Northern Thai (), also called Kam Mueang ( กำเมือง), Lanna or Tai Yuan, is the language spoken by the Northern Thai people of Thailand. It is a Southwestern Tai language. The language has approximately six million speakers, most of whom live in Northern Thailand, with a smaller community of speakers in northwestern Laos.
Speakers of this language generally consider the name "Tai Yuan" to be pejorative. They refer to themselves as ' (, คนเมือง, – literally "people of Mueang" meaning "city dwellers"), Lanna, or Northern Thai. The language is also sometimes referred to as ' (พายัพ, ), "Northwestern (speech)".
The term Yuan is still sometimes used for Northern Thai's distinctive Tai Tham alphabet, which is closely related to the old Tai Lue alphabet and the Lao religious alphabets. The use of the ', as the traditional alphabet is known, is now largely limited to Buddhist temples, where many old sermon manuscripts are still in active use. There is no active production of literature in the traditional alphabet, and when used in writing standard Thai script is invariably used. The modern spoken form is called . There is a resurgence of interest in writing it in the traditional way, but the modern pronunciation differs from that prescribed in spelling rules.thumb|Nameboard of a Buddhist temple in [[Chiang Mai written with Tai Tham script: Wat Mokhamtuang (and street number 119 in Thai)]]<!-- Full quote, replaced by 'condensed' quote above to merge references:
-->
Classification
Northern Thai is classified as one of the Chiang Saen branch, a model popularized by foundational linguists such as Fang-Kuei Li (1960) and Marvin Brown (1965), others being Thai, Southern Thai and numerous smaller languages, which together with the Northwestern Tai and Lao-Phutai languages, form the Southwestern branch of Tai languages. The Tai languages are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family, which encompasses a large number of indigenous languages spoken in an arc from Hainan and Guangxi south through Laos and Northern Vietnam to the Cambodian border.
From a purely genealogical standpoint, most linguists consider Northern Thai to be more closely related to Central Thai than to Lao or Isan, but the language has been heavily influenced by both Lao and Central Thai throughout history. All Southwestern Tai languages form a coherent dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible varieties, with few sharp dividing lines. However, this genealogical classification is increasingly contested by modern scholars. Critics argue that these groupings may reflect political "Thaification" and a drive for national unity rather than purely linguistic history. While the Chiang Saen group (including Central Thai, Northern Thai, and Southern Thai) is the standard model, it often masks the closer historical ties Northern Thai has with the Lao-Phutai branch. Nevertheless, Northern Thai has today become closer to the Central Thai language, as Standard Thai is the principal language of education and government and spoken throughout Thailand.
Names
The Northern Thai language has various names in Northern Thai, Thai, and other Tai languages.
- In Northern Thai, it is commonly called ' ( กำเมือง, , literally "city language"; cf. Standard Thai: คำเมือง ), or ' (, ภาษาล้านนา , literally "the language of Lan Na").
- In Central Thai and Southern Thai, Northern Thai is known as phasa thin phayap (ภาษาถิ่นพายัพ , literally "the language of the northwestern region"), or phasa thai thin nuea (ภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ , literally "the Thai language of the northern region", or colloquially it is known as phasa nuea (ภาษาเหนือ , literally "the northern language").
- In Lao, it is known as ' or ' ( or respectively, or respectively, literally "the Tai Yuan language").
- In Tai Lü, it is known as kam yon ( , literally "the Tai Yuan language").
- In Shan it is known as kwam yon ( , literally "the Tai Yuan language").
History
Tai migration
right|thumb|Map showing the general migration patterns and diversification of the Tai peoples and languages from the original Tai [[Urheimat of southeastern China.]]
