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Tày language

Tày is the major Tai language of Vietnam, spoken by more than a million Tày people in Northeastern Vietnam. It was formerly known as Thổ, a name now shared with the Cuối language.

Distribution

Tày is also spoken by emigrants in the Central highlands region of Vietnam (such as in Lam Dong Province).

There are also some Tày speakers in western countries. The region of Vietnam where Tày is spoken is bordered by China.

Varieties

Tày linguistic varieties include the following:

  • Tày Bảo Lạc – spoken in Bảo Lạc District, western Cao Bang province.
  • Tày Trùng Khánh – spoken in Trùng Khánh District, northeastern Cao Bang province.
  • Thu Lao or Dai Zhuang varieties are considered to be a different language.

Phonology

Consonants

  • The Cao Bẳng Tày dialect is the only variety to have the sounds .

Vowels

  • There are also three semivowels that mainly occur in syllable-coda position in combination with other vowel sounds. are typically realized as consonant sounds . follows front vowels and central vowels . follows back vowels as well as central vowels . However, only follows .

Tones

Six tones are present in Cao Bẳng Tày:

Writing systems

Chữ Nôm Tày

The Tày people used to write their ritual texts and then songs with the logographic script, known as chữ Nôm Tày. The script is similar to sawndip and was created during the reign of Mạc dynasty, based on Chinese characters. Some of the characters, like Vietnamese Nôm, are borrowed directly from Han characters, while others are created locally from Chinese components.

Tày-Nùng orthography (1961)

The current Tày-Nùng orthography was created in 1961 on the basis of chữ Quốc ngữ, and then was approved by the government of Vietnam following the Decree 206-CP. Its alphabet consists of 31 letters as follows:

Their pronunciation along with the multigraphs are listed in the tables below:

Consonants

The letters tʼ, w, z are only used in some dialects.

Vowels

Tones

Vocabulary

References