Editing Tai languages (section)

==Name==
Cognates with the name ''Tai'' (''Thai'', ''Dai'', etc.) are used by speakers of many Tai languages. The term ''Tai'' is now well-established as the generic name in English. In his book'' The Tai-Kadai Languages'', Anthony Diller claims that Lao scholars he has met are not pleased with Lao being regarded as a Tai language.<ref name="AnthonyDiller">[https://books.google.com/books?id=0lmQAgAAQBAJ&dq=kra%3DKadai&pg=PA6 Diller, Anthony; Edmondson, Jerry; Luo, Yongxian (2004). The Tai-Kadai Languages]. ''Routledge (2004)'', pp. 5–6. {{ISBN|1135791163}}.</ref> For some, Thai should instead be considered a member of the Lao language family.<ref name="AnthonyDiller"/> One or more Ancient Chinese characters for 'Lao' may be cited in support of this alternative appellation.<ref name="AnthonyDiller"/> Some scholars, including [[Paul K. Benedict|Benedict]] (1975), have used ''Thai'' to refer to a wider (''Tai'') grouping and one sees designations like ''[[Proto-Tai language|proto-Thai]]'' and ''[[Austro-Tai languages|Austro-Thai]]'' in earlier works.<ref name="AnthonyDiller"/> In the institutional context in Thailand, and occasionally elsewhere, sometimes ''Tai'' (and its corresponding Thai-script spelling, without a final -y symbol) is used to indicate varieties in the language family not spoken in Thailand or spoken there only as the result of recent immigration.<ref name="AnthonyDiller"/> In this usage, ''Thai'' would not then be considered a ''Tai'' language.<ref name="AnthonyDiller"/> On the other hand, [[William J. Gedney|Gedney]], [[Li Fang-Kuei|Li]] and others have preferred to call the standard language of Thailand ''Siamese'' rather than ''Thai'', perhaps to reduce potential ''Thai/Tai'' confusion, especially among English speakers not comfortable with making a [[Aspirated consonant#Allophonic|word-initial unaspirated voiceless sound]] for ''Tai'', which in any event might sound artificial or arcane to outsiders.

According to [[Michel Ferlus]], the ethnonyms Tai/Thai (or Tay/Thay) would have evolved from the etymon '''*k(ə)ri:''' 'human being' through the following chain: '''kəri:''' > '''kəli:''' > '''kədi:/kədaj''' ('''-l-''' > '''-d-''' shift in tense sesquisyllables and probable diphthongization of '''-i:''' > '''-aj''').<ref name="Michel Furles">[https://hal.inria.fr/halshs-01182596/document Ferlus, Michel (2009). Formation of Ethnonyms in Southeast Asia]. ''42nd International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Nov 2009, Chiang Mai, Thailand. 2009'', p.3.</ref><ref name="Frédéric Pain">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25608449?seq=6#page_scan_tab_contents Pain, Frédéric (2008). An Introduction to Thai Ethnonymy: Examples from Shan and Northern Thai]. ''Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 128, No. 4 (Oct. – Dec., 2008)'', p.646.</ref> This in turn changed to '''di:/daj''' (presyllabic truncation and probable diphthongization '''-i:''' > '''-aj'''). And then to '''*daj<sup>A</sup>''' (Proto-Southwestern Tai) > '''tʰaj<sup>A2</sup>''' (in Siamese and Lao) or > '''taj<sup>A2</sup>''' (in the other Southwestern and Central Tai languages by Li Fangkuei). [[Michel Ferlus]]' work is based on some simple rules of phonetic change observable in the Sinosphere and studied for the most part by [[William H. Baxter]] (1992).<ref name="Frédéric Pain"/>

The Central Tai languages are called ''Zhuang'' in China and ''Tay'' and ''Nung'' in [[Vietnam]].