| Daai | |
|---|---|
| Region | Myanmar |
| Ethnicity | Daai Chin |
Native speakers | 37,000 (2010)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | dao |
| Glottolog | daai1236 |
Dai (also known as Daia Chin), which borders the Mün and Ütbü language groups, is a Kuki-ChinofMyanmar. It is spoken in 142 villages in Kanpetlet, Matupi, Mindat, and Paletwa townships in Chin State, Burma (Ethnologue).
Mutual intelligibility among Nghngilo (Yang), Daa Yindu, and Mkui groups is high, but is lower among other groups.[2] Dai has greater than 90% lexical similarity with Daa Yindu, Yang, Mkui, Duk, and Msang, 81%–88% with Ngxang (Paletwa township) and Kheng, 80% with Shiip (Matupi township), 91%–94% with Gah/Ng-Gha (part of Mün), and 81%–87% with Mün.[2]
Ethnologue lists the following dialects of Daai Chin.
Daai has twenty-four consonant phonemes.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | m̥ m | n̥ n | ŋ̊ ŋ | ||
| Plosives | p pʰ b | t tʰ d | k kʰ | ʔ | |
| Fricatives | s sʰ | x ɣ | h | ||
| Lateral Fricatives | ɬ | ||||
| Approximants | w | l | j |
Daai has seven vowel phonemes, each with a phonemic length contrast.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | |||
| High | i iː | ɯ ɯː | u uː | |
| Mid | ɛ ɛː | ə əː | ɔ ɔː | |
| Low | a aː | |||
Daai is an isolating or analytic language. There is no inflectional morphology at the word level; case, number, and tense are marked by clitics.
| Dai | English |
|---|---|
| mthan | night |
| mpyong | mouth |
| kpyak | to destroy |
| pha | to arrive |
| Nghngaai-ktheih hmin lokti. | The mango fruits became ripe. |
| Mat jah mata i:ma am ngleh-ei ni. | They did not visit each other's houses. |
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Sino-Tibetan branches
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| Western Himalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim) |
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