A dictionary of Dehong, Southwest China Luo, Y. A dictionary of Dehong, Southwest China. C-145, xl + 338 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1999. DOI:10.15144/PL-C145.cover ©1999 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIFIC LINGUISTICS FOUNDING EDITOR: Stephen A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: Malcolm D. Ross and Darrell T. Tryon (Managing Editors), John Bowden, Thomas E. Dutton, Andrew K. Pawley Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in linguistic de�criptions, dictionaries, atlases and other material on languages of the Pacific, the Philippines, Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications ar� drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Pacific Linguistics is associated with the Research School of P cific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University. 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Series C, Volume 145 A dictionary of Dehong, Southwest China Compiled by Luo Y ongxian Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Canberra Published by Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University PO Box 1428 Canberra ACT 2601 Australia Copyright © The author First published 1999 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Luo, Y ongxian A dictionary of Dehong, Southwest China. Bibliography. ISSN 0078-7558 ISBN 0 85883 496 0 l.Te-hung Tai language - Dictionaries - English. 1. Australian National University. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Pacific Linguistics. II. Title. (Series: Pacific Linguistics. Series C-145). 495.9103 Copyedited by Joan Birnie Typeset by Jeanette Coombes Map work by The Cartography Unit, RSPAS, ANU Printed by ANU Printing Service, Canberra Bound by F & M Perfect Bookbinding, Canberra The Pacific Linguistics logo was designed by Ian Scales after one small panel of a para batuna from Vella Lavella, held in the Australian Museum (A8S17). This is an artefact made from a plaque of fossilised giant clam shell (Tridacna sp.), carved into an elaborate fretwork design. These particular artefacts were made in the western Solomon Islands, probably between 100 and 200 years ago. The basic cover design is also by Ian Scales. The motif was drawn by Malcolm Ross after the stylised representation of a design on Lapita pottery found by Roger Green in the Reefs-Santa Cruz Islands (source: Matthew Spriggs (ed.), Lapita design, form and composition. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University.) TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix MAP: DEHONG-SPEAKING AREA IN YUNNAN, CHINA x INTRODUCTION xi 1. BACKGROUND xi 2. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF DEHONG TAl xii 2.1 Dehong Tai phonemic inventory xiii 2.1.1 Consonants xiii 2.1.2 Vowels xiii 2.1.3 Phonemic tones xiv 2.2 Some phonetic features of Dehong xiv 2.2.1 Consonant alternations xiv 2.2.2 Vowel alternations xvii 2.2.3 Tone alternations xvii 2.2.4 Contracted forms xix 2.3 Lexicon xx 2.3.1 Word formation xx 2.3.2 Mirror expressions xxiii 2.3.3 Four-syllable expressions xxiii 2.4 Grammatical notes xxiv 2.4.1 Nominals and noun phrase components xxiv 2.4.2 Verbs and verb phrase components xxv 3. DEHONG ORTHOGRAPHY XXVI 3.1 Introduction xxvi 3.2 The New Script xxvii 3.3 The New and Old Scripts compared xxviii 4. DEHONG TAl: A HISTORICAL-COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE xxx 4.1 Initial consonants xxx 4.1.1 Patternsof regular sound change xxxi 4.2.2 Merger xxxv 4.2.3 Split xxxv vii viii 4.2 Tones xxxv 4.2.1 Tone merger xxxv 4.2.2 Tone split xxxvi 4.3 Loanwords xxxvii 4.4 What position does Dehong hold in Tai? xxxvii 4.4.1 Problems for Li's classification: some examples xxxvii 4.4.2 The link between Dehong and Tai Phake: some im lications xxxviii REFERENCES XXX1X DEHONG DICTIONARY 1 ENGLISH-DEHONG FINDERLIST 253 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book has been published with the support of grants from the National Thai Studies Centre at The Australian National University, and from the Chiang Chingkuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. Work on the dictionary began in 1993 as