Tày language

Tày
	Tho
Native to	Vietnam
Native speakers	1.63 million (2009)[1]
Language family	Kra–Dai Tai Central Tai Tày; ; ;
Writing system	Latin (Vietnamese alphabet); Chữ nôm
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tyz
Glottolog	tayy1238

Tày or Tho (a name shared with Cuoi and with various Zhuang languages of China) is the major Tai language of Vietnam, in the northeast near the Chinese border.

Varieties

Tày linguistic varieties include:[2][3]

Tày Bảo Lạc is spoken in Bảo Lạc District, western Cao Bang province.
Tày Trùng Khánh is spoken in Trùng Khánh District, northeastern Cao Bang province.

The Dai Zhuang varieties should perhaps be considered the same language.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		plain	pal.	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	pʲ	t	c	k
	aspirated	pʰ	pʰʲ	tʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	bʲ	d
	implosive	ɓ	ɓʲ	ɗ
Fricative	voiceless	f		s		x	h
	voiced	v		z		ɣ
	lateral			ɬ
Nasal		m		n	ɲ	ŋ
Trill				r
Approximant		w		l	j

The Cao Bẳng Tày dialect is the only variety to have the sounds /j w r ɣ b d bʲ/.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ɯ	u
High-mid	e		o
Mid		ə əː
Low-mid	ɛ	ɐ	ɔ
Low		a

Diphthongs
	Front		Back
Close	ie		ɯə	uo

There are also three semivowels [u̯ i̯ ɯ̯] that mainly occur in syllable-coda position in combination with other vowel sounds. [u̯ i̯] are typically realized as consonant sounds [w j]. [u̯] follows front vowels /i e ɛ/ and central vowels /ə a ɐ/. [i̯] follows back vowels /u o ɔ/ as well as central vowels /ə a ɐ/. However, [ɯ̯] only follows /ə/.[4]

Tones

Six tones are present in Cao Bẳng Tày:

Tones
a̋	˥
a᷄	˦˥
á	˦
ā	˧
à	˨
a᷆	˨˩

References

Tày at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
Edmondson, Jerold A., Solnit, David B. (eds). 1997. Comparative Kadai: the Tai branch. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics 124. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
http://ling.uta.edu/~jerry/research/map.html
Văn Ma, Hoàng (1997). The sound system of the Tày language of Cao Bắng Province, Vietnam. Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit (eds.), Comparative Kadai: The Tai branch: Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. pp. 221–231.