *aj, *aw[e] | *iː, *uː | – |
| *we, *wo | *eː, *oː | *iː, *uː | *eː, *oː[f] | *eː, *oː[g] |
| *ɟm̩.r- | *br- | *ɟr- | – | *ɟr- |
| *k.t- | – | *tr- | – | *tr- |
| *ɤn, *ɤt, *ɤc | – | *an, *at, *ac[h] | – | – |
Furthermore, the following shifts occurred at various nodes leading up to node Q.
Jerold A. Edmondson's (2013) computational phylogenetic analysis of the Tai languages is shown below.Tay andNung are both shown to be coherent branches underCentral Tai.Northern Tai andSouthwestern Tai are also shown to be coherent branches.[14]
Proto-Tai has been reconstructed in 1977 byLi Fang-Kuei and by Pittayawat Pittayaporn in 2009.[15] Proto-Southwestern Tai has also been reconstructed in 1977 by Li Fang-Kuei and by Nanna L. Jonsson in 1991.[16]
Others have taken up specific area reconstructions, such as David Strecker's 1984 work regarding "Proto-Tai Personal Pronouns." Strecker's proposed system of personal pronouns in Proto-Tai involves "three numbers, three persons, an inclusive/exclusive distinction and an animate/non-animate distinction in the third person non-singular."[17][18]
| Proto-Tai | Thai alphabet | ||
| 1st | singular | *ku | กู |
| dual (exclusive) | *pʰɯa | เผือ | |
| plural (exclusive) | *tu | ตู | |
| Incl. | dual (inclusive) | *ra | รา |
| plural (inclusive) | *rau | เรา | |
| 2nd | singular | *mɯŋ | มึง |
| dual | *kʰɯa | เขือ | |
| plural | *su | สู | |
| 3rd | singular | *man | มัน |
| dual | *kʰa | ขา | |
| plural | *kʰau | เขา |
Below is comparative table of Tai languages.
| English | Proto-Tai[19] | Thai | Lao | Northern Thai | Shan | Tai Lü | Standard Zhuang | Ahom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| wind | *dluom | /lōm/ | /lóm/ | /lōm/ | /lóm/ | /lôm/ | /ɣum˧˩/ | lum |
| town | *mɯəŋA | /mɯ̄aŋ/ | /mɯ́aŋ/ | /mɯ̄aŋ/ | /mɤ́ŋ/ | /mɤ̂ŋ/ | /mɯŋ˧/ | mvng |
| earth | *ɗin | /dīn/ | /dìn/ | /dīn/ | /lǐn/ | /dín/ | /dei˧/ | nin |
| fire | *wɤjA | /fāj/ | /fáj/ | /fāj/ | /pʰáj/ or/fáj/ | /fâj/ | /fei˧˩/ | phai |
| heart | *cɤɰA | /hǔatɕāj/ | /hǔatɕàj/ | /hǔatɕǎj/ | /hǒtsǎɰ/ | /hótɕáj/ | /sim/ | chau |
| water | *C.namC | /náːm/ | /nâm/ | /nám/ | /nâm/ | /nà̄m/ | /ɣaem˦˨/ | nam |
ManySouthwestern Tai languages are written usingBrahmi-derived alphabets.Zhuang languages are traditionally written withChinese characters calledSawndip, and now officially written with a romanized alphabet, though the traditional writing system is still in use to this day.