Telue language
Kra language spoken in China and Vietnam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dialects
The primary dialectal areas where Telue (White Gelao) is still spoken are:[4]
- Guizhou, China (in Liuzhi Special District[5]): Judu 居都
- Guangxi, China (in Longlin County): Moji 磨基 (also spoken in Wantao 湾桃)
- Yunnan, China (in Malipo County): Yueliangwan 月亮湾 (also spoken in Fengyan 峰岩 and Laozhai 老寨)
- Vietnam (in Hà Giang Province)[6]
Phonology
Duoluo has many uvular and prenasalized consonants.[7][8]
Consonants
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
(Alveolo-) palatal |
Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | lat. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | lab. | |||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | pʲ | pˡ | t | tʲ | k | kʲ | kʷ | q | ʔ | |
| aspirated | pʰ | pʲʰ | pˡʰ | tʰ | tʲʰ | kʰ | kʲʰ | kʷʰ | qʰ | |||
| voiced | b | bʲ | bˡ | d | dʲ | ɡ | ||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | tɕ | |||||||||
| aspirated | tsʰ | (tɕʰ) | ||||||||||
| voiced | dz | dʑ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ɕ | h | |||||||
| voiced | v | z | ɣ | |||||||||
| Nasal | voiceless | m̥ | n̥ | ɲ̟̊ | ŋ̊ | |||||||
| voiced | m | mʲ | mˡ | n | ɲ̟ | ŋ | ||||||
| Lateral | fricative | ɬ | ||||||||||
| glide | l | lʲ | ˀl | |||||||||
| labial | lʷ | |||||||||||
| Approximant | j | (w) | ˀj | |||||||||
- The sound of the affricates /ts, tsʰ, dz/ are frequently close to interdental affricate sounds [tθ, tθʰ, dð].
- The pronunciation of /j/ can sometimes be close to an alveolo-palatal fricative [ʑ], though may not be heard as clearly. This is likewise true for the preglottalized palatal /ˀj/, which may be interpreted as [ˀʑ].
- /ŋ/ can also form a syllabic nasal [ŋ̍].
- Sounds /tɕʰ, w/ mainly appear in modern Chinese loanwords.[8]
Vowels
- /ɹ̩/ only is heard after dental/alveolar fricatives and affricates only, /i/ is never heard in this position.
- /ə/ and /ɯ/ are typically free variants of each other. When used as a single vowel, it is commonly heard as [ɯ], but when followed by a back vowel /ɯ, u/ it is pronounced as [ə].[8]
Tones
White Gelao of Yueliangwan, Yunnan has 4 tones.[9]
| Tone | Value | Example[10] | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 55 | ʔm̩55 | Water |
| 2 | 33 | gɯ33 | wrap, surround |
| 3 | 35 | səŋ35 | Two |
| 4 | 21 | ko21h̃uŋ55 | Door |
White Gelao of Niupo, Guizhou has 4 tones.[11]
| Value | Example[12] | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | mlɯ55 | harvest |
| 33 | pu33liɯ31 | Fish |
| 35 | pla35 | Blood |
| 31 | mlaŋ31 | Oil, grease |
