Lanna (Chiang Mai)

Lanna is the Tai language of northern Thailand, the former kingdom of Lanna. It is also known as Kam Mueang (the language of the people of the Mueang 'cities'), or simply Northern Thai.

There are various dialects and accents of the Lanna language, among which that of Chiang Mai is often viewed as a prestige accent, so that is used as the basis of the Lexx Rom transcription. While Lanna is used as a regional lingua franca in northern Thailand, it is not currently in use as an official or standardized language, so there is a great amount of variation among speakers, with various levels of admixture and code-switching with standard Central Thai (the official language of Thailand) as well as other local languages.

Lanna is historically written in a version of the Tai Tham script, a script of the northern Thailand area that is also historically used for other Tai languages such as Tai Lue, Khuen, and occasionally for Lao, with some subtle differences in usage and appearance of glyphs between the different languages. The letters of the Tai Tham script are overall quite similar to the Burmese script, both being derived from the Old Mon script. This is in contrast to the (central) Thai script and Lao script, which are derived from Old Khmer script, but both Old Mon and Old Khmer scripts are ultimately derived part of the southern family of Indic Brahmic scripts. In contemporary northern Thailand, Thai script has become the dominant script used for writing Lanna, so literacy in Tai Tham script has waned, but it is still used in local monasteries and some other domains as a heritage script.

Because the Tai Tham and Thai scripts are based on the Indic script system, it is helpful to learn some of the basic principles in order to understand the underlying logic and rationale beneath its structure. Additionally, the Thai tonal system developed as part of the East Asian Sinospheric tone system Sprachbund, so it is helpful to learn some principles of how these tonal systems work in order to understand how Lanna tones interplay with the Indic-based script.

In the following chart of initial consonants, the column "Ancestral Indic" shows what sound the letter originally transcribed in Sanskrit/Pali, "Ancestral Lanna" shows what sound the letter would have originally transcribed in the past (different from modern Lanna), and "Ancestral Tone Class" shows what tone class the letter belongs to based on its original phonetic value.

Initials

The three tone classes in Lanna are High, Middle, and Low, based on the ancestral sound of each letter.

Ancestral unaspirated voiceless plosives/affricate (ᨠ/ก k, ᨧ/จ tʃ, ᨭ/ฏ ʈ, ᨲ/ต t, ᨸ/ป p), voiceless aspirated plosives/affricate (ᨡ/ข kʰ, ᨨ/ฉ tʃʰ, ᨮ/ฐ ʈʰ, ᨳ/ถ tʰ, ᨹ/ผ pʰ) and ancestral voiceless fricatives (ᨺ/ฝ f, ᩆ/ศ ʃ, ᩇ/ษ ʂ, ᩈ/ส s, ᩉ/ห h) comprise the High tone class.

Ancestral  glottalized initials (ᨯ/ด ɗ, ᨷ/บ ɓ, ᩀ/อย ʔj, ᩋ/อ ʔ) comprise the Middle tone class.

It is important to note that in contrast to Standard Thai, the unaspirated voiceless group of initials belongs to the High tone class, rather than the Middle tone class (which is only left with four initials).

Ancestral voiced plosives/affricate (ᨣ/ค ɡ, ᨩ/ช dʒ, ฑ ɖ, ᨴ/ท d, ᨻ/พ b), ancestral breathy voiced plosives/affricate (ᨥ/ฆ ɡʱ, ᨫ/ฌ dʒʱ, ᨰ/ฒ ɖʱ, ᨵ/ธ dʱ, ᨽ/ภ bʱ), ancestral voiced fricatives (ᨤ/ฅ ɣ, ᨪ/ซ z, ᨼ/ฟ v, ᩌ/ฮ ɦ), and ancestral sonorants (ᨦ/ง ŋ, ᨬ/ญ ɲ, ᨱ/ณ ɳ, ᨶ/น n, ᨾ/ม m, ᨿ/ย j, ᩁ/ร r, ᩃ/ล l, ᩅ/ว w, ᩊ/ฬ ɭ) comprise the Low tone class.

Some sonorants can also have a ᩉ/ห h appended in front of them, and become High tone class versions of that consonant (this does not affect the pronunciation of the initial consonant in modern Lanna): ᩉ᩠/หง, ᩉ᩠ᨿ/หญ, ᩉ᩠ᨶ/หน, ᩉ᩠ᨾ/หม, ᩉᩕ/หร, ᩉ᩠ᩃ/หล, ᩉ᩠ᩅ/หว.

