Telue language

Telue (pinyin transcription: Duoluo 多罗; Tolo) or White Gelao is a Gelao language spoken in China and Vietnam.

Dialects

The primary dialectal areas where Telue (White Gelao) is still spoken are:

• Guizhou, China (in Liuzhi Special District): Judu 居都
• Guangxi, China (in Longlin County): Moji 磨基 (also spoken in Wantao 湾桃)
• Yunnan, China (in Malipo County): Yueliangwan 月亮湾 (also spoken in Fengyan 峰岩 and Laozhai 老寨)
• Vietnam (in Hà Giang Province)

Phonology

Duoluo has many uvular and prenasalized consonants.

Consonants

• The sound of the affricates are frequently close to interdental affricate sounds .
• The pronunciation of can sometimes be close to an alveolo-palatal fricative , though may not be heard as clearly. This is likewise true for the preglottalized palatal , which may be interpreted as .
• can also form a syllabic nasal .
• Sounds mainly appear in modern Chinese loanwords.

Vowels

• only is heard after dental/alveolar fricatives and affricates only, is never heard in this position.
• and are typically free variants of each other. When used as a single vowel, it is commonly heard as , but when followed by a back vowel it is pronounced as .

Tones

White Gelao of Yueliangwan, Yunnan has 4 tones.

White Gelao of Niupo, Guizhou has 4 tones.

References