User:Ckwok1/Language selection

Introduction

Potential Partners

I would like to work with Panhavoan Reth or Katelyn Becker :)

Three Potential Languages

1. Mon
2. Tai Lue
3. Walloon

Mon

Morphological Typology

Isolating/Analytic; words in Mon do not have inflectional morphology, and are not modified according to their grammatical role.

Basic Information

• Speakers: 743,000 in Myanmar (2004), decreasing. Total users in all countries: 851,000
• ISO 639-3
  • mnw: Modern Mon
  • omx: Old Mon
• Language Status: Developing. Mon is a recognized indigenous language in both Myanmar and Thailand. Speakers of Mon are also likely speakers of Burmese, and perhaps Thai.

Transmission Status

While there is some literacy among the older generation, literacy rates of Mon are very low among those under 40. Mon is taught in some Buddhist monasteries in Myanmar and Thailand, with some efforts made on the Thailand-Myanmar border.

Orthography

Mon is written in an Indian based Abugida script. Its orthography is alphabetic.

Resources

• This page provides the consonant, vowel and numeric representations in the Mon script. There is also a sample text translation of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• This document provides English-Mon translations of certain words and useful expressions, as well as some explanation of how the language is structured.
• Given that the above two resources were fairly straightforward to procure, one can estimate that it should be fairly likely for us to find at least a few pages' worth of text in Mon.

Tai Lue

Morphological Typology

Although Tai Lue is best classified as analytic/isolating, it has a tonal system whereby tonal alterations may have syntactic and morphological significance (Li-Naaijer, 2022).

Basic Information

• Speakers: Tai Lue is a Tai language of the Lu people, spoken by about 700,000 people in Southeast Asia.
  • 280,000 people in China (Yunnan)
  • 200,000 in Myanmar
  • 134,000 in Laos
  • 83,000 in Thailand
  • 4,960 in Vietnam
• ISO 639-3: khb
• Language Status: wider communication. Tai Lue is used by many as a first or second language. Speakers of Tai Lue are likely also speakers of Mandarin Chinese or Jingpho, although there are 140,000 monolinguals.

Transmission Status

Some schools teach exclusively in Tai Lue. As part of China’s language reform movement, Tai Lue’s traditional writing system began to be revised in 1953. The simplified writing system has allowed for greater ease in printing, helping to popularize Tai Lue literature and encouraging people to learn the language in its simplified form.

Orthography

Tai Lue is written in three different scripts:

1. Fak Kham: an ancient script
2. Tham: called 老傣文 (lao dai wen - Old Dai script) in Chinese. Readable by most people in Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
3. New Tai Lue: a modernization of the Lanna alphabet, similar to the Thai alphabet.

Resources

• This Omniglot page provides some sample text, namely the cardinal numbers.
• This journal article by Ngampit Jagacinski (1986) provides good information on the traditional Lue alphabet and its tone marks, as well as other rules and some information about the simplified writing system.
• This doctorate thesis by Juan Li-Naaijer (2022) provides a descriptive grammar of Tai Lue.
• Given that the above resources were not difficult to find, and that there are textbooks and other educational materials printed in Tai Lue, it should be fairly feasible to acquire several pages of sample text in this language.