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55-622: The Northern Thai language is a close relative of (standard) Thai . It is spoken by nearly 6 million people in Northern Thailand and several thousand in Laos of whom few are literate in Lanna script. The script is still read by older monks. Northern Thai has six linguistic tones and Thai only five, making transcription into the Thai alphabet problematic. There is some resurgent interest in

110-558: A Mon-derived script, Tai Tham has many similarities with the writing systems for Burmese , Shan , Rakhine and modern Mon and rounder letter forms compared to the angled letters of Khmer. Letters can be stacked, sometimes with special subscript forms, similar to 'ຼ' which was used in Tai Noi and also in modern Lao as the subscript version of 'ຣ' /r/ or 'ລ' /l/ as in Lao : ຫຼວງພຼະບາງ/ຫລວງພຣະບາງ . Letters also are more circular or rounded than

165-655: A combination of as many as four diacritics: one on each side of the consonant. Independent vowels are mainly reserved for writing Pali words, except for ᩐᩣ /ʔau/ which is used as a special vowel sign and not for Pali words. /lɯ᷇ʔ/, /lɤː/ ri, roe li, loe mai yo /máj.jɔ́ʔ/ mai sat /máj.sát/ There are six phonemic tones in the Chiang Mai dialect of Northern Thai: low-rising, low-falling, high-level with glottal stop, mid-level, high-falling, and high-rising. Tones in Chiang Mai dialect are very close to

220-694: A final consonant must follow. 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: The basic vowels can be combined into diphthongs . For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long: Additionally, there are three triphthongs , For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long: The following section largely concerns

275-453: A half-syllable. Noting that the /l/ phoneme also carries the tone of the initial consonant. Thus, it is considered a false consonant cluster. Consonant cluster with medial Ra changes the sound of the voiceless plosive consonants /k/, /t/, and /p/ to the aspirated plosive consonants /kʰ/ , /tʰ/ , and /pʰ/ , respectively. Class Consonant cluster with medial Ra does not change the sound of /t͡ɕ/ and /s/ , but an additional phoneme /l/

330-562: A subjoined form called haang ( ᩉᩣ᩠ᨦ ), tua joeng ( ᨲ᩠ᩅᩫᨩᩮᩥ᩠ᨦ ), or tua hoy ( ᨲ᩠ᩅᩫᩉᩬ᩠ᨿ᩶ ). In the Unicode input method , sakot sign (U1A60) ( ◌᩠ ) is used to trigger the subjoined forms. The additional consonants are shown in yellow. These consonants have the characteristics of lacking the subjoined form. Similar to Thai script and Lao script , consonants in Tai Tham can be classified into high, mid, and low classes regarding to

385-815: Is subject–verb–object , although the subject is often omitted . Just as Standard Thai , Northern Thai pronouns are selected according to the gender and relative status of speaker and audience. There is no morphological distinction between adverbs and adjectives . Many words can be used in either function. They succeed the word which they modify, which may be a noun, verb, or another adjective or adverb. Because adjectives can be used as complete predicates, many words used to indicate tense in verbs (see Verbs:Aspect below) may be used to describe adjectives. Verbs do not inflect . They do not change with person, tense, voice, mood, or number; nor are there any participles . Lao language Lao (Lao: ພາສາລາວ , [pʰáː.sǎː láːw] ), sometimes referred to as Laotian ,

440-620: Is a tonal language , where the pitch or tone of a word can alter its meaning, and is analytic , forming sentences through the combination of individual words without inflection. These features, common in Kra-Dai languages , also bear similarities to Sino-Tibetan languages like Chinese or Austroasiatic languages like Vietnamese . Lao's mutual intelligibility with Thai and Isan , fellow Southwestern Tai languages, allows for effective intercommunication among their speakers, despite differences in script and regional variations. In Laos, Lao

495-592: Is also sometimes referred to as Phayap (พายัพ, Thai pronunciation: [pʰāː.jáp] ), "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 Tua Mueang , as the traditional alphabet is known, is now largely limited to Buddhist temples, where many old sermon manuscripts are still in active use. There

