Mày is a Vietic language spoken by the May people of Minh Hóa district, Quảng Bình province, Central Vietnam. It is a member of the Cheut language cluster, which belongs to the Vietic branch of the Austroasiatic family. With only several hundred speakers, May is a critically endangered language,[2] with only about half of the estimated ethnic population of 1,228 people able to speak the language.[3]
| Mày | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Vietnam |
| Ethnicity | May |
Native speakers | 600 (2013)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | mayy1239 |
| ELP | May |
Distribution
editMay is spoken in the villages of Ca Oóc, Bai Dinh, and Cha Lo.[4] The villages are located in Minh Hóa district, Quang Binh province (in the communities or xã of Dân Hóa (formerly Trung Hóa), Thượng Hóa, Hóa Tiến, and Hóa Thanh). Dân Hóa is the only monolingual May village, while the others are mixed with various other ethnic groups.
Phonology
editMay phonology preserves many archaic features. Syllable structure is sesquisyllabic. Unique phonological characteristics in May include the coda -ɽ, derived from proto-Vietic *-s, which stands behind a consonant nucleus, in contrast to final -l/-h/-i̯ found in most other Vietic languages.[5]
Grammar
editThe basic word order of May is SVO. A grammar of May was published by Kirill Babaev and Irina Samarina in their 2018 Russian monograph, based on materials collected from the 2013 Russian–Vietnamese Linguistic Expedition, assisted by Dr. Ta Van Thong and Dr. Le Van Truong.[6] The expedition team also produced corpus databases developed by Alexander Yefimov and Paul Sidwell.
Syntax
editAs an isolating language, May can only utilize word order and particles. The use of clitics and affixes is generally limited and does not undermine the analytical grammar structure. May noun phrase structure includes the core noun and right and left dependences, with the left is reserved for quantifiers and classifiers, and the right side is filled with attribute and demonstrative pronouns. The basic word order in a verbal clause is S-V-P-OBL. Depending on speeches, the word order may undergo ellipsis in cases that the speech is comprehensive enough to the listener.
Pu1
grandfather
ho1
1SG
[k]acit3
to.kill
klu1
buffalo
"My grandfather killed buffalo."
Pʰaʝ
must
li
take
cɤ
BEN
pa-ho
addressee-1SG
hal
two
poŋ
CLF
päɽ
flower
ʔaliŋ
top
kɤ̌i
tree
heh
DIST
"Pick for me two flowers from that tree."
Negation in clauses is expressed by negative construction βǎɳ3 ku0= in preposition to the copula pʰai, or by hom ("not yet").
pakun3
husband
ci4
elder.brother
na3
DEM
βǎɳ3
NEG
ku-pʰai
NEG-correct.COP
tʰɤ̌i̯2
teacher
ʔɛ3
Q
"Her husband is not a teacher?"
Like Vietnamese, argument marking in May are denoted by analytical constructions using a number of grammaticalized verbs, proclitics, or prefixes. Case markers rarely occur in declarative clauses, but can be seen in other clauses such as interrogative.
Passive voice in May is indicated by prefix pa- in the case of zero agent. If the presence of agent is explicit in the sentence, relative ma2 can be utilized instead. The causative voice in May also share the same prefix pa-, though it is no longer productive. May also has an analytic causative construction by grammaticalized verb mɯ̆n2.
lɛ2
PRT
ʔoɲ1
to.order
cɛk3
to.carry
paβi2
CAU.to.return
mu-kɔo̤i̯4
singular-bowl
puɗo1
alcohol
ʔini1
OBV
cɤ1
BEN
pa-mi2
addressee-2SG
"And he ordered to send a cup of alcohol to you."
Tense in May and other Vietic relies on the character of action, not based on time aspect or context. To mark tense, auxiliary verbs with semantics are used, usually dividing into two types: prepositions and postpositions.
Notes
edit- ^ Babaev & Samarina (2021:15)
- ^ Babaev & Samarina (2021:19)
- ^ Babaev & Samarina (2021:15)
- ^ Babaev, Kirill Vladimirovich [Бабаев, Кирилл Владимирович]; Samarina, Irina Vladimirovna [Самарина, Ирина Владимировна]. 2019. Язык май. Материалы Российско-вьетнамской лингвистической экспедиции / Jazyk maj. Materialy Rossijsko-vetnamskoj lingvisticheskoj ekspeditsii. Moscow: Издательский Дом ЯСК. ISBN 978-5-907117-34-1. (in Russian). p.16.
- ^ Babaev & Samarina (2021:18-19)
- ^ Babaev & Samarina (2021:20)
References
edit- Babaev, Kirill; Samarina, Irina (2021). Sidwell, Paul (ed.). A Grammar of May: An Austroasiatic Language of Vietnam. Brill. ISBN 978-9-00446-108-6.