Misplaced Pages

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, with only about half of the estimated ethnic population of 1,228 people able to speak the language.

Distribution

May is spoken in the villages of Ca Oóc, Bai Dinh, and Cha Lo. 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

May 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.

May Consonants (Babaev & Samarina 2021):

May vowels (Babaev & Samarina 2021):

Morphology

May has a limited inventory of affixes and clitics. Some morpheme clitics may host multiple functions that could only be distinguished by context.

• Transitivizing pa-
• Nominalizing pV-, ʔa-, ʔu-, -Vn-, kV-, tV-, cV-
• Stativizing ta-
• Pluralizing pa=
• Singular mu=, m=
• Dative-Oblique pa=
• Negation ku=
• Predicate ci=

Syntax

As 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. The basic word order of May is SVO. 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.

Pu

grandfather

ho

1SG

acit

to.kill

klu

buffalo

Pu1 ho1 acit3 klu1

grandfather 1SG to.kill buffalo

"My grandfather killed buffalo."

Pʰaʝ

must

li

take

cɤ

BEN

pa=ho

OBL=1SG

hal

two

poŋ

CLF

päɽ

flower

ʔaliŋ

top

kɤ̌i

tree

heh

DIST

Pʰaʝ li cɤ pa=ho hal poŋ päɽ ʔaliŋ kɤ̌i heh

must take BEN OBL=1SG two CLF flower top tree DIST

"Pick for me two flowers from that tree."

Notes

1. Babaev & Samarina (2021:15)
2. Babaev & Samarina (2021:19)
3. Babaev & Samarina (2021:15)
4. Babaev, Kirill Vladimirovich ; Samarina, Irina Vladimirovna . 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.
5. Babaev & Samarina (2021:18-19)

References

• Babaev, Kirill; Samarina, Irina (2021). Sidwell, Paul (ed.). A Grammar of May: An Austroasiatic Language of Vietnam. Brill. ISBN 978-9-00446-108-6.

• Vietic languages
• Languages of Laos
• Languages of Vietnam
• Endangered Austroasiatic languages