The names High, Middle, and Low refer to areal pattern in East Asia of voiced initials triggering lower tones for their syllables compared to the syllables with voiceless initials, which is a cross-linguistically attested natural acoustic tendency due to the lower formant frequency caused by the voicing. However, this no longer reflects the modern Lanna tone reflexes for these letters, due to language change over time.

As seen in the chart above by comparing the ancestral sounds to the modern Lanna sounds, voiced plosives became unaspirated voiceless consonants, while breathy voiced plosives became aspirated voiceless consonants (in Central Thai they all became aspirated voiceless consonants). Voiced fricatives became voiceless as well. There was also some change with the fricatives that differs from Central Thai, with ɣ becoming kʰ, while tʃʰ became s.

Ancestral r became either l or a Low tone class h (as opposed to High tone class h). In general, in native Tai lexical stock it merged into h, while in loanwords such as from Sanskrit and Pali it merged into l, but there are inconsistencies and exceptions to watch out for. Also note that with modern loanwords there are now words that use pronounce the initial r again.

Some speakers pronounce /kʰ/ as [x].

Note that there is only one series of coronal consonants in Lanna; the retroflex consonant letters are used for transcribing Sanskrit/Pali loanwords, and are pronounced the same as their dental counterparts.

Unlike in Standard Thai, Lanna does not pronounce initial clusters with /l/ or /r/. /l/ in an initial cluster is dropped, while /r/ in an initial cluster triggers aspiration on a remaining unaspirated consonant (remember that standalone r has in many cases merged into h), so that for example what is written <pr> becomes pronounced as /pʰ/.

Tai Tham consonant symbols are referred to by the consonant sound plus short /a/, unlike in Thai where they are referred to the consonant sound plus /ɔː/.

Final Codas

While there are many initial consonants in Lanna, augmented even further by extra letters dedicated for transcribing Indic sounds, there are only six options for final codas (plus semivowels -j and -w, which will be shown later in the rime section below), so all the dozens of consonant letters must collocate into one of these six options, based on what sound is the most similar.

These six codas -k, -ng, -t, -n, -p, -m are a common set of final codas in the East Asia region.

Vowels and Rimes

As like in Thai and Lao, Lanna has nine basic vowels, all of which can occur as short or long. The representation of the vowel in the script is sometimes different if there is a final coda consonant coming after it.

Basic Vowels

Lanna has the same nine basic vowels as Thai and Lao, in short and long forms. As in Thai and Lao, short vowels without an ending coda consonant afterwards actually have the glottal stop coda, and count as checked coda syllables for the purposes of tonal behavior (discussed in tone section below).

As in Burmese orthography, the tall aa (ᩤ) is used specifically for certain consonant symbols where the default semicircle aa (ᩣ) could result in a shape that would have looked too similar to a different consonant letter. The symbols that take the tall aa are:

ᨣ (to distinguish from ᨠ)
ᨴ (to distinguish from ᨽ)
ᨵ (to distinguish from ᨲ)
ᨷ (to distinguish from ᩉ)
ᩅ (to distinguish from ᨲ)

Falling Diphthongs

The standalone falling diphthongs are very marginal to the phonological system, so rather than <ia, iia> etc. which would in practice mean that mostly <iia> is encountered, Lexx Rom indicates these as <iah, ia> etc.

Other Rimes

The ไ◌, ใ◌ originally contrasted, with ใ◌ indicating /aɰ/, though these have now merged in Lanna. The sounds are still kept distinct in some other Tai languages such as Shan.

Tones

Lanna tones can vary from area to area, so the description below applies to Chiang Mai Lanna. Chiang Mai Lanna tones are for the most part quite similar to the tones in Bangkok Thai, with just one more extra tone, making for a total of six tones. In the numbering system below, the first three tones are the main tones for the High tone class, and the next three tones are the main tones for the Low tone class.

Tones

The description for tones in Chiang Mai Lanna can vary depending on the focus of the author.

Tone 1 ǎa is similar to Thai ǎa, being a low rising tone that can have some dipping at the beginning before the rising.

Tone 2 a̩a is similar to Thai a̩a, being the cross-linguistically common bottom of vocal range tone.

Tone 3 is a high tone that can carry a little bit of creaky glottalization towards the end. It can also have a little bit of downdrift in pitch at the end as well, so it has been described by some as a high falling tone ˥˥˦ also. In general though, it is easiest for learners to conceptualize this tone as a high flat tone when learning.