550-405: Is mainly used for liturgical purposes. The other set, Lek Hora , is used in general. Tai Tham is very similar in shape to Burmese script since both are derived from Old Mon script. New Tai Lue is a descendant of Tai Tham with its shape simplified and many consonants removed. Thai script looks distinctive from Tai Tham but covers all equivalent consonants including 8 additional consonants, as Thai

605-546: 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 Kam Mueang . There is a resurgence of interest in writing it in the traditional way, but the modern pronunciation differs from that prescribed in spelling rules. Northern Thai is classified as one of the Chiang Saen languages—others being Thai , Southern Thai and numerous smaller languages, which together with

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660-493: Is not only the official language but also a lingua franca , bridging the linguistic diversity of a population that speaks many other languages. Its cultural significance is reflected in Laotian literature, media, and traditional arts. The Vientiane dialect has emerged as the de facto standard, though no official standard has been established. Internationally, Lao is spoken among diaspora communities , especially in countries like

715-543: 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 CE, but likely completed by the sixth century . Due to the influx of Han Chinese soldiers and settlers,

770-439: Is often added. Class Consonant cluster with medial Wa is the only true consonant cluster where both consonants are pronounced as one phoneme. Class ( IPA ) Vowel characters come in two forms: as stand-alone letters for writing initial vowels or as diacritics that can be attached to all sides of the consonant letters. However, Lanna excels in terms of the number of diacritics used. Some vowel sounds can be written with

825-591: Is pronounced with different tones differed by the languages. Tone mark conjugation in Tai Tham follows the same model used for Thai script. Consonants are divided into 3 classes: high, mid, low; with some degree of variation form Thai script due to the phonological differences between Northern Thai and standard Thai. Consonants in each class are combined with these tone marks to give a different tonal pattern. Only two tone marks mai yo (᩵) and mai kho jang (᩶) are mainly used. Low class and High class consonants only have one tone per one tone mark. Hence, to achieve

880-543: Is the closest sister language to the Northern Thai, Khuen, and Lue languages. A variation of Thai script ( Sukhothai script ) called Fakkham script was also used in Lan Na to write Northern Thai, Khuen, and Lue during the 14th century, influencing the development of the modern Tai Tham script. (modern: ຄ) (modern: ສ) Northern Thai language Kam Mueang ( Northern Thai : ᨣᩴᩤᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ , กำเมือง ) or Northern Thai language ( Thai : ภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ )

935-624: Is the language of the Northern Thai people of Lanna , Thailand . It is a Southwestern Tai language . Kam Mueang has approximately six million speakers, most of whom live in the native Northern Thailand , with a smaller community of Lanna speakers in northwestern Laos . Speakers of this language generally consider the name "Tai Yuan" to be pejorative . They refer to themselves as Khon Mueang ( ᨤᩫ᩠ᨶᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ , คน เมือง , [kʰon˧.mɯaŋ˧] – literally "people of Mueang " meaning "city dwellers"), Lanna, or Northern Thai. The language

990-511: Is the official language of Laos and a significant language in the Isan region of northeastern Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language . Spoken by over 3 million people in Laos and 3.7 million in all countries, it serves as a vital link in the cultural and social fabric of these areas. It is written in the Lao script , an abugida that evolved from ancient Tai scripts. Lao

1045-575: Is the only script. The Tai Tham script shows a strong similarity to the Mon script used by the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya around the 13th century CE, in the present-day Lamphun Province of Northern Thailand. The oldest known document containing the Tai Tham script is dated to 1376 CE and was found in Sukhothai . The document is a bilingual inscription on a gold folio, containing one line of Pali written in

1100-518: Is the only true consonant cluster where both consonants are pronounced as one phoneme. Consonant cluster with Medial La and Medial Ra are considered a false consonant cluster as they do not produce the same effect. They are the remnant of the Proto-Southwestern Tai initial consonant clusters that existed during the early development of Tai Tham before the 16th century. Medial La is a silent letter and not pronounced. For example,

