Daai language

Daai
Daai
Region	Myanmar
Ethnicity	Daai Chin
Native speakers	37,000 (2010)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Central Tibeto-Burman (?) Kuki-Chin-Naga Kuki-Chin Southern Daai; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dao
Glottolog	daai-1236

Daai (also known as Daai Chin), which borders the Mün and Ütbü language groups, is a Southern Kuki-Chin of Myanmar. It is spoken in 142 villages in Kanpetlet, Matupi, Mindat, and Paletwa townships in Chin State, Burma (Ethnologue). A writing system for the Daai language was created in 1976 by U Kheng Sho and Ms. Halga So Hartmann. However, it is stated that this writing system is not intended for all Daai people.

Mutual intelligibility among Nghngilo (Yang), Daai Yindu, and Mkui groups is high, but is lower among other groups. Daai has greater than 90% lexical similarity with Daai Yindu, Yang, Mkui, Duk, and Msang, 81%–88% with Ngxang (Paletwa township) and Kheng, 80% with Shiip (Matupi township), 91%–94% with Gah/Ng-Gha (part of Mün), and 81%–87% with Mün.

Dialects

Ethnologue lists the following dialects of daai Chin.

Ngxang
Nghngilo (Yang)
Ma-Tu
Shiip
Duk-Msang
Kheng
Mkuui
Ngjääng
Yet

Phonology

Consonants

Daai has twenty-four consonant phonemes.

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasals	m̥ m	n̥ n		ŋ̊ ŋ
Plosives	p pʰ b	t tʰ d		k kʰ	ʔ
Fricatives		s sʰ		x ɣ	h
Lateral Fricatives		ɬ
Approximants	w	l	j

Vowels

Daai has seven vowel phonemes, each with a phonemic length contrast.

	Front	Central	Back
	Front	Central	Unrounded	Rounded
High	i iː		ɯ ɯː	u uː
Mid	ɛ ɛː	ə əː		ɔ ɔː
Low		a aː

Grammar

Daai Chin is an isolating or analytic language. There is no inflectional morphology at the word level; case, number, and tense are marked by clitics.

Examples

Daai Chin	English
mthan	night
mpyong	mouth
kpyak	to destroy
pha	to arrive
Nghngaai-ktheih hmin lokti.	The mango fruits became ripe.
Mat jah mata i:ma am ngleh-ei ni.	They did not visit each other's houses.

References

↑ Daai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
↑ Hartmann-So, Helga (1989). "Morphophonemic changes in Daai Chin". Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 12 (2): 51. doi:10.32655/LTBA.12.2.07.
↑ Lian, Salai Van Cung; Salem-Gervais, Nicolas (November 2020). "How Many Chin Languages Should Be Taught in Government Schools? Ongoing developments and structural challenges of language-in-education policy in Chin State". Parami Journal of Education. 1 (1).
1 2 "Myanmar". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-10-10.

Naing Kheng. 2017. A phonological description of the Mkuui variety of Daai Chin Archived 2018-06-12 at the Wayback Machine. Master's Thesis.
Helga So-Hartmann. 2009. A Descriptive Grammar of Daai Chin. The Regents University of California.

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[e18-1] Daai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] Hartmann-So, Helga (1989). "Morphophonemic changes in Daai Chin". Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 12 (2): 51. doi:10.32655/LTBA.12.2.07.

[:5-3] Lian, Salai Van Cung; Salem-Gervais, Nicolas (November 2020). "How Many Chin Languages Should Be Taught in Government Schools? Ongoing developments and structural challenges of language-in-education policy in Chin State". Parami Journal of Education. 1 (1).

[:0-4] 1 2 "Myanmar". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-10-10.