Southwestern Tai languages


The Southwestern Tai or Thai 'languages' are a branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia. Its languages include Central Thai, Northern Thai, Lao, Shan and others.

Classification

The internal classification of the Southwestern Tai dialects is still not well agreed on.

Chamberlain (1975)

Chamberlain divides Southwestern Tai into 4 branches.
Chamberlain based his classification on the following phonological patterns.
  1. /p/ vs. /ph/
  2. tone *A column split/merger pattern
  3. tone *BCD columns split/merger patterns
  4. B-DL tonal coalescence
;Proto-Southwestern Tai
  • Branch with distinguishing innovation: /p/
  • *Branch with distinguishing innovation: *A 1-23-4
  • **Tse Fang, a variety of Tai Nuea spoken at Zhefang in Mangshi, Yunnan, China
  • **Tai Mao, a variety of Tai Nuea spoken at Nam Hkam, Shan State, Myanmar
  • **Muang Ka, a variety of Tai Nuea spoken at Muang Ka in Muang Baw, Yunnan, China
  • *Branch with distinguishing innovation: *ABCD 123-4; B=DL
  • **Black Tai spoken at Sơn La, Vietnam
  • **Red Tai
  • **White Tai
  • **Lue, a composite of varieties from many locations in several countries
  • **Shan spoken at Kengtung ca. 1930s
  • **Yuan, a composite of varieties spoken in the capital towns of Chiang Rai, Phrae, Nan, Lampang, and Chiang Mai, Thailand
  • **Ahom
  • Branch with distinguishing innovation: /ph/
  • *Branch with distinguishing innovation: *BCD 123-4
  • **Siamese
  • **Phu Tai
  • **Lao Neua spoken at "Nam Tha"
  • **Phuan spoken at Ban Mi, Lopburi, Thailand and Pak Seng
  • *Branch with distinguishing innovation: *BCD 1-23-4; B≠DL
  • **Lao
  • **Southern Thai
The Tai Muong Vat of Yen Chau, Vietnam is a PH-type language like Lao, even though it is geographically surrounded by Black Tai.

Edmondson & Solnit (1997)

Edmondson & Solnit divide the Southwestern Tai dialects into two major subgroups. According to this classification, Dehong Tai and Khamti are the first languages to have split off from the Southwestern Tai branch.
  1. Northern: Tai Nua = Shan-Tayok, Khamti
  2. Southern: Burman Shan, all other Southwestern Tai
A transition zone between the Northern and Southern groups occurs among the Tai languages around the Burma-China border region of Mangshi, Namhkam, and Mu-se near Ruili.
This bipartite division of Southwestern Tai is argued for by Edward Robinson in his paper "Features of Proto-Nüa-Khamti". The following features set off the Nüa-Khamti group from all the other Southwestern Tai dialects.
  1. Labialized velar stops have become velar stops.
  2. Tripartite split of the A tone A1-23-4
  3. Merger of A23 and B4
  4. The low vowels /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ have merged with /e/ and /o/, respectively.
  5. *ʔb > m

    Luo (2001)

Luo Yongxian also recognizes the uniqueness of Dehong Tai, but argues for that it should be placed in a separate Northwestern Tai branch with Southwestern Tai as a sister branch. Luo claims that the Northwestern Tai branch has many Northern Tai and Central Tai features that are not found in Southwestern Tai. His proposed tree for the Tai branch is as follows.
  • Tai
  • *Northern
  • *Central
  • *Southwestern
  • *Northwestern

    Pittayaporn (2009)

According to Pittayaporn, Southwestern Tai is defined by a phonological shift of *kr- → *ʰr-.
Pittayaporn also suggests that Southwestern Tai began to disperse southward after the 7th century C.E. but before the 11th century C.E., as evidenced by loanwords from Late Middle Chinese.
Pittayaporn recognizes two branches within Southwestern Tai, namely Eastern and Western. The Eastern branch consists of the closely related languages Black Tai, White Tai, and Red Tai, while the Western branch is much more internally diverse. The Western branch also contains a Southern group consisting of Thai and Lao.
;Southwestern Tai
  • Eastern branch: Black Tai, White Tai, Red Tai
  • Western branch: Shan varieties, Lue, Yuan, Lao, Thai
  • *Southern sub-branch: Thai, Lao, etc.
Pittayaporn, et al. note that following sound changes from Proto-Southwestern Tai to the Tai varieties represented in the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya inscriptions, and conclude that the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya inscriptions in fact represent the same language.
  1. the merger of dorsal obstruents
  2. the merger of PSWT *aɯ and *aj
  3. the merger of PSWT *ɲ-, *j- and *ʔj-
  4. the loss of voicing distinction in sonorants
  5. *ɓl- > d-
  6. *kʰr- > kʰ-
  7. *ʰr- > h-

    Languages

Southern Thai is often posited to be the most divergent; it seems to retain regular reflexes of early tonal developments that were obscured in the other languages. The reconstructed language is called Proto-Thai; cf. Proto-Tai, which is the ancestor of all of the Tai languages.
The following tree follows that of Ethnologue
According to Ethnologue, other Southwestern dialects are Tai Ya, Pu Ko, Pa Di, Tai Thanh, Tai Long, Tai Hongjin, Yong. It is not clear where they belong in the classification above. Ethnologue also lists under Tai, without further classification, Kuan, Tai Do, Tai Pao, and Tay Khang. Geographically these would all appear to be Southwestern.
Ethnologue also includes Tày Sa Pa of Vietnam, which Pittayaporn excludes from Southwestern Tai but classifies as the most closely related language outside of that group. Pittayaporn also includes Yoy, which Ethnologue classifies as a Northern Tai language.