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Proto-Tai


Proto-Tai is the reconstructed common ancestor (proto-language) of all the Tai languages, including modern Lao, Shan, Tai Lü, Tai Dam, Ahom, Northern Thai, Thai, Bouyei, and Zhuang. The Proto-Tai language is not directly attested by any surviving texts, but has been reconstructed using the comparative method. It was reconstructed in 1977 by Li Fang-Kuei and by Pittayawat Pittayaporn in 2009.

The following table shows the consonants of Proto-Tai according to Li Fang-Kuei's A Handbook of Comparative Tai (1977), considered the standard reference in the field. Li does not indicate the exact quality of the consonants denoted here as , tɕʰ and , which are indicated in his work as č čh ž and described merely as palatal affricate consonants.

The table below lists the consonantal phonemes of Pittayawat Pittayaporn's 2009 reconstruction of Proto-Tai (Pittayaporn 2009:70). Some of the differences are simply different interpretations of Li's consonants: the palatal consonants are interpreted as stops, rather than affricates, and the glottalized consonants are described using symbols for implosive consonants. However, Pittayaporn's Proto-Tai reconstruction has a number of real differences from Li:


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