The ancestors of the Northern Thai people were speakers of Southwestern Tai dialects that migrated from what is now southeastern China, specifically what is now Guangxi and northern Vietnam where the diversity of various Tai languages suggests an Urheimat. The Southwestern Tai languages began to diverge from the Northern and Central branches of the Tai languages, covered mainly by various Zhuang languages, sometime around 112 AD, but likely completed by the sixth century. Due to the influx of Han Chinese soldiers and settlers, the end of the Chinese occupation of Vietnam, the fall of Jiaozhi and turbulence associated with the decline and fall of the Tang dynasty led some of the Tai peoples speaking Southwestern Tai to flee into Southeast Asia, with the small-scale migration mainly taking place between the eighth and twelfth centuries. The Tais split and followed the major river courses, with the ancestral Northern Thai originating in the Tai migrants that followed the Mekong River.
Indianized kingdoms
Ancestors of the Northern Thai people established Ngoenyang, an early kingdom that existed between the 7th to 13th centuries, as well as smaller kingdoms like Phayao, in what is now modern-day northern Thailand. They settled in areas adjacent to the kingdom of Hariphunchai, coming into contact with Mon-speaking people whose writing system was eventually adapted for the Northern Thai language as the Tai Tham script. In the 13th century, King Mangrai consolidated control of these territories, establishing the kingdom of Lan Na. In the 15th century, King Tilokkarat ushered in a golden age for Northern Thai literature, with a profusion of palm leaf manuscripts written in Tai Tham, using vernacular Northern Thai and interspersed with Pali and Buddhist Indic vocabulary. Today, Northern Thai is typically code-switched with standard Thai, especially in more developed and urbanized areas of Northern Thailand, whereas exclusive use of Northern Thai remains prevalent in more remote areas. classifies Tai Yuan into five major dialect groups based on tonal split and merger patterns. (See also Proto-Tai language#Tones)
- most Tai Yuan varieties in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar
- Bokeo Province, Laos (A12-34 and BCD123-4 (B4=DL4=DS4))
- Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province and Laplae District, Uttaradit Province, Thailand (A12-34 and BCD123-4 (A34=B123=DL123))
- Tha Pla District, Uttaradit Province and Xayaburi Province, Laos (A12-34, BDL1234, and CDS123-4)
- Ratchaburi Province, Thailand (A12-34 and BCD123-4 (A34=B123=DL123, B4=C4=DL4))
Phonology
Consonants
Initial consonants
Northern Thai consonant inventory is similar to that of Lao (Isan); both languages have the sound and lack .
{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center
!colspan=2|
!Labial
!Dental/<br />Alveolar
!(Alveolo-)<br />Palatal
!Velar
!Glottal
|-
!colspan=2|Nasal
|style=background:#ccf|<br /> <br />ม
|style=background:#cfc|<br /> <br />ณ, น
|style=background:#fcf|<br /> <br />ญ, ย
|style=background:#fcc|<br /> <br />ง
|
|-
!rowspan=3|Plosive/<br />Affricate
!<small>tenuis</small>
|style=background:#ccf|<br /> <br />ป
|style=background:#cfc|<br /> <br />ฏ, ต
|style=background:#fcf|<br /> <br />จ
|style=background:#fcc|<br /> <br />ก
|style=background:#ccc|<br /><br />อ
|-
!<small>aspirate</small>
|style=background:#ccf|<br /> <br /> <br />ผ, พ, ภ
|style=background:#cfc|<br /> <br /> <br />ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ถ, ท, ธ
|style=center;background:#fcf|()<br />ฉ, ช, ฌ
|style=center;background:#fcc|<br /> <br /> <br />ข, ฃ, ค, ฅ, ฆ
|
|-
!<small>voiced</small>
|style=background:#ccf|<br /><br />บ
|style=background:#cfc|<br /><br />ฎ, ด
|
|
|
|-
!colspan=2|Fricative
|style=background:#ccf|<br /> <br />ฝ, ฟ
|style=background:#ffc|<br /> <br /> <br />ซ, ศ, ษ, ส
|
|style=background:#fcc|()
|style=background:#ccc|<br /> <br /> <br />ห, ฮ
|-
!colspan=2|Approximant
|style=background:#cff|<br /><br /><br />ว
|style=background:#cff|<br /> <br /> <br />ล, ฬ
|style=background:#cff|<br /><br />ย
|
|
|-
!colspan=2|Rhotic/Liquid
|
|style=background:#cff|()<br /> <br />ร
|
|
|
|}
Initial consonant clusters
There are two relatively common consonant clusters:
- /kw/ (กว)
- /kʰw/ (ขว, คว)
There are also several other, less frequent clusters recorded, though apparently in the process of being lost:
<!-- Full quote, replaced by 'condensed' quote above to merge references:
-->
- /ŋw/ (งว)
- /tɕw/ (จว)
- /sw/ (ซว, สว)
- /tw/ (ตว)
- /tʰw/ <!-- OR: ถวาย confirmed by Chiang Dao informant. --> (ถว, ทว)
- /nw/ (นว)
- /ɲw/ (ญว, ยว)
- /jw/ (ยว)
- /lw/ (ลว)
- /ʔw/ (อว)
Final consonants
All plosive sounds (besides the glottal stop /ʔ/) are unreleased. Hence, final , , and sounds are pronounced as , , and respectively.