1155-449: 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. Thanajirawat (2018) classifies Tai Yuan into five major dialect groups based on tonal split and merger patterns. ( See also Proto-Tai language#Tones ) Northern Thai consonant inventory is similar to that of Lao ( Isan ); both languages have

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1210-431: The / ɲ / sound and lack / tɕʰ / . There are two relatively common consonant clusters: There are also several other, less frequent clusters recorded, though apparently in the process of being lost: All plosive sounds (besides the glottal stop /ʔ/) are unreleased . Hence, final /p/ , /t/ , and /k/ sounds are pronounced as [p̚] , [t̚] , and [k̚] respectively. ฒ ,ด, ต, ถ, ท, ธ, ศ, ษ, ส The basic vowels of

1265-609: The Lue variant (Sipsong Panna), the Khuen variant (Shan State) and the Tham Lao variant (Laos and Isan). The variants differ only slightly in appearance, and the system of writing has remained the same. As the name suggests, the use of the Tham (Dharma) script in Lao was restricted to religious literature, either used to transcribe Pali, or religious treatises written in Lao intended solely for

1320-452: 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

1375-566: The Southwestern branch of Tai languages. Lao (including Isan) and Thai, although they occupy separate groups, are mutually intelligible and were pushed closer through contact and Khmer influence, but all Southwestern Tai languages are mutually intelligible to some degree. The Tai languages also include the languages of the Zhuang , which are split into the Northern and Central branches of

1430-535: 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

1485-432: The "checked" and "unchecked" syllables. Checked syllables are a group of syllables with the obstruent coda sounds [p̚], [t̚], [k̚], and [ʔ] (short vowel with no final consonant actually ends with the glottal stop, but often omitted). The unchecked syllables are a group of syllables with the sonorant coda sound [m], [n], [ŋ], [j], and [w]. Hence, by combining the consonant classes and the system of checked–unchecked syllables,

1540-516: The 6 tones while using only 2 tone marks (and one case of no tone mark), they are conjugated as a couple of the same sound. Mid class consonants ([ʔ], [b], [d], and [j]) do not have a couple for tone conjugation. Hence, different tones can be expressed with the same tone mark. Readers have to rely on the context in order to know the correct tone pronunciation. Therefore, to solve this ambiguity, three new tone marks: mai ko nuea (᩷) , mai song nuea (᩸) , and mai sam nuea (᩹) were invented for

1595-627: The Nan dialect of Northern Thai. ( Tai Tham script ) ( Thai script ) 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 table below presents six phonemic tones in the Chiang Mai and Nan 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

1650-508: 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

1705-656: 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

Tai Tham script - Misplaced Pages Continue

1760-542: The Tai Tham script, while the vernacular is written in the Siamese language, using the Sukhothai script . The Tai Tham script was adapted to write vernacular languages not later than the 15th century CE, most probably in Chiang Mai , in the Lan Na Kingdom . The script spread from Lan Na to surrounding areas such as modern day Laos , Isan , Shan State and Sipsong Panna . Numerous local variants developed, such as

1815-580: The Tai languages. The Tai languages form a major division within the Kra-Dai language family , distantly related to other languages of southern China, such as the Hlai and Be languages of Hainan and the Kra and Kam-Sui languages on the Chinese Mainland and in neighbouring regions of northern Vietnam. The ancestors of the Lao people were speakers of Southwestern Tai dialects that migrated from what

1870-834: The Tai migrants that followed the Mekong River . As the Southwestern Tai-speaking peoples diverged, following paths down waterways, their dialects began to diverge into the various languages today, such as the Lao-Phuthai languages that developed along the Mekong River and includes Lao and its Isan sub-variety and the Chiang Saen languages which includes the Central Thai dialect that is the basis of Standard Thai. Despite their close relationship, there were several phonological divergences that drifted

1925-513: The United States, France, and Australia, reflecting its global diasporic presence. The Lao language falls within the Lao-Phuthai group of languages, including its closest relatives, Phuthai (BGN/PCGN Phouthai , RTGS Phu Thai ) and Tai Yo . Together with Northwestern Tai—which includes Shan , Ahom and most Dai languages of China, the Chiang Saen languages—which include Standard Thai, Khorat Thai, and Tai Lanna —and Southern Tai form

