Palaung language

Palaung
Palaung
De'ang, Ta'ang; ပလောင်ဘာသာ, တအာင်းဘာသာ
Native to	Burma, China, Thailand
Ethnicity	Ta'ang
Native speakers	(ca. 560,000 cited 1982–??)
Language family	Austroasiatic Khasi–Palaungic Palaungic Palaung–Riang Palaung; ; ; ;
Writing system	Burmese, Tai Le
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously:; pll – Shwe; pce – Ruching; rbb – Rumai
Glottolog	pala1336

Palaung or Ta'ang (Burmese: ပလောင်ဘာသာ), also known as De'ang (Chinese: 德昂語; Burmese: တအာင်းဘာသာ), is a Austroasiatic dialect cluster spoken by over half a million people in Burma (Shan State) and neighboring countries. The Palaung people are divided into Palé (Ruching), Rumai, and Shwe, and each of whom have their own language.^[2]^[3] The Riang languages are reported to be unintelligible or only understood with great difficulty by native speakers of the other Palaung languages.

A total number of speakers is uncertain; there were 150,000 Shwe speakers in 1982, 272,000 Ruching (Palé) speakers in 2000, and 139,000 Rumai speakers at an unrecorded date.^[1] Palaung was classified as a "severely endangered" language in UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.^[4]^[5] The Rulai dialect spoken near Lashio has regular phonological changes and some lexical differences from Ruching.^[6]

Dialects

Yan and Zhou (2012)

Chinese linguists classify "De'ang 德昂" varieties (spoken mostly in Santaishan Ethnic De'ang Township 三台山德昂族乡, Mangshi and Junnong Township 军弄乡, Zhenkang County) as follows (De'angyu Jianzhi). Names in IPA are from Yan & Zhou (2012:154–155)^[7]

Bulei 布雷 [pule] (representative datapoint: Yunqian 允欠,^[8] Mangshi): spoken in Luxi
- Bulei 布雷 [pule] dialect
- Raojin 饶进 [raudʑĕŋ] dialect
Liang 梁 [liaŋ] (representative datapoint: Xiaochanggou 硝厂沟): spoken in Longchuan and Ruili
Rumai 汝买 [romai], roraumai) (representative datapoint: Yechaqing 叶茶箐): spoken in Zhenkang and Baoshan

The De'ang 德昂 variously refer themselves as naʔaŋ, [daʔaŋ], [toʔaŋ], and [laʔaŋ], depending on the dialect (Yan & Zhou 2012:154–155). Another De'ang autonym is ho (rau) khaoʔ, where rau means 'village'. The local Dai people refer to the De'ang as po˧loŋ˧.

Liu (2006)^[9] documents three Palaungic lects, namely:

Guangka Village, Mengxiu Township, Ruili City (瑞丽市勐休乡广卡村);^[10] [ru˥ mai˦˩˨]; tonal
Mengdan Village, Santaishan Township (三台山勐丹村);^[11] [ʔaŋ]; non-tonal
Guanshuang Village, Mengman Township, Xishuangbanna (西双版纳州勐满乡关双村);^[12] [ar˧˩ vaʔ˩˧]; tonal

Ostapirat (2009)

Weera Ostapirat (2009:74) classifies the Palaung languages as follows.^[13] Defining sound changes are given in parentheses.

Palaung

Ta-ang
Rumai-Darang (*-ɔŋ > -ɛŋ; *-uŋ > -ɨŋ)
- Rumai (*-r- > -j-)
- Ra-ang-Darang (*b, *d, *ɟ, *g > p, t, c, k)
  - Ra-ang
  - Darang (*-on > -uan; *-r > -n)
    - Na-ang
    - Darang
    - Da-ang
    - Dara-ang

Shintani (2008)

Shintani (2008) recognizes two dialects of Palaung, namely Southern Palaung and Northern Palaung. Southern Palaung unvoiced stops correspond to Northern Palaung voiced stops, the latter which Shintani (2008) believes to be retentions from Proto-Palaungic. Southern Palaung dialects studied by Shintani (2008) are those of:

Kengtung town
Waanpao village (near Kengtung)
Chengphong village (near Kengtung)
Loikhong village (near Mängpeng)
Mängküng
Yassaw
Kalaw

Deepadung et al. (2015)

Deepadung et al. (2015)^[14] classify the Palaung dialects as follows.