{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center
!
!Labial
!Alveolar
!Palatal
!Velar
!Glottal
|-
!Nasal
|style=background:#ccf| <br />ม
|style=background:#cfc| <br />ญ, ณ, น, ร, ล, ฬ
|
|style=background:#fcc| <br />ง
|
|-
!Plosive
|style=background:#ccf| <br />บ, ป, พ, ฟ, ภ
|style=background:#cfc| <br />จ, ช, ซ, ฌ, ฎ, ฏ, ฐ, ฑ,
ฒ ,ด, ต, ถ, ท, ธ, ศ, ษ, ส
|
|style=background:#fcc| <br />ก, ข, ค, ฆ
|style=background:#ccc|
|-
!Approximant
|style=background:#cff| <br />ว
|
|style=background:#cff| <br />ย
|
|
|}
Vowels
The basic vowels of the Northern Thai language are similar to those of Standard Thai. They, from front to back and close to open, are given in the following table. The top entry in every cell is the symbol from the International Phonetic Alphabet, the second entry gives the spelling in the Thai alphabet, where a dash (–) indicates the position of the initial consonant after which the vowel is pronounced. A second dash indicates that a final consonant must follow.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|-
!rowspan="2" |
!colspan=2|Front
!colspan=2|Central
!colspan=2|Back
|- class=small
! short || long ||short || long ||short || long
|-
!Close
|<br> -ิ <!-- the is necessary for visibility under Opera -->
|<br> -ี
|<br> -ึ
|<br> -ื-
|<br> -ุ
|<br> -ู
|-
!Mid
|<br>เ-ะ
|<br>เ-
|<br>เ-อะ
|<br>เ-อ
|<br>โ-ะ
|<br>โ-
|-
!Open
|<br>แ-ะ
|<br>แ-
|<br>-ะ, -ั-
|<br>-า
|<br>เ-าะ
|<br>-อ
|}
The vowels each exist in long-short pairs: these are distinct phonemes forming unrelated words in Northern Thai, but usually transliterated the same: เขา (khao) means "they/them", while ขาว (khao) means "white".
