The Tavoyan or Dawei dialect of Burmese (ထားဝယ်စကား) is spoken in Dawei (Tavoy), in the coastal Tanintharyi Region of southern Myanmar (Burma).
Tavoyan | |
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Dawei | |
Region | Southeast |
Ethnicity | incl. Taungyo |
Native speakers | ca. 440,000 (2000)[1] |
Language family | Sino-Tibetan
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:tvn – Tavoyan propertco – Dawei Tavoyan (Taungyo) |
Glottolog | tavo1242 Tavoyantaun1248 Taungyo |
Tavoyan retains /-l-/ medial that has since merged into the /-j-/ medial in standard Burmese and can form the following consonant clusters: /ɡl-/, /kl-/, /kʰl-/, /bl-/, /pl-/, /pʰl-/, /ml-/, /m̥l-/. Examples include မ္လေ (/mlè/ → Standard Burmese /mjè/) for "ground" and က္လောင်း (/kláʊɴ/ → Standard Burmese /tʃáʊɴ/) for "school".[2] Also, voicing only with unaspirated consonants, whereas in standard Burmese, voicing can occur with both aspirated and unaspirated consonants. Also, there are many loan words from Malay and Thai not found in Standard Burmese. An example is the word for goat, which is hseit (ဆိတ်) in Standard Burmese but bê (ဘဲ့) in Tavoyan, most likely from Mon /həbeˀ/ (ဗၜေံ) or Thai /pʰɛ́ʔ/ (แพะ).[3]
In the Tavoyan dialect, terms of endearment, as well as family terms, are considerably different from Standard Burmese. For instance, the terms for "son" and "daughter" are ဖစု (/pʰa̰ òu/) and မိစု (/mḭ òu/) respectively.[4] Moreover, the honorific နောင် (Naung) is used in lieu of မောင် (Maung) for young males.[4]
The following is a list of rhyme correspondences unique to the Tavoyan dialect[5]
Written Burmese | Standard Burmese | Tavoyan dialect | Notes |
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-င် -န် -မ် | /-ɪɴ -aɴ -aɴ/ | /-aɴ/ | |
-ဉ် -ျင် | /-ɪɴ -jɪɴ/ | /-ɪɴ -jɪɴ/ | |
ောင် | /-aʊɴ/ | /-ɔɴ/ | |
ုန် | /-oʊɴ/ | /-uːɴ/ | |
ုမ် | /-aoɴ/ | ||
ိမ် | /-eɪɴ/ | /-iːɴ/ | |
ုတ် | /-oʊʔ/ | /-ṵ/ | |
ုပ် | /-aoʔ/ | ||
-က် -တ် -ပ် | /-ɛʔ -aʔ -aʔ/ | /-aʔ/ | |
-ိတ် -ိပ် | /-eɪʔ/ | /-ḭ/ | |
-ည် | /-ɛ, -e, -i// | /-ɛ/ | |
-စ် -ျက် | /-ɪʔ -jɛʔ/ | /-ɪʔ -jɪʔ/ | |
ေွ | /-we/ | /-i/ | ေ is pronounced as in standard Burmese |
Open syllables | weak = ə full = i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u |
Closed syllables | nasal = iːɴ, ɪɴ, aɪɴ, an, ɔɴ, ʊɴ, uːɴ, aoɴ stop = ɪʔ, aɪʔ, aʔ, ɔʔ, ʊʔ, aoʔ |
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
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Western Himalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim) |
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Eastern Himalayas (Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal) | |||||
Myanmar and Indo-Burmese border |
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East and Southeast Asia |
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Dubious (possible isolates) (Arunachal) |
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Proposed groupings |
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Proto-languages |
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Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. |
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Loloish (Yi) (Ngwi) |
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Burmish |
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