Kra–Dai language spoken in Assam, India
The Phake language or Tai Phake language (တႝၸႃကေ, tai phākae) is a Tai language spoken in the Buri Dihing Valley of Assam, India. It is closely related to the other Southwestern Tai languages in Assam: Aiton, Khamti, Khamyang, and Turung.
Distribution
Buragohain (1998) lists the following Tai Phake villages.
- Man Phake Tau (Namphake village, Assam)
- Man Tipam (Tipam Phake village, Assam)
- Man Phake Neu (Bor Phake village, Assam)
- Man Mo (Man Mo village, Assam)
- Man Phaneng (Phaneng village, Assam)
- Man Long (Long village, Assam)
- Man Nonglai (Nonglaui village, Assam)
- Man Monglang (Monglang village, Assam)
- Man Nigam (Nigam village, Assam)
- Man Wagun (Wagun village, Arunachal Pradesh)
- Man Lung Kung (Lung Kung village, Arunachal Pradesh)
The [maːn˧] corresponds to the modern Thai ban (บ้าน) and Shan wan (ဝၢၼ်ႈ), which mean 'village'.
(Note: For an explanation of the notation system for Tai tones, see Proto-Tai language#Tones.)
Phonology
Initial consonants
Tai Phake has the following initial consonants[2]
Final consonants
Tai Phake has the following final consonants:
-[w] occurs after front vowels and [a]-, -[j] occurs after back vowels and [a]-.[2]
Vowels
Tai Phake has the following vowel inventory:[3]
Writing system
The Tai Phake have their own writing system called 'Lik-Tai', which they share with the Khamti people and Tai Aiton people.[2] It closely resembles the Northern Shan script of Myanmar, which is a variant of the Burmese script, with some of the letters taking divergent shapes.[4]
Consonants
- က - kaa - k - [k]
- ၵ - khaa - kh - [kʰ]
- င - ngaa - ng - [ŋ]
- ꩡ - chaa - ch - [t͡ʃ], [t͡s]
- ꩬ - saaa - s - [s]
- ၺ - nyaa - ny - [ɲ][5]
- တ - taa - t - [t]
- ထ - thaa - th - [tʰ]
- ꩫ - naa - n - [n]
- ပ - paa - p - [p]
- ၸ - phaa - ph - [pʰ]
- မ - maa - m - [m]
- ယ - yaa - y - [j]
- လ - laa - l - [l]
- ဝ - waa - w - [w~v]
- ꩭ - haa - h - [h]
- ဢ - aa - a - [ʔ]
Vowels
- ႊ - a - [a]
- ႃ - ā - [aː]
- ိ - i - [i]
- ီ - ī - [iː]
- ု - u - [u]
- ူ - ū - [uː]
- ေ - e/ae - [eː/ɛ]
- ႝ - ai - [ai]
- ေႃ - o/aw - [oː/ɔː]
- ံ - ṁ - [am]
- ုံ - um - [um]
- ွံ - om - [ɔm]
- ိုဝ် - eu - [ɛu]
- ်ႍ - au - [au]
- ်ွ - āu - [aːu]
- ွ - aw - [ɒ]
- ွႝ - oi - [oj]
- ် - final consonant [6]
Notes
- ^ Phake at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ a b c d Diller, Anthony (1992). "Tai languages in Assam: Daughters or Ghosts" (PDF). Papers on Tai languages, linguistics and literatures: 5–43.
- ^ Morey, Stephen (2008). "The Tai Languages of Assam". The Tai-Kadai Languages. Routledge. pp. 207–253. ISBN 9780203641873.
- ^ Inglis, Douglas (2017). "Myanmar-based Khamti Shan Orthography". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society.
- ^ Hosken, Martin. "Representing Myanmar in Unicode: Details and Examples Version 4" (PDF). Unicode. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
- ^ "Tai Phake language, alphabet, and pronunciation". Omniglot. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
References
- Buragohain, Yehom. 1998. "Some notes on the Tai Phakes of Assam, in Shalardchai Ramitanondh Virada Somswasdi and Ranoo Wichasin." In Tai, pp. 126–143. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Chiang Mai University.
- Morey, Stephen. 2005. The Tai languages of Assam: a grammar and texts. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