1980-489: The city, ending 200 years of Burmese rule. Kawila was installed as the prince of Lampang and Phraya Chaban as the prince of Chiang Mai, both as vassals of Siam. In 1899, Siam annexed the Northern Thai principalities, effectively dissolving their status as sovereign tributary states. The Compulsory Education Act of 1921 banned schools and temples from using languages other than Central Thai (standard Thai), in an effort to bring remote regions under Siamese control. Northern Thai

2035-592: The clergy. Religious instructional materials and prayer books dedicated to the laity were written in Tai Noi instead. As a result, only a few people outside the temples were literate in the script. In Isan , evidence of the script includes two stone inscriptions, such as the one housed at Wat Tham Suwannakhuha in Nong Bua Lamphu , dated to 1564, and another from Wat Mahaphon in Maha Sarakham from

2090-472: The consonants invented to write Tai sounds that are originally not found in Pali. In a dictionary, letter ᩂ and ᩄ are often put in the consonant list following the letter ᩁ and ᩃ respectively. However, they are a syllabary (also a vowel) and not a consonant letter. There are 25 categorized consonants, 10 non-categorized consonants, and 8 additional consonants. Similar to Khmer, Tai Tham also has

2145-414: 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 Lao originating in

2200-520: The full tone conjugation table can be constructed as shown below. Color codes are assigned in the table to each tone mark: cyan – no tone mark; yellow – mai yo (equi. Thai mai ek ); pink – mai kho jang (equi. Thai mai tho ). Low class and high class rows are paired together to show the system of the consonant couples. coda (unchecked syllables) ( sonorant ) coda (checked syllables) ( obstruent ) /noːt̚˦˥/ "note" Lanna has two sets of numerals. The first set, Lek Nai Tham ,

2255-880: 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. 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. Hlai languages Kam-Sui languages Kra languages Be language Northern Tai languages Central Tai languages Khamti language Shan language others Tai Lue language Kam Mueang language Thai language Southern Thai language Tai Yo language Phuthai language Lao language ( Isan language ) The Northern Thai language has various names in Northern Thai, Thai, and other Tai languages . The ancestors of

Tai Tham script - Misplaced Pages Continue

2310-475: The major river courses, with the ancestral Northern Thai originating in the Tai migrants that followed the Mekong River . 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

2365-500: The mid class consonants in Khuen language. However, these three new tone marks aren't used in Lanna spelling convention and even in Khuen, they are rarely used. The use of these new three tone marks is also not standardized and may also differ between the dialects of Khuen language. Moreover, similar to standard Thai, the tonal pattern for each consonant class also differs by vowel length and final consonant sounds, which can be divided into

2420-443: The past 100 years ), the information about the six tones from Gedney (1999) should be considered with caution. The Gedney boxes for the tones are shown below the descriptions. The table below presents four phonemic tones in checked syllables, i.e. closed syllables ending in a glottal stop [ʔ] and obstruent sounds such as [p], [t], and [k]. The grammar of Northern Thai is similar to those of other Tai languages . The word order

2475-487: The phonetic realization of the six tones in the Chiang Mai dialect. The table presents information based on two sources, one from Gedney (1999) and the other one from the Lanna dictionary (2007) which is a Northern Thai-Thai dictionary. Although published in 1999, Gedney's information about the Chiang Mai dialect is based on data he collected from one speaker in Chiang Mai in 1964 (p. 725). As tones may change within one's lifetime (e.g., Bangkok Thai tones have changed over

2530-614: The primary written script for the Tai Lü and Tai Khün languages spoken in the ' Golden Triangle ' where Thailand, Laos, Burma and southern China meet. Its use is rather limited to the long-term monks in Laos and most materials published today are in the modern Lao script. Although both the ancient forms of the Mon and Khmer script are different, they are both abugidas that descend from the Brahmic scripts introduced via contacts with South Indian traders, soldiers, merchants and Brahmans. As