Palaung

Ta-ang: Namhsan, Khun Hawt, Htan Hsan
(core Palaung)
- Pule: Pang Kham, Man Loi, Meng Dan, Chu Dong Gua
- Dara-ang: Pan Paw, Noe Lae, Nyaung Gone, Pong Nuea (?), Xiang Cai Tang 香菜塘
- Rumai: Nan Sang, Guang Ka, Mang Bang
- ? Cha Ye Qing 茶叶箐

Phonology

Chen, et al. (1986) lists the following consonants for Palaung:

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t	tɕ	k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	tɕʰ	kʰ
	voiced	b	d	dʑ	ɡ
Nasal	voiced	m	n	ɲ̟	ŋ	ˀn
Nasal	voiceless	m̥	n̥	ɲ̟̊	ŋ̊
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ɕ		h
Fricative	voiced	v
Rhotic	voiced		r
Rhotic	voiceless		r̥
Approximant	voiced		l	j
Approximant	voiceless		l̥

A final /r/ can be heard as a voiceless sound [ɹ̥], and following a /u/ it is heard as [ɫ̥].

	Front	Back
Close	i	ɯ	u
Near-close	ɪ	ʊ
Mid	e	ɤ	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	ɑ

/ɤ/ can be heard in rapid speech as a central vowel [ə], and is heard as [ɤ] elsewhere. /a/ can be heard as fronted [æ] before /k, ŋ/, and [ɛ] before /n, t/.

According to Shorto (1960), /ɤ/ does not occur alone in primary stressed syllable, but only in an unstressed syllable or as the second member of a diphthong. There are also a large number of diphthongs, including /eo/, /eɤ/, /aɤ/, /ɔɤ/, /oɤ/, /uɤ/, and /iɤ/.

Although Milne (1921) includes the vowels /ü, ö, ɪ/ in her transcriptions, Shorto (1960) did not find these as vowel phonemes in his work.

(Note that the words cited below in the Syntax section come from Milne (1921), so their phonetic representations may need revision.)

Syntax

The examples below are form Milne (1921).

Nouns and noun phrases

The order of elements in the noun phrase is N – (possessor) – (demonstrative).

Consider the following examples:

kwɔɔn	ai	öö
child	we two	this
this child of ours

Prepositions and prepositional phrases

Shwe Palaung has prepositions, as in the following example.

ta	khuun	hɔɔkhəm
to	great	king
to the great king

Sentences

Shwe Palaung clauses generally have subject–verb–object (SVO) word order.

əən	dii	d͡ʒüür	gaaŋ
he	future	buy	house
He will buy a house.

Grammar

A brief verbal morphology of Rumai, a variety of Palaung, was documented by Weymuth (2018). Verbs in Rumai Palaung are inflected per tense, aspect and mood.

Verbal affixes in Rumai Palaung
Affixes	Function	Domain
giːj-	imperfective	aspectual
ʔɯN-	durative
ʔə-	inceptive
hɔ̆j-	new situation
tʌm-	experiential
nʌŋ-	irrealis	modality
siŋ-	desiderative	modality
buː-	negative	negation
ʔaːw-	negative
-maʔ	negative
ɲjʌm-	‘not yet’
kʰuː-	prohibitive
kə-	reciprocal	reciprocal
laj-	reciprocal	reciprocal

nʌŋ-giːj-bâːj

IRR-IPFV-happen

lôj

only

hɲjɛ̂n

DEM

hnaːŋ

how.many

ʔɜ̂ː

1PL.INCL

gʌ̀ː

old

jʌ̂ːm

die

"It only will be like this, until we are old, and we die."

Writing system

During British rule in Burma, Palaung speakers used the Shan script to write their languages.^[15] An American Christian missionary introduced a new script for Palaung in 1912, but the script failed to gain traction.^[15]

In 1955, Paw San devised a new script for the language, and was awarded a gold medal by the local chieftain, Khun Pan Cing, for his efforts.^[15] However, the script did not displace other writing systems used for Palaung, especially due to the dominance of Shan authorities.^[15] From 1967 to 1968, the Shan Council held a session in Taunggyi to devise a new script and settled on a Burmese-based script to make Pali texts more accessible to Palaung speakers.^[15]

