Learning Lahu for English Speakers

Learning Lahu for English speakers January 2, 2010 i About This Book This book is designed to get an English speaker to a basic level of understanding of the Lahu language. It has been designed to cover the various areas of the language in a logical order and one that allows you to build up your knowledge throughout your course. Some exercises have been provided to give you an opportunity to use the information you have just studied. You will find the vocabulary needed for the exercises and examples is defined at the beginning of each section, priorto actually using it. Practise saying the words in the vocabulary sections so you are familiar with them when they are used in examples. Also be sure to use the vocabulary sections and the dictionary at the end of the book for more comprehensive listings. This book has hopefully been designed to be useful both short and long term. Sufficient space has been left in the margins for notes (and corrections!) and extensive appendices can assist you long after you have finished the main course material. These abbreviations are used throughout the main text and the dictionary. n noun fp final partical vb verb clf classifier sbj subject obj object pol polite par partical (general) lit literally Words placed in square brackets ‘[ ]’ have been added to complete the sense of sentences. Contents I Introduction 1 1 Lahu People & Language 2 2 Alphabet 3 2.1 Consonants .............................. 3 2.1.1 Aspirated & Unaspirated ................... 3 2.1.2 Fricatives ........................... 4 2.2 Vowels ................................. 5 2.2.1 Diphthongs .......................... 6 2.3 Tones ................................. 6 2.4 Useful Expressions .......................... 6 II Grammar 8 3 Sentence Structure 9 3.1 Particles ................................ 9 3.1.1 Subject & Object ....................... 10 4 Nouns 11 4.1 Number ................................ 11 4.2 Gender ................................. 11 4.3 Possession ............................... 12 5 Pronouns 13 6 Verbs 14 6.1 Verb negation ............................. 14 6.2 Verb Combination .......................... 15 6.3 Verb Duplication ........................... 16 6.4 Verb Tense .............................. 17 6.4.1 Present Tense ......................... 17 6.4.2 Past Tense ........................... 17 6.4.3 Perfect Tense ......................... 17 6.4.4 Future Tense ......................... 18 6.4.5 Continuous Tense ...................... 18 6.4.6 Indefinite Perfect Tense ................... 18 6.4.7 Imperative Mood ....................... 19 6.4.8 Participles ........................... 20 ii CONTENTS iii 7 Adjectives 21 7.1 Proper ................................. 21 7.2 Descriptive .............................. 21 7.3 Quantatative ............................. 22 7.4 Demonstrative ............................ 22 7.5 Distributive .............................. 23 7.6 Numeral ................................ 24 8 Adverbs 25 9 Prepositions 27 9.1 Place .................................. 27 9.2 Time .................................. 27 10 Conjuctions 28 11 Classifiers 31 12 Conversations 33 12.1 Greetings ............................... 33 III Appendices 34 A Phonics 35 B Vocabulary 37 C Dictionary 40 D Fonts 41 IV Index 42 Part I Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Lahu People & Language The Lahu people are a people without a country and inhabit areas within Thai- land, China, Burma, Laos and Vietnam. Their population has been estimated at around 800,000 people and these are generally divided up into five main subgroups: Laˇhuˍ naˆ Black Lahu Laˇhuˍ nyi Red Lahu Laˇhuˍ hpu White Lahu Laˇhuˍ shehˇ lehˍ Shehleh Laˇhuˍ shi Yellow Lahu The traditional clothing of each group is the easiest way to tell them apart and is often the reason for their particular name. The Lahu language is in the Tibeto-Burman group of languages and is spoken by the Lahu people throughout the regions of China, Myanmar and Thai- land. Each subgroup of Lahu people has its own particular dialect or way of speaking. Most, though, can understand Black Lahu (Laˇhuˍ naˆ) and this is regarded as the “lingua franca” of the Lahu people. 