The long-short pairs are as follows:
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! colspan="6" |Long
! colspan="6" |Short
|-
!Thai
!IPA
! colspan="4" |Example
!Thai
!IPA
! colspan="4" |Example
|-
|–า ||
||| ฝาน || || 'to slice'
|–ะ ||
||| ฝัน || || 'to dream'
|-
|–ี ||
||| ตี๋ || || 'to cut'
|–ิ ||
||| ติ๋ || || 'to criticize'
|-
|–ู ||
||| สูด || || 'to inhale'
|–ุ ||
||| สุ๋ด || || 'rearmost'
|-
|เ– ||
||| เอน || || 'to recline'
|เ–ะ ||
||| เอ็น || || 'tendon, ligament'
|-
|แ–||
||| แก่ || || 'to be old'
|แ–ะ||
||| แก๋ะ || || 'sheep'
|-
|–ื-||
||| ฅืน (คืน)|| || 'to return'
|–ึ ||
||| ขึ้น || || 'to go up'
|-
|เ–อ ||
||| เมิน || || 'to delay; long time'
|เ–อะ ||
||| เงิน || || 'silver'
|-
|โ– ||
||| โจ๋ร (โจ๋น) || || 'thief'
|โ–ะ ||
||| จ๋น || || 'to be poor'
|-
|–อ ||
||| ลอง || || 'to try'
|เ–าะ ||
||| เซาะ || || 'to search'
|}
The basic vowels can be combined into diphthongs. For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long:
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!colspan="2"|Long
!colspan="2"|Short
|-
!Thai script
!IPA
!Thai script
!IPA
|-
|–าย
|
|ไ–<sup>*</sup>, ใ–<sup>*</sup>, ไ–ย, -ัย
|
|-
|–าว
|
|เ–า<sup>*</sup>
|
|-
|เ–ีย
|
|เ–ียะ
|
|-
|–
|–
|–ิว
|
|-
|–ัว
|
|–ัวะ
|
|-
|–ูย
|
|–ุย
|
|-
|เ–ว
|
|เ–็ว
|
|-
|แ–ว
|
|–
|–
|-
|เ–ือ
|
|เ–ือะ
|
|-
|เ–ย
|
|–
|–
|-
|–อย
|
|–
|–
|-
|โ–ย
|
|–
|–
|}
Additionally, there are three triphthongs, For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long:
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!Thai script
!IPA
|-
|เ–ียว*
|
|-
|–วย*
|
|-
|เ–ือย*
|
|}
Allophones
The following section largely concerns the Nan dialect of Northern Thai.
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"
!Phoneme!!Allophone!!Context
!Example
(Tai Tham script)
!Example
(Thai script)
!IPA!!Gloss
|-
||| ||onset
|||บ่า|| ||shoulder
|-
||| ||onset
|||ดอย|| ||mountain
|-
||| ||onset
|||ป่า|| ||forest
|-
| || ||coda
|||อาบ|| ||bath
|-
| || ||coda, emphasised
|||บ่หลับ|| ||don't sleep!
|-
||| ||onset
|||ตา|| ||eye
|-
| || ||coda
|||เปิด|| ||open
|-
| || ||coda, emphasised
|||บ่เผ็ด|| ||not spicy!
|-
||| ||onset
|||กา|| ||crow
|-
| || ||coda
|||ปีก||| ||wing
|-
| || ||coda, emphasised
|||บ่สุก|| ||not ripe!
|-
||| ||before non-front vowels
|||แขก|| ||guest
|-
||| ||before front vowels
|||ฅิง|| ||you (familiar)
|-
||| ||onset
|||ซาว|| ||twenty
|-
||| ||under emphasis
|||สาทุ|| ||surely
|-
||| ||non-intervocalic
|||ห้า|| ||five
|-
||| ||intervocalic
|||ใผมาหา|| ||who come find (Who is here to see you?)