A standardised form of this script was adopted in 1972, and is currently used in non-formal education in Shan State and Mandalay.^[15]^[16] Based on the Burmese alphabet, it retains all Burmese consonants and introduces some new vowel combinations, an additional consonant (ႎ /v/), and a complete set of tone markers influenced by the Shan language.^[16] This enables Pali words to be written using their original form, though only Palaung-specific sounds are commonly represented.^[16] Unlike scripts for Mon or Burmese, the Palaung script does not reflect an older stage of the language.^[16] It shares some features with the Shan script.^[16] The script is especially used for the northern Palaung varieties of Shwe and Rumai, although the literacy rate is generally low due to the presence of higher prestige languages of Shan and Burmese in the region.^[16] Recently, community groups in Shan State and Mandalay have undertaken efforts to standardise Palaung orthography.^[16]

The southern variety of Palaung, Ruching, is also written using the Tai Tham script, although literacy is low, and now competes with the Burmese-derived script.^[17]

Text sample

The following part of a story in Shwe Palaung is from Milne (1921:146–147).

Naaŋ̩	rashööh,	naaŋ	jü	grai	ta	khuun	hɔɔkhəm	naaŋ	daah,
lady	awake	lady	narrative:past	said	to	great	king	lady	say
The queen awoke and said to the king

öö	ka	tööm	rɪɪnpoo	hlai	uu	lööh	khənjaa	öö	ai	lɔh	shoktee	haa	öö
oh	neg	ever	dream	even	one	time	ruler	oh	we two	come	fast	place	this
'Oh, I never dreamed (like this) before, oh Ruler, (since) we two came to this place to fast

Phadiiu	nɔ	la	puur	shəŋii,	ɔɔ	rɪɪnpoo	khuun	phii	leeh
today	full	good	seven	day	I	dream	great	spirit	come down
seven days ago, I dreamed that the great spirit came down

dɛh	ɔɔ	hɔɔm	makmon	kəəm	ŋaam	hnjo hnjo
give	me	eat	long mango	gold	sweet	very
and gave me long mangoes of gold to eat. They were very sweet.'

References

^ ^a ^b Shwe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Ruching at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Rumai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Waddington, Ray (2003). "The Palaung". The Peoples of the World Foundation. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
^ Klose, Albrecht (2001). Sprachen der Welt Ein weltweiter Index der Sprachfamilien, Einzelsprachen und Dialekte, mit Angabe der Synonyma und fremdsprachigen Äquivalente / Languages of the World: A Multi-lingual Concordance of Languages, Dialects, and Language-families (2nd rev. and enl. ed.). München: K.G. Saur. p. 403. ISBN 3-598-11404-4.
^ "UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger". United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
^ Moseley, Christopher (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2.
^ "Myanmar". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-10-10.
^ Yan & Zhou (2012), pp. 154–155
^ "Lùxī Shì Sāntáishān Dé'ángzú Xiāng Yǔnqiàn Cūnwěihuì" 潞西市三台山德昂族乡允欠村委会 [Yunqian Village Committee, Santaishan Deang Ethnic Township, Luxi City]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
^ Liu (2006)
^ "Ruìlì Shì Měngxiù Xiāng Měngxiù Cūnwěihuì Guǎngkǎ Zìráncūn" 瑞丽市勐秀乡勐秀村委会广卡自然村 [Guangka Natural Village, Mengxiu Village Committee, Mengxiu Township, Ruili City]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2016-10-09.
^ "Lùxī Shì Sāntáishān Dé'ángzú Xiāng Měngdān Cūnwěihuì" 潞西市三台山德昂族乡勐丹村委会 [Mengdan Village Committee, Santaishan Deang Ethnic Township, Luxi City]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2016-10-09.
^ "Měnghǎi Xiàn Měngmǎn Zhèn Guānshuāng Cūnwěihuì" 勐海县勐满镇关双村委会 [Guanshuang Village Committee, Mengman Town, Menghai County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2016-10-09.
^ Ostapirat, Weera (2009). "Some Phonological Criteria for Palaung Subgrouping". Journal of Language and Culture. 28 (1): 63.
^ Deepadung, Sujaritlak; Buakaw, Supakit; Rattanapitak, Ampika (2015). "A Lexical Comparison of the Palaung Dialects Spoken in China, Myanmar, and Thailand" (PDF). Mon-Khmer Studies. 44: 19–38. doi:10.15144/MKSJ-44.19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-08-27.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Kojima, Takahiro (Autumn 2016). "Palaung orthographies: writing and the politics of ethnicity in Shan State" (PDF). IIAS The Newsletter (75). International Institute for Asian Studies: 38–39.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Jenny, Mathias (2021-08-23), Sidwell, Paul; Jenny, Mathias (eds.), "Writing systems of MSEA", The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia: A comprehensive guide, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 879–906, doi:10.1515/9783110558142-036, ISBN 978-3-11-055814-2, retrieved 2024-12-06
^ Jenny, Mathias (2021-08-23), Sidwell, Paul; Jenny, Mathias (eds.), "Writing systems of MSEA", The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia: A comprehensive guide, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 879–906, doi:10.1515/9783110558142-036, ISBN 978-3-11-055814-2, retrieved 2024-12-06

