Phake language

The Phake language or Tai Phake language (တႝၸႃကေ, tai phākae) is a Tai language spoken in the Buri Dihing Valley of Assam, India. It is closely related to the other Southwestern Tai languages in Assam: Aiton, Khamti, Khamyang, and Turung.

Phake
(တႝ)ၸႃကေ
Native to	India
Region	Assam
Ethnicity	Tai Phake people
Native speakers	2,000 (2007)[1]
Language family	Kra–Dai Tai Southwestern Northwestern Phake
Writing system	Burmese script (Phake variation, called Lik-Tai)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	phk
Glottolog	phak1238
ELP	Phake

Distribution

Buragohain (1998) lists the following Tai Phake villages.

• Man Phake Tau (Namphake village, Assam)
• Man Tipam (Tipam Phake village, Assam)
• Man Phake Neu (Bor Phake village, Assam)
• Man Mo (Man Mo village, Assam)
• Man Phaneng (Phaneng village, Assam)
• Man Long (Long village, Assam)
• Man Nonglai (Nonglaui village, Assam)
• Man Monglang (Monglang village, Assam)
• Man Nigam (Nigam village, Assam)
• Man Wagun (Wagun village, Arunachal Pradesh)
• Man Lung Kung (Lung Kung village, Arunachal Pradesh)

Tai Phake Villages (Morey 2005:22)

Tai name	Translation of Tai name	Assamese/English name	District
ma꞉n3 pha꞉4 ke꞉5 taü3	Lower Phake village	Namphakey	Dibrugarh
ma꞉n3 pha꞉k4 ta꞉5	Other side of the river village	Tipam Phake	Dibrugarh
ma꞉n3 pha꞉4 ke꞉5 nɔ6	Upper Phake village	Borphake	Tinsukia
niŋ1 kam4	Ning kam Nagas	Nigam Phake	Tinsukia
ma꞉n3 pha꞉4 naiŋ2	Red sky village	Faneng	Tinsukia
məŋ2 la꞉ŋ2	Country of the Lang Nagas	Mounglang	Tinsukia
məŋ2 mɔ1	Mine village	Man Mau	Tinsukia
ma꞉n3 loŋ6	Big village	Man Long	Tinsukia
nauŋ1 lai6	Nong Lai Nagas	Nonglai	-

The [maːn˧] corresponds to the modern Thai ban (บ้าน) and Shan wan (ဝၢၼ်ႈ), which mean 'village'. (Note: For an explanation of the notation system for Tai tones, see Proto-Tai language#Tones.)

Phonology

Initial consonants

Tai Phake has the following initial consonants^[2]

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
		voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced	voiceless
Plosive	Tenuis	p		t		c		k		ʔ
	Aspirated	pʰ		tʰ				kʰ
Nasal			m		n				ŋ
Fricative				s						h
Lateral					l
Semi-vowel		w					j

Final consonants

Tai Phake has the following final consonants:

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced	voiced	voiceless	voiced	voiceless
Plosive	Tenuis	p		t			k		ʔ
Nasal			m		n			ŋ
Semi-vowel		w				j

-[w] occurs after front vowels and [a]-, -[j] occurs after back vowels and [a]-.^[2]

Vowels

Tai Phake has the following vowel inventory:^[3]

	Front	Back
	unr.	unr.		rnd.
	short	short	long	short
Close	i	ɯ		u
Mid	e	ɤ		o
Open	ɛ	a	aː	ɔ

Writing system

See also: Burmese script and Burmese alphabet

The Tai Phake have their own writing system called 'Lik-Tai', which they share with the Khamti people and Tai Aiton people.^[2] It closely resembles the Northern Shan script of Myanmar, which is a variant of the Burmese script, with some of the letters taking divergent shapes.^[4]

Consonants

က k IPA: [k]	ၵ kh IPA: [kʰ]	င ng IPA: [ŋ]
ꩡ ch IPA: [t͡ʃ], [t͡s]	ꩬ s IPA: [s]	ၺ ny IPA: [ɲ][5]
တ t IPA: [t]	ထ th IPA: [tʰ]	ꩫ n IPA: [n]
ပ p IPA: [p]	ၸ ph IPA: [pʰ]	မ m IPA: [m]
ယ y IPA: [j]	လ l IPA: [l]	ဝ w IPA: [w~v]
ꩭ h IPA: [h]	ဢ a IPA: [ʔ]

Vowels

ႊ a IPA: [a]	ႃ ā IPA: [aː]	ိ i IPA: [i]	ီ ī IPA: [iː]	ု u IPA: [u]	ူ ū IPA: [uː]
ေ e/ae IPA: [eː/ɛ]	ႝ ai IPA: [ai]	ေႃ o/aw IPA: [oː/ɔː]	ံ ṁ IPA: [am]	ုံ um IPA: [um]	ွံ om IPA: [ɔm]
ိုဝ် eu IPA: [ɛu]	်ႍ au IPA: [au]	်ွ āu IPA: [aːu]	ွ aw IPA: [ɒ]	ွႝ oi IPA: [oj]	် final consonant[6]