Morphology

Morphology in Tai Lue involves compounding, derivation, reduplication, and elaborate expressions. There are no inflectional affixes on words, such as the plural or tense endings of English.

 

Compound words

Compounding is the most important morphological process in Tai Lue. Over 60 per cent of the words in this dictionary are compound words. Compound words occur in all parts of speech.

In English, verb-verb compounds are rare (sleepwalk, stir-fry). In Tai Lue they are very common. See for example:

ᦶᦂᧉ ᦺᦃ kææ³xaj¹ undo:open = ‘to explain’

ᦉᦱᧂᧉ ᦶᦔᧂ saaŋ³pæŋ¹ build:make = ‘to manufacture’

 

Derivation

These are some of the common derivational prefixes in Tai Lue.

Nominalisers (turn verbs and adjectives into nouns)

ᦂᦱᧃ	kaan¹	ᦂᦱᧃ ᦅᦹᧆ ᦔᦸᧂ	kaan¹kɯt⁵pɔŋ¹	kaan:plan = planning
ᦃᦸᧂ	xɔŋ¹	ᦃᦸᧂ ᦂᦲᧃ	xɔŋ¹kin¹	thing:eat = food
ᦅᧄ	kam⁴	ᦅᧄ ᦅᦹᧆ	kam⁴kɯt⁵	word:think = idea
ᦑᦲᧈ	tii⁵	ᦑᦲᧈ ᦉᧂ ᦂᦱ	tii⁵saŋ¹kaa¹	place:suspect = a suspect
ᦑᦱᧂ	taaŋ⁴	ᦑᦱᧂ ᦎᦻ	taaŋ⁴taaj¹	path:die = death
ᦓᧄᧉ	nam⁶	ᦓᧄᧉ ᦉᦳᧂ	nam⁶suŋ¹	water:high = height
ᦩᦱᧄ	xwaam⁴	ᦩᦱᧄ ᦅᦹᧆ	xwaam⁴kɯt⁵	xwaam:think = thought

Agentives (with nouns or verbs)

ᦅᦳᧃ	kun⁴	ᦅᦳᧃ ᦅᦱᧉ	kun⁴kaa⁶	person:sell = merchant
ᦋᦱᧁ	caaw⁴	ᦋᦱᧁ ᦓᦱ	caaw⁴naa⁴	person:field = farmer
ᦋᦱᧂᧈ	caaŋ⁵	ᦋᦱᧂᧈ ᦆᧄ	caaŋ⁵xam⁴	craftsperson:gold = goldsmith
ᦷᦎ	too¹	ᦷᦎ ᦎᦱᧂ	too¹taaŋ¹	body:instead = representative
ᦕᦴᧉ	pʰuu³	ᦕᦴᧉ ᦂᦸᧃᧈ ᦀᦸᧃ	pʰuu³kɔn²ʔɔn¹	person:before = boss

Reduplication

Uses of reduplication include:

1) onomatopoetic sounds ᦷᦁᧂᧈᦷᦁᧂᧈ ʔoŋ⁵ʔoŋ⁵ ‘growling sound’

2) repeated adjectives ᦌᦹᧈᦌᦹᧈ sɯɯ⁵sɯɯ⁵ ‘straight’, ᦶᦂᧃᧈᦶᦂᧃᧈ kæn²kæn² ‘tightly’ (from ᦶᦂᧃᧈ kæn² ‘hard, firm’)

3) adverbs ᦺᦈᧉᦺᦈᧉ caj³caj³ ‘repeatedly, insistently’

4) repetition with some sound changes ᦈᦸᧂᧉᦶᦈᧂᧉ cɔŋ³cæŋ³ ‘irregularly, randomly’.

The typical meaning of a reduplicated word is 'fairly', 'sort of'. ᦶᦡᧂ dæŋ¹ ‘red’ ᦶᦡᧂᦶᦡᧂ dæŋ¹dæŋ¹ ‘reddish, sort of red’. Such reduplication is not listed exhaustively in the dictionary, but exceptions to this pattern are listed.

Elaborate Expressions

Southeast Asian languages are known for their ‘elaborate expressions’: four-syllable compounds that often have idiomatic and colourful meanings. This is an area of creativity in the language in which people enjoy playing with sounds and creating enjoyable and interesting speech. Elaborate expressions range from ones that are very flexible and open to creative manipulation, to those that are relatively fixed.

More than 1600 elaborate expressions are listed as entries in this dictionary. Here are some examples.

ᦗᦸᧈ ᦺᦣᧈ ᦶᦙᧈ ᦓᦱ	pɔɔ⁵haj⁵mææ⁵naa⁴	father:field:mother:paddy	farmer
ᦃᦸᧉ ᦊᦴᧈ ᦣᦱᧁ ᦂᦲᧃ	xɔɔ³juu²haaw⁴kin¹	point:stay:railing:be	lifestyle
ᦢᦱᧃᧉ ᦵᦂᦲᧆᧈ ᦵᦙᦲᧂ ᦔᦲᧃ	baan³kɤɤt²mɤŋ⁴pin¹	village:born:city:be	hometown
ᦣᧂᧈ ᦙᦲ ᦔᦲᧃ ᦡᦲ	haŋ⁵mii⁴pin¹dii¹	rich:have:be:good	rich
ᦎᦸᧇᧈ ᦢᦳᧃ ᦎᦸᧇᧈ ᦅᦳᧃ	tɔɔp²bun¹tɔɔp²kun⁴	respond:goodness:respond:goodness	repay a kindness