part of the author's PhD project on comparative Tai. Final editing was carried out in 1997 when the author was undertaking postdoctoral research at the Southeast Asia Centre, The Australian National University, funded by the Chiang Chingkuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange for three years (1995-1998). Dr Anthony V.N. Diller of the Faculty of Asian Studies, The Australian National University, has provided valuable help and guidance throughout the project. Joan Birnie, the copyeditor, has helped clarify a number of points. To all the individuals and institutions the author wishes to express his sincerest thanks. ix x / .. I BURMA .i ;'.. '/ . " . eMyikina l) .i i eTengchong I . ":/ - f· i e Lianghe .i . " •/ Yingjiang e .J Longlin e .f Dehong Dai - Jingpo A. P. '\ HINA \. J'". Luxi (Mangshi) e \. \ 1 . .J e Longchuan Yunn n Province !. � _./ . ·/ tI . e Wanding , .- ..... / Ruili e ._"-' . "' .". e Zhenkang . e e Lincang ._ ..... .. _ .. _ .. _ ..' . , .' . _ . '. e engma \ i \ . BURMA _ \ . 1 e Cang uan e Lashio eMongmau i . -......... " . ., ./ i . eMenglian I .. .... , Sipson panna Dai A. P. \. \ ..........., . , Jinghong e ...... .. _ .. : ,CHINA INTRODUCTION 1. BACKGROUND Dehong Tai, also referred to as Chinese Shan, is the language of a minority group in the western part of Yunnan Province in the Sino-Burmese border area of Southwestern China. The name Dehong is a transliteration of the term tatixorJ (ta.r/ 'bottom; under; the lower part [of]' + xorJ 'the Hong River [Nujiang in Chinese], i.e. the Salween River') meaning 'the lower reaches of the Lu River' and referring to the Counties of Luxi, Yingjiang, Longchuan, Ruili and Lianghe and the town of Wanding (1llJirlilT) administered by the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province.l Speakers of Dehong Tai call themselves taPla6, literally 'upper or northern Tai',2 a small number referring to themselves as taj2tai4 'lower Tai'. Surrounded by the Jingpo, Achang, Lisu, Benglong, Bai and Yi, all of Tibeto-Burman stock, Dehong is reported to have over a quarter of a million speakers according to the 1982 Chinese census.3 The area is also inhabited by a number of other Tai dialect speakers such as White Tai, Shan, Po-ai and Zhuang, some of which have distinct written scripts. About a dozen dialects with the indigenous self-reference term 'Tai' still remain to be investigated (WU pers. comm.; Wang 1984). A member of the Tai language family, Dehong Tai has much in common with Tai varieties spoken in Assam, India. Other closely related dialects are Tai Mau, a Shan dialect spoken in eastern Burma on the Sino-Burmese border, and Tai Nuea (or Tai Niia), which is also spoken in that area. Alternatively, 'Tai Niia' may be used as a cover term, that is, as the equivalent of Chinese Shan. While its speakers are officially recognised as a minority nationality and administratively classified with Tai Lue or Sipsongpanna as Dai ( {l ),4 Dehong Tai exhibits substantial differences from these latter languages. Mutual unintelligibility is reported to exist between the two (Wu pers. comm.), although they are of close genetic affinity and share a large number of cognates. There has been a debate about the meaning of this term; see Wijeyewardene (1990:27-28) and the references cited there. 2 Also called Tai-Nuea, which should be distinguished from Tai Lue (pronounced as taP 1ft in Dehong) or Sipsongpanna Tai spoken in the south of Yunnan. Other names, such as Bai-yi, have been used by earlier Chinese scholars (see Luo & Xing 1950), but this invites confusion with Yi, a dialect of Tibeto-Burman stock. See also fn .l. 3 The 1990 government census reported that there were altogether over a million Dai (Tai) speakers in Yunnan, including other Tai varieties. No precise figure of Dehong speakers was given. 4 See Luo (1993) for a more recent account of Tai dialects in this area. xi xii Dehong Tai has a distinctive Indic-based script, recen y reformed by the Chinese authorities. No evidence is available as to the historical origin s of this script, although it is claimed to date back to the Ming Dynasty of the 14th century AD (Yang 1987:4).