Tone 4 is a mid-flat tone that can have some downdrift towards the end, similar to the Thai equivalent.

Tone 5 is a high falling tone that can have a little bit of peaking as in Thai. Some manuals may list Tone 3 as a high falling tone and then list this tone as a falling tone, so we prefer to characterize Tone 3 as a high flat tone with some downdrift and creakiness as opposed to this tone which is a more typical high falling tone.

Tone 6 is a high rising tone, similar to the high rising tone in Thai (which is often just called the high tone in Thai).  

As in Thai and Lao orthography, tones are not marked out directly in Lanna. The tone for a syllable is inferred from the initial consonant's tone class, presence of any tone mark, and syllable type (non-checked vs. short checked vs. long checked).

As mentioned previously, there are three tone classes in Lanna (High tone class, Middle tone class, and Low tone class), and the tone of a syllable will depend on which tone class the initial belongs to. The easiest way to conceptualize how to calculate Chiang Mai Lanna tones is by remembering patterns for the High tone class and the Low tone class, and then the Middle tone class mostly falls in line with the High tone class except in one case where it aligns with the Low tone class instead.

Remember that the Middle Tone Class in Lanna only consists of four initials (ᨯ/ด ɗ, ᨷ/บ ɓ, ᩀ/อย ʔj, ᩋ/อ ʔ), which is less than in Thai or Lao. The ancestral unaspirated voiceless plosives/affricate (ᨠ/ก k, ᨧ/จ tʃ, ᨭ/ฏ ʈ, ᨲ/ต t, ᨸ/ป p) instead merged into High tone class.

In the High Tone Class:

The default tone category (no tone mark) is low rising tone <ǎa>.
With tone mark one (◌່ ), the tone becomes low tone <a̩a>.
With tone mark two (◌້ ), the tone becomes high creaky tone <āa>.

If the syllable has a checked coda, one must check whether it is a short or long rime.
For short rime checked coda syllables, the tone becomes low rising tone <ǎa>.
For long rime checked coda syllables, the tone becomes low tone <a̩a>.

In the Low Tone Class:

The default tone category (no tone mark) is mid-flat tone <aa>.
With tone mark one (◌່ ), the tone becomes high falling tone <âa>.
With tone mark two (◌້ ), the tone becomes  high rising tone <áa>.

If the syllable has a checked coda, one must check whether it is a short or long rime.
For short rime checked coda syllables, the tone becomes high rising tone <á>.
For long rime checked coda syllables, the tone becomes high falling <âa>.

In the Middle Tone Class:

In Chiang Mai Lanna, all tonal behavior for the Middle tone class aligns with the High tone class except in the default tone category (no tone mark), in which case it aligns with the Low tone class instead (mid-flat tone <aa>).

Besides the tonal behavior listed above for the three tone categories, one may sometimes see the case where a word with a consonant in the High tone class carries the high rising tone <áa>. In the Thai script, this can be accommodated with the use of tone mark three (◌๊ ), which overtly marks the high rising tone onto a syllable. In the Tai Tham script for Lanna there is traditionally no tone mark three available, but the Tai Tham orthography for the Khuen language does have a tone mark three ( ᩷ ) so this will be recommended on Lexxify Hub.

The Thai script also has a tone mark four (◌๋ ) that overtly indicates a low rising tone. Theoretically there is even less utility for a tone mark four than in Lanna, but in the case of onomatopoeia or neologisms/loanwords, the Khuen tone mark four (  ᩸ ) can be used.

The general etymological correspondences between Lanna tones and tones in other Tai languages as well as broader East Asia is as follows:

Tone 1 corresponds to A1 (Yinping) and DS1 (Short Yinru).
Tone 2 corresponds to B1 (Yinqu) and DL1 (Long Yinru).
Tone 3 corresponds to C1 (Yinshang).
Tone 4 corresponds to A2 (Yangping).
Tone 5 corresponds to B2 (Yangqu) and DL2 (Long Yangru).
Tone 6 corresponds to C2 (Yangshang) and DS2 (Short Yangru).

Other notes on the Tai Tham Lanna writing system

ᩢ is /a/ when there is a coda present, but in some words it also does double duty as a -k coda.

ᩴ can indicate a -m or -ng coda, and in some words it can indicate a vowel /ɔː/.

ᨶᩣ is a special ligature for the sequence /naː/.

ᩓ is a special ligature for the sequence /lɛː/.

Like its Burmese equivalent, ᩔ represents a geminate ss in words from Sanskrit/Pali.