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Tai Daeng
Red Tai Táy-Môc-Châu
ꪼꪕꪵꪒꪉ Tay lɛɛŋ
"Tai Daeng" written in Tai Viet script
Region	Northwestern Vietnam Northeastern Laos
Ethnicity	Tai Daeng
Native speakers	(105,000 cited 1999–2007)
Language family	Kra–Dai Tai Southwestern (Thai) Chiang Saen Tai Daeng
Writing system	Tai Viet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tyr
Glottolog	taid1249
ELP	Tai Daeng

Tai Daeng, Táy-Môc-Châu or Red Tai is the language of the Tai Daeng people of northwestern Vietnam and across the border into northeastern Laos. It belongs to the Tai language family, being closely connected with Black Tai and White Tai, as well as being more distantly related to the language spoken in modern Thailand.

The language is classified as part of the Thái official ethnic community in Vietnam and of the Phu Tai composite group in Laos. However, speakers in Vietnam tend to identify with Black Tai, or Tai Dam, thus denying that they are Red Tai.

Classification

Tai Daeng is classified as belonging to the Tai-Kadai language group, located in the Tai languages and Southwestern Tai languages subgroups. Tai Meuay is closely related to Tai Daeng.

Geographic distribution

The number of Tai Daeng speakers is generally estimated at 80,000 native speakers, with an ethnic population of roughly 100,000 located mostly in Vietnam.

In China, Tai Daeng (Chinese: 傣亮) people are located in the following townships of Yunnan province, with about 2,000 people (Gao 1999). They are referred to by the neighboring Han Chinese, Miao, and Yao peoples as Dry Tai (Gan Dai 旱傣).

• Qiaotou Town 桥头镇, Hekou County 河口县 (in the 3 villages of Shiyajiao 石崖脚, Baini 白尼, and Fangluocheng 方洛成; population 600)
• Gulingqing Township 古林菁乡, Maguan County 马关县 (in the 2 villages of Panzhihua 攀枝花 and Dongzong 董棕); population 500)

Phonology

All syllables in Tai Daeng have an initial consonant or consonant cluster, followed by a vowel or a diphthong, and optionally end in a final consonant. Each syllable also carries a tone. Like many related languages, Tae Daeng has different possibilities for the realization of tone on different types of syllables, depending on the presence, absence, and type of final consonant.

Free syllables are those which end in a vowel, a nasal or a semivowel while checked syllables are those having a final p, t, k or a glottal stop. Tae Daeng has five tones on free syllables:

• 1. Rising from middle pitch to high pitch and then leveling off: huu 'ear', taa 'eye'
• 2. Level and high, slightly lower than the highest point of the first tone: say 'egg', faa 'to split'
• 3. Low rising and glottalized: hay 'to weep' or 'dry field', haa 'five', naŋ 'to sit'
• 4. Mid with slight and gradual fall: naa 'rice field', cim 'to taste'
• 5. High falling, glottalized: nɔŋ 'younger sibling', haay 'bad'

The first tone can employ glottalization, but is not mandatory. Tae Daeng has two tones on checked syllables:

• 2. Level, mid or somewhat higher than mid: lap 'to close (the eyes)' or 'to harpen', mat 'flea' or 'to tie up in a bundle', bɔɔk 'flower'
• 3. Low rising: moot 'one'. According to Gedney, the nucleus of syllables of this type is always a diphthong or a phonetically long vowel.

Grammar

Morphology

Tae Deang frequently employs serial verb construction in which two or more verbs are strung together in one clause.

Syntax

Tae Daeng employs a Subject-Verb-Object word order and because of the lack of inflections upon verbs, syntactical functions are largely derived from word order and prepositions. Particles are highly adaptive and can usually be found at the end of a sentence in order to emphasize, question, command or indicate a level of familiarity or respect.

Writing system

Tai Daeng differs from its close relations White Tai and Black Tai in that, while it doesn't feature a writing system of its own, speakers make occasional usage of the Tai Viet script.

References

1. Tai Daeng at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. "Did you know Tai Daeng is threatened?".
3. Pacquement, Jean. 2021. The Tai Meuay of Bolikhamxay Province (Laos) and their language. SEALS 2021. (slides)
4. 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).
5. "河口瑶族自治县桥头苗族壮族乡老汪山村委会石崖脚村". Archived from the original on 2016-11-30. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
6. "河口瑶族自治县桥头苗族壮族乡老汪山村委会白泥寨村". Archived from the original on 2016-11-30. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
7. "马关县古林箐乡攀枝花攀枝花村". Archived from the original on 2016-11-30. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
8. "马关县古林箐乡攀枝花懂棕林村". Archived from the original on 2016-12-01. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
9. ^ Gedney, W.J. (1989). "A comparative sketch of White, Black, and Red Tai" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-10-16. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
10. Diller, Anthony V. N. , Jerold A. Edmondson and Yongxian Luo , "The Tai-Kadai Languages" . (Abingdon: Routledge, 11 Jun 2008 ), accessed 28 Apr 2016, Routledge Handbooks Online.
11. 'Tai Languages'. D. Strecker. In The World's Major Languages, 653-659. B. Comrie (ed). Routledge (2009)

• Languages of Vietnam
• Southwestern Tai languages