The Phake language (''phaa-kay'') or Tai Phake language is spoken in the Buri Dihing Valley of
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
Distribution
(''Note: For an explanation of the notation system for Tai tones, see
Proto-Tai language#Tones''.)
The ' corresponds to the modern
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
บ้าน, ''ban'', and
Shan ဝၢၼ်ႈ ''wan'' which corresponds to 'village'.
Buragohain (1998) lists the following Tai Phake villages.
*Man Phake Tau (Namphake village,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
)
*Man Tipam (Tipam Phake village,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
)
*Man Phake Neu (Bor Phake village,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
)
*Man Mo (Man Mo village,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
)
*Man Phaneng (Phaneng village,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
)
*Man Long (Long village,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
)
*Man Nonglai (Nonglaui village,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
)
*Man Monglang (Monglang village,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
)
*Man Nigam (Nigam village,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
)
*Man Wagun (Wagun village,
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
)
*Man Lung Kung (Lung Kung village,
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
)
Phonology
Initial consonants
Tai Phake has the following initial consonants:
Final consonants
Tai Phake has the following final consonants:
-
occurs after front vowels and
, -
occurs after back vowels and
.
[
]
Vowels
Tai Phake has the following vowel inventory:
Writing system
The Tai Phake have their own writing system called 'Lik-Tai', which they share with the Khamti people
The Tai Khamti, ( Khamti: တဲး ၵံးတီႈ, ( th, ชาวไทคำตี่, my, ခန္တီးရှမ်းလူမျိုး, Hkamti Shan) or simply Khamti as they are also known, are a Tai ethnic group native t ...
and Tai Aiton people
The Tai Aiton are one among the six indigenous Tai communities of Assam. They are Animist and Buddhist by religion. The other indigenous Assamese communities commonly term them as Shyams or the people from Siam i.e. Thailand. The names of thei ...
.[ It closely resembles the Northern ]Shan script
The Shan alphabet is a Brahmic scripts, Brahmic abugida, used for writing the Shan language, which was derived from the Burmese alphabet. Due to its recent reforms, the Shan alphabet is more phonetic than other Burmese-derived alphabets.
Histo ...
of Myanmar, which is a variant of the Burmese script
Burmese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia
* Burmese people
* Burmese language
* Burmese alphabet
* Burmese cuisine
* Burmese culture
Animals
* Burmese cat
* Burmese chicken
* Burmese (horse), a ...
, with some of the letters taking divergent shapes.
Consonants
* က - kaa - k -
* ၵ - khaa - kh -
ʰ* င - ngaa - ng -
* ꩡ - chaa - ch -
͡ʃ ͡s* ꩬ - saaa - s -
* ၺ - nyaa - ny -
* တ - taa - t -
* ထ - thaa - th -
ʰ* ꩫ - naa - n -
* ပ - paa - p -
* ၸ - phaa - ph -
ʰ* မ - maa - m -
* ယ - yaa - y -
* လ - laa - l -
* ဝ - waa - w -
~v* ꩭ - haa - h -
* ဢ - aa - a -
Vowels
* ႊ - a -
* ႃ - ā -
ː* ိ - i -
* ီ - ī -
ː* ု - u -
* ူ - ū -
ː* ေ - e/ae -
ː/ɛ* ႝ - ai -
i* ေႃ - o/aw -
ː/ɔː* ံ - ṁ -
m* ုံ - um -
m* ွံ - om -
m* ိုဝ် - eu -
u* ်ႍ - au -
u* ်ွ - āu -
ːu* ွ - aw -
* ွႝ - oi -
j* ် - final consonant
Notes
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
Chiang Mai University ( CMU; th, มหาวิทยาลัยเชียงใหม่) is a public research university in northern Thailand founded in 1964. It has a strong emphasis on engineering, science, agriculture, and medicine. It ...
.
*Morey, Stephen. 2005. ''The Tai languages of Assam: a grammar and texts''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
{{Languages of Northeast India
Languages of Assam
Tai languages
Endangered languages of India