Telue (

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

transcription: Duoluo 多罗; Tolo) or White Gelao is a Gelao language spoken in China and Vietnam.

Dialects

The primary dialectal areas where Telue (White Gelao) is still spoken are: *

Guizhou ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_map = Guizhou in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_alt = Map showing the location of Guizhou Province , map_caption = Map s ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(in

Liuzhi Special District Liuzhi Special District () is a district of Guizhou, China. It was known as Langdai County before 1960. The county is under the administration of Liupanshui city, located in the western part of Guizhou Province. It is bounded by Zhijing and Nayong ...

): Judu 居都 *

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

, China (in Longlin County): Moji 磨基 (also spoken in Wantao 湾桃) *

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

, China (in Malipo County): Yueliangwan 月亮湾 (also spoken in Fengyan 峰岩 and Laozhai 老寨) *

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

(in

Hà Giang Province Hà Giang (, ) was formerly a Provinces of Vietnam, province in the Northeast (Vietnam), Northeast region of Vietnam. It was located in the far north of the country, and contains Vietnam's northernmost point. It shared a 270 km long China-Vi ...

)

Phonology

Duoluo has many

uvular Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be stops, fricatives, nasals, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not prov ...

and

prenasalized consonant Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent (or occasionally a non-nasal sonorant) that behave phonologically like single consonants. The primary reason for considering them to be single consonants, rather than ...

Consonants

* The sound of the affricates are frequently close to interdental affricate sounds . * The pronunciation of can sometimes be close to an alveolo-palatal sound , but not as fully articulated. * can also form a syllabic nasal . * Sounds mainly appear in modern Chinese loanwords.

Vowels

* only is heard after dental/alveolar fricatives and affricates only, is never heard in this position. * and are typically free variants of each other. When used as a single vowel, it is commonly heard as , but when followed by a back vowel it is pronounced as .

Tones

White Gelao of Yueliangwan,

has 4 tones. White Gelao of Niupo,

has 4 tones.Ni 1990, p. 209.

References

{{Tai-Kadai languages Kra languages Languages of Vietnam Languages of Guizhou Languages of Guangxi Languages of Yunnan