Tày language
Tai language of Vietnam
title: "Tày language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-vietnam", "tai-languages", "analytic-languages", "isolating-languages"] description: "Tai language of Vietnam" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tày_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Tai language of Vietnam ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Tày |
| nativename | Tiểng Tày, Thổ |
| states | Vietnam |
| ethnicity | Tày |
| speakers | 1.63 million |
| date | 2009 |
| ref | e19 |
| familycolor | Kradai |
| fam2 | Tai |
| fam3 | Central Tai |
| iso3 | tyz |
| glotto | tayy1238 |
| glottorefname | Tay |
| script | Latin (modified Vietnamese alphabet) |
| Chữ Nôm Tày (archaic) | |
| notice | IPA |
| :: |
|name=Tày |nativename= Tiểng Tày, Thổ |states=Vietnam |ethnicity=Tày |speakers=1.63 million |date=2009 |ref=e19 |familycolor=Kradai |fam2=Tai |fam3=Central Tai |iso3=tyz |glotto=tayy1238 |glottorefname=Tay |script=Latin (modified Vietnamese alphabet) Chữ Nôm Tày (archaic) |notice=IPA
Tày is the major Tai language of Vietnam, spoken by more than a million Tày people in Northeastern Vietnam. It was formerly known as Thổ, a name now shared with the Cuối language.
Distribution
- Vietnam: northern provinces (including Cao Bang Province and Quang Ninh Province)
- Laos: northern region.
Tày is also spoken by emigrants in the Central highlands region of Vietnam (such as in Lam Dong Province).
There are also some Tày speakers in western countries. The region of Vietnam where Tày is spoken is bordered by China.
Varieties
Tày linguistic varieties include the following:
- Tày Bảo Lạc – spoken in Bảo Lạc District, western Cao Bang province.
- Tày Trùng Khánh – spoken in Trùng Khánh District, northeastern Cao Bang province.
- Thu Lao or Dai Zhuang varieties are considered to be a different language.
Phonology
Consonants
::data[format=table title="Tày consonants"]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | plain | pal. | Plosive | voiceless | aspirated | voiced | implosive | Fricative | voiceless | voiced | lateral | Nasal | Trill | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
- The Cao Bẳng Tày dialect is the only variety to have the sounds .
Vowels
::data[format=table title="Tày vowels"]
| Front | Central | Back | High | High-mid | Mid | Low-mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
::data[format=table title="Tày diphthongs"]
| Front | Back | Close |
|---|---|---|
| :: |
- There are also three semivowels that mainly occur in syllable-coda position in combination with other vowel sounds. are typically realized as consonant sounds . follows front vowels and central vowels . follows back vowels as well as central vowels . However, only follows .
Tones
Six tones are present in Cao Bẳng Tày: ::data[format=table title="Tày tones"]
| a᷆ | |
|---|---|
| :: |
Writing systems
Chữ Nôm Tày
The Tày people used to write their ritual texts and then songs with the logographic script, known as chữ Nôm Tày. The script is similar to sawndip and was created during the reign of Mạc dynasty, based on Chinese characters. Some of the characters, like Vietnamese Nôm, are borrowed directly from Han characters, while others are created locally from Chinese components.
Tày-Nùng orthography (1961)
The current Tày-Nùng orthography was created in 1961 on the basis of chữ Quốc ngữ, and then was approved by the government of Vietnam following the Decree 206-CP. Its alphabet consists of 31 letters as follows:
- A a, Ă ă, Â â, B b, C c, D d, Đ đ, E e, Ê ê, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, Ô ô, Ơ ơ, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, Ư ư, V v, X x, Y y.
Their pronunciation along with the multigraphs are listed in the tables below:
Consonants
::data[format=table title="Tày consonants"]
| Phoneme | IPA | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| B b | // | bươn ("month") |
| Bj bj | // | bjoóc ("flower") |
| C c/K k/Q q | // | cần ("human") |
| Ch ch | // | châư ("breath") |
| D d | / ~ / | dú ("in, at") |
| Đ đ | // | đeng ("red") |
| F f | // | fạ ("sky") |
| G g | // | gương ("mirror") |
| H h | // | hả ("five") |
| Kh kh | / ~ / | khao ("white") |
| L l | // | lình ("monkey") |
| M m | // | mường ("place") |
| Mj mj | // | mjề ("wife") |
| N n | // | nặm ("water") |
| Ng ng | // | ngườm ("cave") |
| Nh nh | // | nhả ("grass") |
| P p | // | pi ("year") |
| Pj pj | // | pja ("fish") |
| Ph ph | // | phân ("rain") |
| Phj phj | // | phja ("mountain") |
| R r | // | rườn ("house") |
| Sl sl | // | slao ("girl") |
| T t | // | ta̱ ("river") |
| Th th | // | tha ("eye") |
| V v | // | vằn ("day") |
| X x | // | xao ("spider") |
| :: |
The letters tʼ, w, z are only used in some dialects.
