Shinnakrit Tangsiriwattanakul
Chulalongkorn University
The phonological evolution from Proto-Southwestern Tai (Pittayaporn, 2009) to modern Lanna Tai (Rungreuangsri, 1991), a Southwestern Tai dialect spoken by a majority in the northern part of Thailand, can be demonstrated by comparing two stages. The comparison reveals three transformative developments: 1) tone split based on voicing contrast; 2) a series of consonant mergers; and 3) establishment of a symmetric vowel inventory through acquisition of additional vowel length contrast. However, a study of their intermediate stage has never before been attempted. This paper presents a phonological sketch of Lanna Tai during the 16th century by applying graphemic analysis on Lanna Section (Chinese: 八百館 Bābǎiguǎn) of the Sino-Foreign manual of translation (Chinese: 華夷譯語 Huáyíyìyǔ), a Chinese document produced in the early 16th century for communication on diplomatic missions between the Ming court and the Lanna kingdom (Yongbunkeat, 1968; Shintani 1974). This manual of translation transcribes the pronunciation of Lanna Tai vocabulary using Chinese characters with approximate pronunciation, in addition to the Chinese semantic equivalence.
By comparing the correspondence between the Chinese characters and the transcribed Lanna Tai lexicon items, this study shows that 16th century Lanna Tai is phonologically very close to Modern Lanna Tai, but differ phonetically. With respect to consonants, 16th century Lanna Tai differed from modern Lanna Tai in making distinction between pairs of 1) /r/ & /h/, 2) /x/ & /kh/, and 3) /ch/ & /s/, as exemplified by the transcription of 1) [huŋC4] “rainbow” < Proto-Southwestern Tai *ruŋC by 隴 lǒng, 2) [kʰawC123] “enter” < Proto-Southwestern Tai *χawC by 毫 háo, as opposed to [kʰawC123] “rice” < Proto-Southwestern Tai *kʰawC by 栲 kǎo, and 3) [mɯaŋA4.sɛːA1] “Yunnan” by 猛車 měng chē. With respect to vowels, 16th century Lanna Tai had not acquired long /eː/, and short /ɛʔ/ & /ɔʔ/. Thus, the 16th century sound system helps improve our understanding of the more precise ordering of sound changes, as well as their approximate dating in relation to the manuscript.
(Presented in the 2020 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum : Thai-Tai Language and Culture, 20 July 2020, The St.Regis Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Department of Thai, Department of Linguistics, Southeast Asian Linguistics Research Unit, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University)