2 Chapter 2 Alphabet The written Lahu alphabet is based on the Roman alphabet with only a few diacritics to identify tones. For this reason many people who are already familiar with the Roman alphabet (English speakers particularly) should be able to begin reading within a short period of time. Several methods of writing the sounds (orthographies) in the Lahu language exist. The Protestant and Catholic orthographies were, naturally, created by mis- sionaries. Matisoff by James A. Matisoff, a linguist from Berkeley University, California, uses a different system and may be regarded as being a more accu- rate representation of the spoken language. There is also the Chinese system. Of these four main orthographies, the Protestant method is the most widely used and understood by the Lahu people themselves and is therefore the method that is used here. See Appendix A for a chart showing a comparison between the four orthographies. The order of the alphabet generally follows the same order as that of the English alphabet. Some references, namely Matisoff[1], use a method of order- ing the alphabet based on the traditional order of Sanskrit-derived languages. This uses the method of articulation to determine the order of the letters. 2.1 Consonants Most consonants in Lahu should not present a problem for English speakers. There are a few differences that should be noted. The consonants in the Lahu language are listed in Table 2.1. 2.1.1 Aspirated & Unaspirated As with many other languages in the area of South East Asia, there is a difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds. To appreciate the difference between them some have tried saying the sounds with their hand in front of 3 CHAPTER 2. ALPHABET 4 Lahu English Equivalent b same as in English ch same as in English c j in ‘jaw’ (the unaspirated version of ‘ch’) d same as in English f same as in English g as in English g’ a coarse ’g’ or a throaty ‘r’ like in French, a fricative h as in English j as in English k g in ‘git’ (like ‘ก’ in Thai) hk c in ‘cat’ k’ c in ‘coat’, at the back of the throat hk’ c in ‘caught’ but further back in throat l as in English m as in English n/ny same as in English ng as in English p b in ‘bat’, unaspirated p or b (like the Thai ‘ป’) hp p in ‘people’, aspirated pf as in English s/sh as in English, often sh sounds like just s t cross between ‘d’ and ‘t’ (like the Thai ‘ต’) ht a ‘t’ in English v as in English y cross between a ‘y’ and ‘j’ Table 2.1: Lahu Consonants their mouth. With an aspirated sound you should feel a puff of air against you hand. Unaspirated sounds should have no puff. For example, the sounds made by the letters ‘p’, ‘t’ and ‘c’ in the words spar, star and scar are unaspirated and have no puff of air. In contrast, the sounds made by the letters ‘c’, ‘t’ and ‘p’ in the words car, tar and par are aspirated by the puff of air. It is essential that this difference in appreciated by thespeaker and heard by the listener as it changes most words. 2.1.2 Fricatives These are sounds that are made by using the throat or the rear of the palate and are primarily made using friction rather than contact. Some letters require more fiction and some require more contact. These guttural sounds are often difficult for native English speakers to master and use fluently. Another (perhaps more technical) way of representing the various consonants and their articulation is shown in table 2.2. CHAPTER 2. ALPHABET 5 Bilabial Using both lips Labio-dental Bottom lip and upper teeth Alveolar Tongue on palate just behind teeth Alveo-palatal Tonge on palate Velar Tongue at rear of palate Post-velar Using the throat Unaspirated No puff of air (see 2.1.1) Asiprated With a puff of air (see 2.1.1) Voiced Using the voice box Nasal Using the nasal cavity Lateral Using the side of the tongue Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Alveopalatal Velar Postvelar Unaspirated p t c k k’ Aspirated hp ht ch hk hk’ Voiced b v d j g g’ Nasal m n ng Voiceless f sh h Lateral l Table 2.2: Consonant Articulation 2.2 Vowels Table 2.3 lists the vowels used in Lahu. There is also a tenth vowel ’uh’ that Lahu English Equivalent i as in in e as in get eh as above ui like the Thai ‘-ือ’ eu like the Thai ‘เ-อ’ a as in are u as in cue o as in got aw as in claw Table 2.3: Lahu vowels does not occur at the beginning of a word. It only occurs with nine consonants and in these cases can actually sound different. Table 2.4 shows how ’uh’ is effected with various consonant combinations. CHAPTER 2. ALPHABET 6 Written Meaning Spoken (and often written) tcuh ve to send cuh ve tsuhˇ ve to wash chuhˇ ve tzuhˆ ve to itch juhˆ ve suh ve to die suh ve zuh ve to sleep yuh ve Table 2.4: The vowel ’uh’ 2.2.1 Diphthongs Diphthongs can easily be described as a sound made by combining two vowels together smoothly in one syllable. For example the word ‘kite’ in English has a diphthong represented by the letter i. Phonetically it could be written ‘k-eye- ee-t’ if said slowly. Table 2.5 shows the diphthongs used in Lahu. Lahu English Equivalent ai the ‘y’ in fly ao ‘ou’ in grouch aweh like the ‘oy’ in boy awan said quickly as written (rare) Table 2.5: Diphthongs 2.3 Tones Tones are often one of the more difficult aspects of many Asian languages for English speakers to master.

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