Telue language
Kra language spoken in China and Vietnam
Telue (pinyin transcription: Duoluo 多罗; Tolo) or White Gelao is a Gelao language spoken in China and Vietnam.
01Dialects
The primary dialectal areas where Telue (White Gelao) is still spoken are:
- Guizhou, China (in Liuzhi Special District): Judu 居都
- Guangxi, China (in Longlin County): Moji 磨基 (also spoken in Wantao 湾桃)
- Yunnan, China (in Malipo County): Yueliangwan 月亮湾 (also spoken in Fengyan 峰岩 and Laozhai 老寨)
- Vietnam (in Hà Giang Province)
02Phonology
Duoluo has many uvular and prenasalized consonants.
Consonants
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
(Alveolo-) palatal |
Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | lat. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | lab. | |||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | pʲ | pˡ | t | tʲ | k | kʲ | kʷ | q | ʔ | |
| aspirated | pʰ | pʲʰ | pˡʰ | tʰ | tʲʰ | kʰ | kʲʰ | kʷʰ | qʰ | |||
| voiced | b | bʲ | bˡ | d | dʲ | ɡ | ||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | tɕ | |||||||||
| aspirated | tsʰ | (tɕʰ) | ||||||||||
| voiced | dz | dʑ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ɕ | h | |||||||
| voiced | v | z | ɣ | |||||||||
| Nasal | voiceless | m̥ | n̥ | ɲ̟̊ | ŋ̊ | |||||||
| voiced | m | mʲ | mˡ | n | ɲ̟ | ŋ | ||||||
| Lateral | fricative | ɬ | ||||||||||
| glide | l | lʲ | ˀl | |||||||||
| labial | lʷ | |||||||||||
| Approximant | j | (w) | ˀj | |||||||||
- The sound of the affricates /ts, tsʰ, dz/ are frequently close to interdental affricate sounds [tθ, tθʰ, dð].
- The pronunciation of /j/ can sometimes be close to an alveolo-palatal fricative [ʑ], though may not be heard as clearly. This is likewise true for the preglottalized palatal /ˀj/, which may be interpreted as [ˀʑ].
- /ŋ/ can also form a syllabic nasal [ŋ̍].
- Sounds /tɕʰ, w/ mainly appear in modern Chinese loanwords.
Vowels
- /ɹ̩/ only is heard after dental/alveolar fricatives and affricates only, /i/ is never heard in this position.
- /ə/ and /ɯ/ are typically free variants of each other. When used as a single vowel, it is commonly heard as [ɯ], but when followed by a back vowel /ɯ, u/ it is pronounced as [ə].
Tones
White Gelao of Yueliangwan, Yunnan has 4 tones.
| Tone | Value | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 55 | ʔm̩55 | Water |
| 2 | 33 | gɯ33 | wrap, surround |
| 3 | 35 | səŋ35 | Two |
| 4 | 21 | ko21h̃uŋ55 | Door |
| Value | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | mlɯ55 | harvest |
| 33 | pu33liɯ31 | Fish |
| 35 | pla35 | Blood |
| 31 | mlaŋ31 | Oil, grease |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Telue language”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.