Tai Dón (, "The White Tai refer to themselves and their language as tay⁴ dɔn², probably because of the white blouses worn by the women. The usual word for 'white' in White Tai is dɔn²" (p. 8). Hudak, T. J. (2008). William J. Gedney’s comparative Tai source book. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.), also known as Tai Khao () or White Tai, is a Tai language of northern Vietnam, Laos, and China.
Classification Tai Dón is classified as belonging to the Tai-Kadai language group, located in the Tai languages and Southwestern Tai languages subgroups.
Geographical distribution In China, White Tai (Tai Khaw 傣皓) people are located in the following townships of Yunnan province, with about 40,000 people (Gao 1999).Gao Lishi 高立士. 1999. 傣族支系探微. 中南民族学院学报 (哲学社会科学版). 1999 年第1 期 (总第96 期).
Jinping County 金平县: Mengla Township 勐拉乡 and Zhemi Township 者米乡 (along the banks of the Zhemi River 者米河 and Tengtiao River 藤条) Malipo County 麻栗坡县: Nanwenhe Township 南温河乡 Maguan County 马关县: Dulong Town 都龙镇 Jiangcheng County 江城县: Qushui Township 曲水乡 (along the banks of the Tuka River 土卡河)
Phonology Each syllable has at least one onset, one nucleus, and one tone.Hudak, T. J. (2008). William J. Gedney’s comparative Tai source book. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. The following sections present the consonants, vowels, and tones in Tai Dón.
Consonants Initial consonants
+ Initial consonants in Tai Dón Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Stop/Affricate voiced voiceless unaspirated voiceless aspirated Nasal Fricative voiced voiceless Approximant
The following table presents the above consonant phonemes in words reported in Hudak's (2008) book.
Phoneme Example Phoneme Example Phoneme Example Phoneme Example Phoneme Example /b/ /bɤn˨˨/ "moon" /d/ /dɔn˦˥/ "white" /p/ /pɔ˦˥˦/ "father" /t/ /tu˨˨/ "door" /t͡ɕ/ /t͡ɕɔn˧˩ʔ/ "spoon" /k/ /kaːŋ˨˨/ "middle" /ʔ/ /ʔaːŋ˦˥/ "basin" /pʰ/ /pʰaː˨˦ʔ/ "cloth" /tʰ/ /tʰiw˨˨/ "to whistle" /t͡ɕʰ/ /t͡ɕʰaj˦˥/ "egg" /kʰ/ /kʰo˨˦ʔ/ "to cook" /m/ /mɯŋ˦˦/ "you" /n/ /naː˨˦ʔ/ "face" /ɲ/ /ɲuŋ˦˦/ "mosquito" /ŋ/ /ŋaːj˦˥˦/ "easy" /v/ /vaːn˨˨/ "sweet" /f/ /faː˨˨/ "lid" /s/ /sɔŋ˨˨/ "two" /x/ /xaj˨˨/ "tallow" /h/ /hɤ˦˥/ "sweat" /l/ /loŋ˦˦/ "dragon" /j/ /jɔj˧˩ʔ/ "to drool"
There are four labialized velar consonant clusters that occur at the beginning of a syllable.
+ Velar + w consonant clusters in Tai Dón Cluster Example kw /kwaː˦˥˦/ "to visit" kʰw /kʰwe˦˥/ "to dig" ŋw /ŋwaː˦˥˦/ "fig" xw /xwan˦˦/ "smoke"
Final consonants + Final consonants in Tai Dón Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Stop p t k ʔ Nasal m n ŋ Approximant w j ɰ
Vowels Tai Dón has nine short vowels, and one long vowel. However, the short vowels are phonetically realized as long in final position (e.g., /e/ is phonetically [eː] in final position).
+ Vowels in Tai Dón Front Back unrounded rounded High i ɯ u Mid e ɤ o Low ɛ a aː ɔ
Tones There are six tones on a smooth syllable (an open syllable or a closed syllable ending in a sonorant). + Tai Dón tones in smooth syllables Description Tone letters Example level, slightly lower than mid 22 (or ˨˨) /kaː˨˨/ "crow" high-rising 45 (or ˦˥) /kaː˦˥/ "all the way to" low-rising, glottalized 24ʔ (or ˨˦ʔ) /kaː˨˦ʔ/ "young rice plant" level, somewhat higher than mid 44 (or ˦˦) /kaː˦˦/ "stuck" level, somewhat higher than mid with a rise and fall 454 (or ˦˥˦) /kaː˦˥˦/ "price" falling, glottalized 31ʔ (or ˧˩ʔ) /kaː˧˩ʔ/ "to trade"
Two of the six tones occur on a checked syllable (a syllable ending in a stop).
+ Tai Dón tones in checked syllables Tone Vowel length Example high-rising short /sat˦˥/ "animal" long /ʔaːp˦˥/ "to bathe" level, somewhat higher than mid short /mot˦˦/ "ant" long /laːt˦˦/ "to cover"
Writing system Consonants
Initials Shown below are consonants of Tai Don with two tonal registers (high on the top and low on the bottom).
Finals
Shown below are final consonants of Tai Don with short vowel [a] on top and other vowels on the bottom.
Onset
References
External links Preliminary proposal to encode the Tai Khao script in UCS A response to Kushim Jiang, “Preliminary proposal to encode the Tai Khao script in UCS” https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2022/22098-tai-don.pdf https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2022/22099-tai-don-comment.pdf