|-
||| ||after bilabial stop
|||ฅืบนึ่ง|| ||span one (one more span)
|-
| || ||after alveolar stop
|||แถมขวดนึ่ง|| ||more bottle one (one more bottle)
|-
| || ||after velar stop
|||แถมดอกนึ่ง|| ||more flower one (one more flower)
|}
Tones
There are six phonemic tones in the Chiang Mai dialect of Northern Thai: low-rising, low-falling, high-level with glottal closure, mid-level, high-falling, and high-rising. or low-rising, mid-low, high-falling, mid-high, falling, and high rising-falling
<!-- The whole point of this table is to illustrate phonetic detail of the tones. This doesn't occur anywhere else, and is from the IPA Handbook. -->
Contrastive tones in smooth syllables
The table below presents six phonemic tones in the Chiang Mai dialects in smooth syllables, i.e. closed syllables ending in sonorant sounds such as [m], [n], [ŋ], [w], and [j] and open syllables. Sources have not agreed on the phonetic realization of the six tones in the Chiang Mai dialect. The table presents information based on two sources, one from Gedney (1999)), the information about the six tones from Gedney (1999) should be considered with caution.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ The six tones in the Chiang Mai dialects
|-
! colspan="2" |Chiang Mai<br>(the Lanna dictionary, 2007, p. ต)<br /><br />ห๋ก || six
|-
| [tɕèt]<br />เจ็ด || [tɕět]<br /><br />เจ๋ด || seven
|-
| [sìp]<br />สิบ || [sǐp]<br /><br />สิ๋บ || ten
|-
| [pēn]<br />เป็น || [pěn]<br /><br />เป๋น || be (copula)
|-
| [kīn]<br />กิน || [kǐn]<br /><br />กิ๋น || eat
|}
Other tone differences are unpredictable, such as:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! Standard Thai !! Northern Thai !! gloss
|-
| [nɯ̀ŋ]<br />หนึ่ง || [nɯ̂ŋ]<br /><br />นึ่ง || one
|}
Some words differ in a single sound and associated tone. In many words, the initial ร (/r/) in Standard Thai corresponds to ฮ (/h/) in Northern Thai:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! Standard Thai !! Northern Thai !! gloss !! note
|-
| [rɔ́ːn]<br />ร้อน || [hɔ́ːn]<br /><br />ฮ้อน || hot || cf. Lao: ຮ້ອນ [hɔ̂ːn] "to be hot" and Shan: [hɔ̰n] "to be hot"
|-
| [rák]<br />รัก || [ha᷇k]<br /><br />ฮัก || love || cf. Lao: ຮັກ [hāk] "to love" and Shan: [ha̰k] "to love"
|-
| [rúː]<br />รู้ || [húː]<br /><br />ฮู้ || know || cf. Lao: ຮູ້ [hûː] "know" and Shan: [hṵ] "know"
|}
Aspiration of initial consonants
Some aspirated consonants in the low-class consonant group (อักษรต่ำ /ʔàk.sɔ̌ːn.tàm/) in Standard Thai correspond to unaspirated sounds in Northern Thai. These sounds include ค, ช, ท, and พ (/kʰ/, /tɕʰ/, /tʰ/, and /pʰ/ respectively), but sounds such as ฅ, คร, ฆ, ฒ, พร, ภ (/kʰ/, /kʰr/, /kʰ/, /tʰ/, /pʰr/, and /pʰ/ respectively) remain aspirated. Such aspirated consonants that are unaspirated in Northern Thai correspond to unaspirated voiced sounds in Proto-Tai which are *ɡ, *ɟ, *d, and *b (ค, ช, ท, and พ respectively).:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! Standard Thai !! Northern Thai !! gloss !! note
|-
| [tɕʰīaŋ rāːj]<br />เชียงราย || [tɕīaŋ hāːj]<br /><br />เจียงฮาย || Chiang Rai city and province || cf. Tai Lü: [tsêŋ hâːj] "Chiang Rai"
|-
| [kʰít]<br />คิด || [kɯ́t]<br /><br />กึ๊ด || think || cf. Tai Lü: [kɯ̄t] "to think"
|-
| [tɕʰɔ́ːn]<br />ช้อน || [tɕɔ́ːn]<br /><br />จ๊อน || spoon || cf. Tai Lü: [tsɔ̀n] "spoon"
