Lua’ language

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This article is about the Lua’ natural language. For the Lua computer programming language, see Lua (programming language)
Lua’
Pray
Native to Thailand
Native speakers
 6,300 (2000)[1]
Austroasiatic
Language codes
ISO 639-3 prb
Glottolog luaa1235[2]

Lua’, also known as Pray, is a Mon–Khmer language spoken by the Lua people of Laos and Thailand. The Lua'/Pray language consists of several dialects; all of which are commonly intelligible to a native Lua'/Pray speaker. Linguistic analysis has generally supported a theoretical division of the Lua'/Pray language into at least two dialectic variations. The Lua'/Pray language is only one of two closely related languages which share the linguistic variations that the broader term Prai or Thin has come to classify. The term Thin/Prai is generally used to group the Mal language and the Lua'/Pray language under a single classification of linguistic variations that mark the development of the Mal-Phrai division of the Khmuic languages.[3] The term Thin/Prai has historically been used as a derogatory term that refers to the people that participated in the Communist Party of Thailand.[4] The term literally means 'local,' which seems to indicate that the mountain tribes of Northern Thailand are among some of the first inhabitants of Thailand, but the term is more commonly used in the derogatory sense of the word. Linguistically, the term Thin/Prai is used as a broad classification of the linguistic patterns that distinguish the Mal and Lua'/Pray languages from the Mlabri language of the Khmuic languages.[5] A single classification for the Mal and Lua'/Pray languages is inevitable when considering the similarities in lexical data (Lexicon), phonetic distribution (Phonology), and syntactic structures (Syntax) that establish a distinction between the Mlabri and Thin/Prai variations of Khmuic languages. However, Mal and Lua'/Pray remain two completely different languages, and a native speaker of one of the two Thin/Prai languages will find the other language unintelligible; regardless of the vast amount of similarities that play a role in uniting the two languages under a single classification.

General Information

Lua'/Pray is classified as an endangered language, because the estimated number of the language's native speakers has been recorded at slightly above a total of 6,000 speakers.[6] The Lua'/Pray language is only spoken in the Nan Province of Thailand, and the Sainyabuli Province of Laos, where the Mlabri and Thin/Prai variations of the Khmuic language were first developed from the Khmuic tribes that migrated out of the Oudomxay Province of Laos.[7] The Lua' people's migration and involvement in Communism has burdened them with a stigma that has contributed to the endangerment of the Lua'/Pray language.[8] Subsequently, the majority of native Lua'/Pray speakers are bi-lingual, due to social and political motivations. It is common for the Lua people to speak the Northern Thai language when communicating with an individual from outside the tribe, but Lua'/Pray is the main source of communication among individuals within a tribe.

Lexicon

David Filbeck and Supattra Jirananthanaporn are responsible for the majority of what has been documented on the Lua'/Pray language. Filbeck's study identifies only two dialectic variations of the Lua'/Pray language, but Jirananthanaporn's research divides the language into as many as five dialectic variations.[9] The image entitled "Pray Lexical Data" is a sample of Filbeck's reconstruction of the Lua'/Pray lexicon. The Lua'/Pray lexicon consists of a number of Thai loanwords that have been incorporated into the language through language contact.

Phonology

The Lua'/Pray language is a non-tonal language that is spoken with inconsistent pitch patterns.[10] The image that is entitled "Pray Phoneme Inventory" is David Filbeck's reconstruction of the Lua'/Pray language's phoneme inventory. Filbeck's research shows that the languages of Mal and Lua'/Pray exhibit a restricted use of the /r/ phoneme. There are some Thin/Prai dialects that exhibit a complete rejection of the /r/ phoneme, but the majority of Thin/Prai dialects exhibit a pattern of restricting the instances in which the /r/ phoneme occurs within a word.[11]

Syntax

The syntax of the Lua'/Pray language is complicated by the concept of rice. The Lua'/Pray language has five nouns and six verbs that are used to refer to the concept of rice as it goes through various stages of cultivation. The syntax of the Lua'/Pray language is complicated by the concept of rice, because there are specific verbs, used to refer to the concept of rice, which are incompatible with some of the nouns that are used to refer to the concept of rice.[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua’ at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=5730729996102851740&hl=en&as_sdt=0,31
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=5730729996102851740&hl=en&as_sdt=0,31
  6. ↑ http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/5288
  7. ↑ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=5730729996102851740&hl=en&as_sdt=0,31
  8. ↑ http://www.jstor.org/stable/20071808?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=henry&searchText=d.&searchText=delcore&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dhenry%2Bd.%2Bdelcore%26amp%3Bacc%3Doff%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
  9. ↑ http://www.mksjournal.org/
  10. ↑ http://www.mksjournal.org/
  11. ↑ http://www.jstor.org/stable/20019160?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=david&searchText=filbeck&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Ddavid%2Bfilbeck%26amp%3Bacc%3Doff%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
  12. ↑ http://www.jstor.org/stable/4175201?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=david&searchText=filbeck&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Ddavid%2Bfilbeck%26amp%3Bacc%3Doff%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents


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