Sources

Shintani, Tadahiko (2008). The Palaung language: the comparative lexicon of its southern dialects. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA). ISBN 9784863370135.

External links

[e18-1] Shwe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Ruching at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Rumai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] Waddington, Ray (2003). "The Palaung". The Peoples of the World Foundation. Retrieved 3 May 2012.

[3] Klose, Albrecht (2001). Sprachen der Welt Ein weltweiter Index der Sprachfamilien, Einzelsprachen und Dialekte, mit Angabe der Synonyma und fremdsprachigen Äquivalente / Languages of the World: A Multi-lingual Concordance of Languages, Dialects, and Language-families (2nd rev. and enl. ed.). München: K.G. Saur. p. 403. ISBN 3-598-11404-4.

[4] "UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger". United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 2020-06-03.

[5] Moseley, Christopher (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2.

[:02-6] "Myanmar". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-10-10.

[7] Yan & Zhou (2012), pp. 154–155

[8] "Lùxī Shì Sāntáishān Dé'ángzú Xiāng Yǔnqiàn Cūnwěihuì" 潞西市三台山德昂族乡允欠村委会 [Yunqian Village Committee, Santaishan Deang Ethnic Township, Luxi City]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2016-09-29.

[9] Liu (2006)

[10] "Ruìlì Shì Měngxiù Xiāng Měngxiù Cūnwěihuì Guǎngkǎ Zìráncūn" 瑞丽市勐秀乡勐秀村委会广卡自然村 [Guangka Natural Village, Mengxiu Village Committee, Mengxiu Township, Ruili City]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2016-10-09.

[11] "Lùxī Shì Sāntáishān Dé'ángzú Xiāng Měngdān Cūnwěihuì" 潞西市三台山德昂族乡勐丹村委会 [Mengdan Village Committee, Santaishan Deang Ethnic Township, Luxi City]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2016-10-09.

[12] "Měnghǎi Xiàn Měngmǎn Zhèn Guānshuāng Cūnwěihuì" 勐海县勐满镇关双村委会 [Guanshuang Village Committee, Mengman Town, Menghai County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2016-10-09.

[13] Ostapirat, Weera (2009). "Some Phonological Criteria for Palaung Subgrouping". Journal of Language and Culture. 28 (1): 63.

[14] Deepadung, Sujaritlak; Buakaw, Supakit; Rattanapitak, Ampika (2015). "A Lexical Comparison of the Palaung Dialects Spoken in China, Myanmar, and Thailand" (PDF). Mon-Khmer Studies. 44: 19–38. doi:10.15144/MKSJ-44.19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-08-27.

[:04-15] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Kojima, Takahiro (Autumn 2016). "Palaung orthographies: writing and the politics of ethnicity in Shan State" (PDF). IIAS The Newsletter (75). International Institute for Asian Studies: 38–39.

[:0-16] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Jenny, Mathias (2021-08-23), Sidwell, Paul; Jenny, Mathias (eds.), "Writing systems of MSEA", The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia: A comprehensive guide, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 879–906, doi:10.1515/9783110558142-036, ISBN 978-3-11-055814-2, retrieved 2024-12-06

[:03-17] Jenny, Mathias (2021-08-23), Sidwell, Paul; Jenny, Mathias (eds.), "Writing systems of MSEA", The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia: A comprehensive guide, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 879–906, doi:10.1515/9783110558142-036, ISBN 978-3-11-055814-2, retrieved 2024-12-06

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