Vowels
::data[format=table title="Tày vowels"]
| Phoneme | IPA | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| A a | // | xam ("to ask") |
| Ă ă | // | ăn ("the") |
| Â â | // | bân ("sky") |
| E e | // | te ("he/she/it") |
| Ê ê | // | bên ("to fly") |
| I i | // | mi ("bear") |
| O o | // | co ("tree") |
| Ô ô | // | tối ("to change") |
| Ơ ơ | // | nớ ("okay?") |
| U u | // | tu ("door") |
| Ư ư | // | mừ ("hand") |
| :: |
Tones
::data[format=table title="Tày tones{{Cite journal|author=Ayaka Hirano|title=The Differences between the Tay and Nung Languages in the Trang Dinh District of Lang Son Province|work=Topics in Middle Mekong Linguistics|year=2019|location=Kobe|publisher=Kobe City University of Foreign Studies}}"]
| Tone name | Chao tone contour | Description | Diacritic | Example with "ma" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| khoang | ˧ (33) | mid level | ◌ | ma ("dog") |
| pàn | ˧˨ (32) | falling | ◌̀ | mà ("to come") |
| thỏi | ˨˩˧ (213) | low rising | ◌̉ | mả ("tomb") |
| pắc | ˧˥ (35) | high rising | ◌́ | má ("to soak") |
| lộm/chặm | ˧˨ˀ (32ʔ) | falling, glottalized | ◌̣ | mạ ("horse") |
| lươ̱ng | ˩ (11) | low level | ◌̱ | ma̱ ("blur") |
| :: |
Vocabulary
::data[format=table title=""]
| English | Tày | Zhuang | Thai | Vietnamese | Middle Chinese | Proto Tai |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| one | nâng, đeo, êt | it | nueng หนึ่ง, -et -เอ็ด | nừng (obsolete word meaning few) | *nɯːŋᴮ | |
| two | sloong, nhỉ | ngeih | song สอง | *soːŋᴬ, from Middle Chinese 雙 (MC , "two") | ||
| three | slam | sam | sam สาม | *saːm (“three”), from Middle Chinese 三 (MC , "three") | ||
| four | slí | seiq | si สี่ | *siːᴮ (“four”), from Middle Chinese 四 (MC , "four") | ||
| five | hả | haj | ha ห้า | *haːꟲ (“five”), from Old Chinese 五 (OC , "five") | ||
| six | hốc, hôc, xốc | loek | hok หก | *krokᴰ (“six”), from Old Chinese 六 (OC , "six") | ||
| seven | chêt | caet | chet เจ็ด | *cetᴰ (“seven”), from Middle Chinese 七 (MC , "seven") | ||
| eight | pet | bed | paet แปด | *peːtᴰ (“eight”), from Middle Chinese 八 (MC , "eight") | ||
| nine | cẩu | giuj | kao เก้า | *kɤwꟲ (“nine”), from Middle Chinese 九 (MC , "nine") | ||
| ten | slip | cib | sip สิบ | From Middle Chinese 十 (MC , "ten") | ||
| hundred | pac | bak | roi ร้อย | *roːjꟲ | ||
| hundred and one | pac lình êt | bak lingz it | nueng roi et หนึ่งร้อยเอ็ด | |||
| thousand | xiên | cien | phan พัน | |||
| ten thousand | fản | fanh | muen หมื่น | From Middle Chinese 萬 (MC ) | ||
| language | tiểng | siang เสียง (sound) | tiếng | |||
| :: |
References
References
- (1997). "Comparative Kadai: The Tai Branch". Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
- "Map & Language Descriptions".
- Văn Ma, Hoàng. (1997). "Comparative Kadai: The Tai branch". Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
- Holm, David. (2020). "The Tày and Zhuang vernacular scripts: Preliminary comparisons". Department of Ethnology, National Chengchi University.
- Nông Danh. (8 November 2013). "Bàn về xuất xứ chữ nôm Tày".
- (2015). "Tiếng Tày cơ sở". Nhà xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên.
- (2013). "Học tiếng Tày". Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội.
- Ayaka Hirano. (2019). "The Differences between the Tay and Nung Languages in the Trang Dinh District of Lang Son Province". Kobe City University of Foreign Studies.
- Nguyễn, Trãi. "Quốc âm thi tập".
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