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| Daai | |
|---|---|
| Region | Myanmar |
| Ethnicity | Daai Chin |
Native speakers | 37,000 (2010)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | dao |
| Glottolog | dai1236 |
Daai (also known asDaai Chin), which borders theMün andÜtbü language groups, is aKuki-Chin ofMyanmar. It is spoken in 142 villages inKanpetlet,Matupi,Mindat, andPaletwa townships inChin State, Burma (Ethnologue). A written script for Daai was created in 1976 by U Khine Sho and Ms. Halga So Hart Manno.[2]
Mutual intelligibility among Nghngilo (Yang), Daai Yindu, and Mkui groups is high, but is lower among other groups.[3] Daai has greater than 90% lexical similarity with Daai Yindu, Yang, Mkui, Duk, and Msang, 81%–88% with Ngxang (Paletwa township) and Kheng, 80% with Shiip (Matupi township), 91%–94% with Gah/Ng-Gha (part of Mün), and 81%–87% with Mün.[3]
Ethnologue lists the following dialects of daai Chin.
Daai has twenty-four consonant phonemes.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | m̥m | n̥n | ŋ̊ŋ | ||
| Plosives | ppʰb | ttʰd | kkʰ | ʔ | |
| Fricatives | ssʰ | xɣ | h | ||
| Lateral Fricatives | ɬ | ||||
| Approximants | w | l | j |
Daai has seven vowel phonemes, each with a phonemic length contrast.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | |||
| High | iiː | ɯɯː | uuː | |
| Mid | ɛɛː | əəː | ɔɔː | |
| Low | aaː | |||
Daai Chin is an isolating or analytic language. There is no inflectional morphology at the word level; case, number, and tense are marked by clitics.
| Daai Chin | English |
|---|---|
| mthan | night |
| mpyong | mouth |
| kpyak | to destroy |
| pha | to arrive |
| Nghngaai-ktheih hmin lokti. | The mango fruits became ripe. |
| Mat jah mata i:ma am ngleh-ei ni. | They did not visit each other's houses. |
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
|  | |||
| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
| ||||
| East andSoutheast Asia |
| ||||
| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
| ||||
| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
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