Central Tai
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The Central Tai languages include southern dialects of Zhuang, and various Nung and Tày dialects of northern Vietnam. Central Tai languages differ from
Northern Tai languages The Northern Tai languages are an established branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia. They include the northern Zhuang languages and Bouyei of China, Tai Mène of Laos and Yoy of Thailand. Languages Ethnologue ''Ethnologue'' distingui ...
in that Central Tai distinguishes unaspirated and aspirated onsets, while Northern Tai generally does not (Li 1977). Southwestern Tai also displays this kind of aspiration contrast.


Classification

William Gedney considers Central Tai to be more closely related to Southwestern Tai than to Northern Tai, while
André-Georges Haudricourt André-Georges Haudricourt (; 17 January 1911 – 20 August 1996) was a French botanist, anthropologist and linguist. Biography He grew up on his parents' farm, in a remote area of Picardy. From his early childhood, he was curious about technol ...
argues for a closer relation to Northern Tai. Pittayaporn's (2009) tentative tree of the Tai branch, however, considers Central Tai to be
paraphyletic In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In ...
. Certain languages in predominantly Central Tai-speaking areas, such as Caolan and Nùng An in
northern Vietnam Northern Vietnam ( vi, Bắc Bộ) is one of three geographical regions within Vietnam. It consists of three administrative regions: the Northwest (Vùng Tây Bắc), the Northeast (Vùng Đông Bắc), and the Red River Delta (Đồng Bằng ...
, display Northern Tai features as well. These appear to be mixed languages that are not fully Central Tai or Northern Tai. Jerold A. Edmondson calls Caolan a " tertium quid."
Jerold Edmondson Jerold Alan Edmondson (born 1941) (Chinese name: 艾杰瑞 Aì Jiéruì) is an American linguist whose work spans four subdisciplines: historical and comparative linguistics, Asian linguistics, field linguistics, and phonetics. He is a leading spe ...
's (2014)Edmondson, Jerold A. ''Tai subgrouping using phylogenetic estimation''. Presented at the 46th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (ICSTLL 46), Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States, August 7–10, 2013 (Session: Tai-Kadai Workshop). computational phylogenetic analysis of the Tai languages shows
Tay Tay may refer to: People and languages * Tay (name), including lists of people with the given name, surname and nickname * Tay people, an ethnic group of Vietnam ** Tày language *Atayal language, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan (ISO 639 ...
and Nung to be coherent branches under Central Tai. ;Central Tai *Core Central Tai: Nung Chau, Pingxiang Zhuang, Leiping Zhuang, Ningming Zhuang *
Tay Tay may refer to: People and languages * Tay (name), including lists of people with the given name, surname and nickname * Tay people, an ethnic group of Vietnam ** Tày language *Atayal language, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan (ISO 639 ...
: Tay Bao Lac, Tay Khanh Trung, Cao Lan * Nung: Nung Chao (Longzhou Zhuang), Nùng Phạn Slinh, Nung Inh, Western Nung/Nung Din (Nong Zhuang), Nung Yang (Yang Zhuang), Nung An


Languages

Many Central Tai languages are known as Nong 侬 (Nùng in Vietnamese) or Dai 岱 (Tày in Vietnamese).


China

*
Longzhou Longzhou County Zhuang: ''Lungzcouh Yen'') is a county of southwestern Guangxi, China, bordering Cao Bằng province, Vietnam. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Chongzuo. Longzhou lies in a circular valley at ...
* Ningming * Nong Zhuang * Dai Zhuang * Min Zhuang * Yang Zhuang (different from Yang) * Pyang Zhuang * Myang Zhuang


Vietnam

* Nung **Nùng Phạn Slinh **Nùng Cháo **Nùng Inh **Nùng An **Nùng Giang **Nùng Dín (=Western Nùng ''or'' Nong Zhuang) * Tày **Tày Bảo Lạc **Tày Trùng Khánh


References


Citations


Sources

* Li, Fang-kuei. 1977. ''Handbook of Comparative Tai''. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaiʼi Press. * Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. 2009. ''The Phonology of Proto-Tai.'' Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Linguistics, Cornell University. Tai languages {{tk-lang-stub