Tai–Kadai languages

  • Kadai
  • Kam - Sui
  • Bê
  • Hlai
  • Tai languages:
  • Northern Tai
  • Central Tai
  • Southwest Tai

The Tai - Kadai languages ​​( also Dai ) languages ​​are a language family of about 70 in Southeast Asia and southern China used languages ​​with a total of 83 million speakers. Tai - Kadai is divided into three main branches hlai, Kadai and Kam -Tai.

Classification

The Tai - Kadai languages ​​are divided very unevenly in the three main branches hlai, Kadai and Kam -Tai. It makes Kam -Tai from about 99 % of the total number of speakers and divided his part in Kam - Sui and Tai, also the two individual languages ​​Lakkia and Ong -Be. The Southwest Tai Group forms the actual core of the language family. It is by far the largest group, which also includes the national languages ​​Thai ( in Thailand) and Lao ( in Laos).

Tai - Kadai ( a total of 69 languages ​​, 83 million speakers)

  • Hlai (2 languages ​​, 800,000; in the central highlands of Hainan (China) )
  • Kadai ( 9 languages ​​, 95,000; Hainan (China ), smaller Sprachenklaven in the far north of Thailand, in Guizhou (China ) and along the Sino- Vietnamese border )
  • Kam -Tai (58 Languages ​​, 82 million) Kam - Sui ( 8 languages ​​, 3 million, in Guangxi, Guizhou and Hunan, (all China) )
  • Lakkia (1 language, 10,000 )
  • Ong - Be ( 1 language, 500,000 )
  • Tai ( 48 Languages ​​, 78 million) North - Tai ( 5 languages ​​, 12 million, in Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Hainan, (all China) )
  • Central Tai ( 6 languages ​​, 6 million, in northeastern Vietnam and Guangxi (China) )
  • Southwest Tai (30 Languages ​​, 60 million, in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, North, North West Vietnam, Yunnan (China) and to the north and east of Myanmar )

Important Tai - Kadai languages

The following list contains all the Tai - Kadai languages ​​with more than one million speakers and is sorted by number of speakers. The table indicates the number of speakers, if known, the number including the second speaker (S2 ), and the assignment to the respective sub- family of Tai - Kadai.

  • Thai (25 million speakers, with second speakers 50 million, Southwest Tai)
  • Isan (15 million, Southwest Tai)
  • North Zhuang (10 million, North Tai)
  • Lanna (6 million, Southwest Tai)
  • Südthailändisch (5 million, Southwest Tai)
  • Southern Zhuang (4 million, Central Tai)
  • Laotian (3 million, with second speakers 4 million, Southwest Tai)
  • Shan ( 3 million, Southwest Tai)
  • Dong ( 2.4 million, Kam - Sui )
  • Buyi (2 million, North Tai)
  • Tho ( 1.2 million, Central Tai)

The listed below web link contains all Tai - Kadai languages ​​with their current numbers of speakers and their genetic classification.

Relationship to other language families

Earlier it was believed that the Tai - Kadai languages ​​are a subgroup of the Sino-Tibetan languages. This hypothesis is now regarded as definitively refuted. Due to the areal contacts but typological and lexical similarities have emerged.

Most researchers now represented the view that the Tai - Kadai languages ​​form a separate language family, which has no detectable genetic relationship to other families.

Some researchers - for example, Paul K. Benedict and Roger Blench - have hypothesized that the Tai - Kadai (or Daic ) was related to the Austronesian and together forms the so-called Austro -Thai language family with him. The origin of the proto - Daic, a language of a ricegrowing population, is by Blench in Taiwan, from where was spreading across southern China. The Austronesian languages ​​were in turn - together with the Austro- Asiatic and Hmong - Mien languages ​​macro family Austrisch - for example, by Father W. Schmidt.

All these larger groupings are not been established. Mainly because the Austronesian languages ​​are non- tonal and unlike Tai - Kadai have complex suffixes, one should Tai - Kadai provisionally regarded as independent genetic unit, but this does not exclude possible that other compounds could be identified.

Typological remarks

The Tai - Kadai languages ​​are tonal languages ​​with three to nine contrasting tones. They are usually monosyllabic ( one syllable words) and have very little morphology ( declension, conjugation). Most Tai - Kadai languages ​​have the sentence structure SVO ( subject-verb - object) in exceptional cases also SOV. Nominal attributes, and other supplements are behind the noun they describe in detail.

Second language Northern Thai language Kam language Bouyei language Austric languages Digital Object Identifier Merritt Ruhlen
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