|-
| [tɕʰáj]<br />ใช้ || [tɕáj]<br /><br />ใจ๊ || use || cf. Shan: [tsa̰ɰ] "to use", Tai Lü: [tsàj] "to use"
|-
| [pʰɔ̂ː]<br />พ่อ || [pɔ̂ː]<br /><br />ป้อ || father || cf. Shan: [pɔ̄] "father", Tai Lü: [pɔ̄] "father"
|-
| [tʰāːŋ]<br />ทาง || [tāːŋ]<br /><br />ตาง || way || cf. Shan: [táːŋ] "way", Tai Lü: [tâːŋ] "way"
|}
But not:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! Standard Thai !! Northern Thai !! gloss !! note
|-
| [kʰôːt.sā.nāː]<br />โฆษณา || [kʰôːt.sā.nāː]<br /><br />โฆษณา || commercial, advertisement || cf. Tai Lü: [xôː.sā.nâː] "advertisement"
|-
| [pʰāː.sǎː]<br />ภาษา || [pʰāː.sǎː]<br /><br />ภาษา || language|| cf. Tai Lü: [pʰâː.sáː] "nationality"
|-
| [wát.tʰā.ná(ʔ).tʰām]<br />วัฒนธรรม || [wa᷇t.tʰā.na᷇(ʔ).tʰām]<br /><br />วัฒนธัมม์ || culture || cf. Tai Lü: [wāt.tʰā.nā(ʔ).tʰâm] "culture"
|-
| [tʰām]<br />ธรรม || [tʰām]<br /><br />ธัมม์ || Dharma|| cf. Tai Lü: [tʰâm] "Dharma"
|}
Though a number of aspirated consonants in Standard Thai often correspond to unaspirated sounds in Northern Thai, when an unaspirated consonant is followed by ร (/r/) the unaspirated consonant becomes aspirated:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! Standard Thai !! Northern Thai !! gloss !! note
|-
| [prā.tʰêːt]<br />ประเทศ || [pʰā.têːt]<br /><br />ผะเต้ศ || country || cf. Tai Lü: [pʰā.te᷄ːt] "country"
|-
| [kràːp]<br />กราบ || [kʰàːp]<br /><br />ขาบ || kowtow, prostrate || cf. Tai Lü: [xa᷄ːp] "to prostrate oneself"
|-
| [prāː.sàːt]<br />ปราสาท || [pʰǎː.sàːt]<br /><br />ผาสาท || palace || cf. Tai Lü: [pʰáː.sa᷄ːt] "palace"
|}
Notes
References
<!-- For above, want script-author = มาลา คำจันทร์ -->
Further reading
- Bilmes, J. (1996). Problems And Resources In Analyzing Northern Thai Conversation For English Language Readers. Journal of Pragmatics, 26(2), 171–188.
- Davis, R. (1970). A Northern Thai reader. Bangkok: Siam Society.
- Filbeck, D. (1973). Pronouns in Northern Thai. Anthropological Linguistics, 15(8), 345–361.
- Herington, Jennifer, Margaret Potter, Amy Ryan and Jennifer Simmons (2013). Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Thai. SIL Electronic Survey Reports.
- Howard, K. M. (2009). "When Meeting Khun Teacher, Each Time We Should Pay Respect": Standardizing Respect In A Northern Thai Classroom. Linguistics and Education, 20(3), 254–272.
- Khankasikam, K. (2012). Printed Lanna character recognition by using conway's game of life. In ICDIM (pp. 104–109).
- Pankhuenkhat, R. (1982). The Phonology of the Lanna Language:(a Northern Thai Dialect). Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University.
- Strecker, D. (1979). "A preliminary typology of tone shapes and tonal sound changes in Tai: the La-n N-a A-tones", in Studies in Tai and Mon-Khmer Phonetics and Phonology In Honour of Eugénie J.A. Henderson, ed. T.L. Thongkum et al., pp. 171–240. Chulalongkorn University Press.
- Wangsai, Piyawat. (2007). A Comparative Study of Phonological Yong and Northern Thai Language (Kammuang). M.A. thesis. Kasetsart University.
External links
- Northern Thai New Testament. The New Testament in hard copy form was written using two scripts Amazon link.
- Khamuang (Chiang Mai variety) (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
- Moradoklanna (in Thai)