2585-399: The same (or equivalent) tone mark. For example, the word ᨣ᩶ᩤ ( Northern Thai pronunciation: [kaː˦˥] ; Khuen : [kaː˦˩] ) which is equivalent to Thai ค้า ( Thai pronunciation: [kʰaː˦˥] ), and Lao ຄ້າ ( Lao pronunciation: [kʰaː˥˨] ) all has the same meaning "to trade" and is expressed with the same or equivalent tone mark mai tho/mai kho jang but

2640-452: The same period. Most of the script is recorded on palm-leaf manuscripts, many of which were destroyed during the ' Thaification ' purges of the 1930s; contemporaneously this period of Thai nationalisation also ended its use as the primary written language in Northern Thailand . Although no longer in use in Isan, the alphabet is enjoying a resurgence in Northern Thailand , and is still used as

2695-438: The script among younger people, but an added complication is that the modern spoken form, called Kam Muang, differs in pronunciation from the older form. There are 670,000 speakers of Tai Lü, some of those born before 1950 are literate in Tham, also known as Old Tai Lue . The script has also continued to be taught in the monasteries. The New Tai Lue script is derived from Tham. There are 120,000 speakers of Khün for which Lanna

2750-442: The standard Thai five tones systems and the equivalence can be drawn between the two. Lanna–Thai dictionaries often equate Chiang Mai tones with standard Thai tones, shown in a table below. Tone mark conjugation system of Tai Tham highly correlates with the system used by Thai script. Despite the difference in tone quality between Northern Thai, Tai Khuen, Thai, and Lao; equivalent words in each language are, in large part, marked with

2805-492: The tone rules. Certain consonants in the low-class group lack their high-class counterpart. These consonants are sometimes called the single low-class consonants . Their high-class counterparts are created by the combination with letter high Ha ( ᩉ ) as a digraph, called Ha Nam ( ᩉ ᨶᩣᩴ ). Class Tai Tham has three medial letters to form a consonant cluster: medial La (◌ᩖ a.k.a La Noi ), medial Ra (ᩕ a.k.a Rawong ), and medial Wa . Consonant cluster with medial Wa

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2860-725: The typically angled style of Khmer. There are 43 Tai Tham consonants. They are divided into three groups: categorized consonants ( ᨻ᩠ᨿᩢᨬ᩠ᨩᨶᨶᩲᩅᩢᨣ᩠ᨣ᩼ , payanjana nai wak ), non-categorized consonants ( ᨻ᩠ᨿᩢᨬ᩠ᨩᨶᩋᩅᩢᨣ᩠ᨣ᩼ , payanjana awak ), and additional consonants ( ᨻ᩠ᨿᩢᨬ᩠ᨩᨶᨲᩮᩬᩥ᩵ᨾ , payanjana tueam ). Categorized consonants and non-categorized consonants are those derived from Old Mon script used for Pali and Sanskrit languages. Similar to Devanagari , Pallava script , and Burmese script , categorized consonants are divided into 5 subgroups called wak ( ᩅᩢᨣ᩠ᨣ᩼ ) i.e., wak ka ( ᨠ ), wak ja ( ᨧ ), wak rata ( ᨭ ), wak ta ( ᨲ ), and wak pa ( ᨷ ). The additional consonants are

2915-414: The word ᨸᩖᩦ and ᨸᩦ are both pronounced pi . Thus, it is considered a false consonant cluster. The use of Medial La is now preserved only for a semantic purpose. Class Consonant cluster with medial Ra can be divided into two groups: one with an initial consonant sound change and one without the sound change. In some cases, an additional phoneme /l/ may be added with the initial consonant pronounced as

2970-579: 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. In 1775, Kawila of Lampang revolted with Siamese assistance, and captured

3025-469: Was relegated from the public sphere, with influential religious leaders like Khruba Srivichai jailed for using Northern Thai in sermons. In the 1940s, authorities promulgated Thai cultural mandates that reinforced the importance of learning and using Central Thai as the prestige language . These economic and educational pressures have increased the use of standard Thai to the detriment of other regional languages like Northern Thai. Today, Northern Thai

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