| Northern Thai | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kam Mueang ᨣᩴᩤᨾᩮᩥᩬᨦ |
||||||
| Pronunciation | [kam˧ mɯːəŋ˧] | |||||
| Spoken in | Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia | |||||
| Region | Northern Thailand | |||||
| Ethnicity | Thai Yuan | |||||
| Native speakers | 6 million (date missing) | |||||
| Language family |
Tai–Kadai
|
|||||
| Writing system | Tai Tham script, Thai script | |||||
| Language codes | ||||||
| ISO 639-3 | nod | |||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
Northern Thai, Lanna, or Kham Mueang (Northern Thai: ᨣᩴᩤᨾᩮᩥᩬᨦ [kam˧ mɯːəŋ˧], Thai: คำเมือง [kʰam˧ mɯːəŋ˧]) is the language of the Thai Yuan people of Lannathai, Thailand. It is a Tai language, closely related to Thai and Lao. Northern Thai has approximately six million speakers, most of whom live in Thailand, with a few thousand in northwestern Laos.
Speakers of this language generally consider the name Yuan to be pejorative. They generally call themselves kon mueang (กนเมือง, [kon˧ mɯːəŋ˧]), Lannathai, or Northern Thai. The language is generally known by one of these terms, or as Phayap. The term Yuan is still used for the distinctive Tai Tham script that Northern Thai uses, which is closely related to the old Tai Lue Script and the Lao religious alphabets. It also resembles the Burmese and Mon alphabets. (All these alphabets derive from the Old Mon alphabet.) 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 is no active production of literature in the traditional alphabet.
Most linguists consider Northern Thai to be more closely related to Thai and the other Chiang Saeng languages than to Lao and the Lao–Phutai languages, but the distinction is never easy to make, as the languages form a continuum with few sharp dividing lines.
Contents |
Pronouns may be omitted once they have already been established in the first sentence, unless the pronoun in the following sentences is different from the first sentence. The pronoun "you" may also be omitted if the speaker is speaking directly to a second person. Moreover, names may replace pronouns, and they can even replace the first person singular pronoun.
| Tai Tham script | Thai script | Transliteration | IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ᨢ᩶ᩣ | ข้า | kha̋a | kʰaː˥˧ | I/me (formal; used by male) |
| ᨢ᩶ᩣᨧᩮᩢ᩶ᩣ | ข้าเจ้า | kha̋aja̋o | kʰaː˥˧tɕaw˥˧ | I/me (formal; used by female) |
| ᩁᩣ | ฮา | haa | haː˧ | I/me (informal) |
| ᩁᩮᩢᩣ | เฮา | hao | haw˧ | we/us (general) |
| ᨲᩫ᩠ᩅ | ตั๋ว | tǔa | tua˩˥ | you (general, singular) |
| ᨤᩥ᩠ᨦ | ฅิง | khing | kʰiŋ˧ | you (informal, singular) |
| ᨧᩮᩢ᩶ᩣ | เจ้า | ja̋o | tɕaw˥˧ | you (formal, singular) |
| ᨸᩮᩥ᩠᩶ᨶ | เปิ้น | pôen | pɤn˥˩ | I/me (formal, general), he/she (general) |
| ᨾᩢ᩠ᨶ | มัน | man | man˧ | it (very rude if used on a person) |
There are six phonemic tones in the Chiangmai dialect of Northern Thai: low-rising, mid-low, high-falling, mid-high, falling, and high rising-falling.[1]
| Tone | Example | Phonemic | Phonetic | Example meaning in English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| low-rising | ขา | /xǎː/ | [xaː˩˦] | leg |
| mid-low | ข่า | /xàː/ | [xaː˨˨] | galangal |
| high-falling | ฃ้า | /xa̋ː/ | [xaː˥˧] | to kill |
| mid-high | ฅา | /xaː/ | [xaː˦˦] | thatch grass |
| falling | ไร่ | /hâjː/ | [hajː˦˩] | dry field |
| high rising-falling | ฟ้า | /fáː/ | [faː˦˥˦] | sky |
Northern Thai phonology is relatively closer to Lao phonology because of the [ ɲ ] sound.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | [ m ] | [ n ] | [ ɲ ] | [ ŋ ] | |||||||||||
| Plosive | [ p ] | [ pʰ ] | [ b ] | [ t ] | [ tʰ ] | [ d ] | [ k ] | [ kʰ ] | [ ʔ ]* | ||||||
| Fricative | [ f ] | [ s ] | [ x ] | [ h ] | |||||||||||
| Affricate | [ tɕ] | ||||||||||||||
| Approximant | [ w ] | [ j ] | |||||||||||||
| Lateral approximant |
[ l ] | ||||||||||||||
Northern Thai shares much vocabulary with Standard Thai, especially scientific terms, which draw many prefixes and suffixes from Sanskrit and Pali, and it also has its own distinctive words. Just like Thai and Lao, Lanna has borrowed many Sanskrit and Pali words.
Below, Thai words are shown on the left and Northern Thai words are shown on the right.
Standard Thai does not have palatal nasal sound:
Standard Thai does not have a high-falling tone.
Many words differ from Standard Thai greatly:
Some words differ in tone only:
Some words differ in a single sound and associated tone. In many words, the initial ร (/r/) is spoken as ฮ (/h/):
Aspirated consonants in the low-class consonant group(อักษรต่ำ /ʔàk sɔ̌n tàm/) become unaspirated:
Though many aspirated consonants often become unaspirated, when a unaspirated consonant is followed by ร (/r/) the unaspirated consonant becomes aspirated:
Other differences:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||