Thai languages
| Thai | |
|---|---|
| Southwestern Tai | |
| Geographic distribution |
Southeast Asia |
| Linguistic classification |
Tai–Kadai
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Thai |
| Subdivisions |
|
| Glottolog | sout3184 |
Distribution of the Southwestern Tai languages.
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The Southwestern Tai also known as Thai languages are an established branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia. They include Siamese (standard Thai), Lao, and Shan in Burma.
The internal classification of the Southwestern Tai languages is still not well agreed on.
Chamberlain (1975) divides Southwestern Tai into 4 branches.
Chamberlain based his classification on the following phonological patterns. (Note: For an explanation of the notation system for Tai tones, see Proto-Tai language#Tones.)
Tai Muong Vat of Yen Chau, Vietnam is a PH-type language like Lao, even though it is geographically surrounded by Black Tai (Theraphan 2003; Chamberlain 1984).
Edmondson & Solnit (1997) divide the Southwestern Tai languages into two major subgroups. According to this classification, Dehong Tai and Khamti are the first languages to have split off from the Southwestern Tai branch.
A transition zone between the Northern and Southern groups occurs among the Tai languages (including Tai Mau) around the Burma-China border region of Mangshi, Namhkam, and Mu-se near Ruili.
This bipartite division of Southwestern Tai is argued for by Edward Robinson in his paper "Features of Proto-Nüa-Khamti" (1994). The following features set off the Nüa-Khamti group from all the other Southwestern Tai languages.
Luo Yongxian (2001) also recognizes the uniqueness of Dehong Tai (Tai Nüa), but argues for that it should be placed in a separate Northwestern Tai branch with Southwestern Tai as a sister branch. Luo claims that the Northwestern Tai branch has many Northern Tai and Central Tai features that are not found in Southwestern Tai. His proposed tree for the Tai branch is as follows.
According to Pittayaporn (2009:301), Southwestern Tai (his subgroup Q) is defined by a phonological shift of *kr- → *ʰr-.
Pittayaporn (2014) also suggests that Southwestern Tai began to disperse southward after the 7th century C.E. but before the 11th century C.E. (between 700 and 1000 C.E., during the late Tang dynasty or early Song dynasty), as evidenced by loanwords from Late Middle Chinese.
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