Mày language

Mày is a Vietic language spoken by the May people of Minh Hóa district, Quảng Bình province, Central Vietnam. It is a member of the Cheut language cluster, which belongs to the Vietic branch of the Austroasiatic family. With only several hundred speakers, May is a critically endangered language, with only about half of the estimated ethnic population of 1,228 people able to speak the language.

May is spoken in the villages of Ca Oóc, Bai Dinh, and Cha Lo. The villages are located in Minh Hóa district, Quang Binh province (in the communities or xã of Dân Hóa (formerly Trung Hóa), Thượng Hóa, Hóa Tiến, and Hóa Thanh). Dân Hóa is the only monolingual May village, while the others are mixed with various other ethnic groups.

May phonology preserves many archaic features. Syllable structure is sesquisyllabic. Unique phonological characteristics in May include the coda -ɽ, derived from proto-Vietic *-s, which stands behind a consonant nucleus, in contrast to final -l/-h/-i̯ found in most other Vietic languages.

May Consonants (Babaev & Samarina 2021):

May vowels (Babaev & Samarina 2021):

In "di-syllables" or sesquisyllables, the accent is rising; the first syllable/mora is a minor one and has its vowel length reduced while the second syllable is always the strong and stressed syllable.

May pronouns often have shorter forms without ʔa. They are syntactically distinct. The full forms occupy the Subject/Agent role in transitive verb phrase that is located at the absolute beginning of the phrase and the direct object role after a transitive verb. The shorter forms are used to denote possessive constructions and pronominal dative/benefactive objects.

May has a limited inventory of affixes and clitics. Some morpheme clitics may host multiple functions that could only be distinguished by context.

• Transitivizing pa-
• Nominalizing pV-, ʔa-, ʔu-, -Vn-, kV-, tV-, cV-
• Stativizing ta-
• Pluralizing pa=
• Singular mu=, m̤=, ma=
• Dative-Oblique pa=
• Negation ku=
• Imperative/Causative ci=

As an isolating language, May can only utilize word order and particles. The use of clitics and affixes is generally limited and does not undermine the analytical grammar structure. The basic word order of May is SVO. The basic word order in a verbal clause is S-V-P-OBL. Depending on speeches, the word order may undergo ellipsis in cases that the speech is comprehensive enough to the listener.

• Babaev, Kirill; Samarina, Irina (2021). Sidwell, Paul (ed.). A Grammar of May: An Austroasiatic Language of Vietnam. Brill. ISBN 978-9-00446-108-6.