Tavoyan dialects

Tavoyan
Tavoyan
Dawei
ထားဝယ်စကား
Region	Southeast
Ethnicity	Bamar, incl. Taungyo
Native speakers	(ca. 440,000 cited 2000)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) Lolo–Burmese Burmish Southern Burmese Tavoyan; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; tvn – Tavoyan proper; tco – Dawei Tavoyan (Taungyo)
Glottolog	tavo1242 Tavoyan; taun1248 Taungyo

Tavoyan or Dawei (ထားဝယ်စကား, abbreviated ဝယ်စကား) is a divergent dialect of Burmese is spoken in Dawei (Tavoy), in the coastal Tanintharyi Region of southern Myanmar (Burma). Tavoyan speakers self-identify as Bamar, and are classified by the Burmese government as a subgroup of the Bamar.^[2]^[3] Approximately 400,000 people speak Tavoyan. Burmese speakers further south speak the Palaw and Myeik dialects.^[3] Tavoyan and Burmese have 87% lexical similarity.^[3]

Distinct phonological features of Tavoyan have been strengthened by language contact with the Karenic languages.^[3] Tavoyan prosody is markedly different from Standard Burmese, especially with respect to rhythm and intonation.^[3] Similar to Karen speakers, Tavoyan speakers do not draw out their vowels like Standard Burmese speakers.^[3] Tavoyan retains an /-l-/ medial that has since merged into the /-j-/ medial in standard Burmese.^[2] Also, voicing can only occur with unaspirated consonants in Tavoyan, whereas in standard Burmese, voicing can occur with both aspirated and unaspirated consonants.

Also, Tavoyan has many loan words from Malay and Thai not found in Standard Burmese.^[4] In the Tavoyan dialect, terms of endearment, as well as family terms, are considerably different from Standard Burmese.

^ Tavoyan proper at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Dawei Tavoyan (Taungyo) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b McCormick, Patrick (Autumn 2016). "Hierarchy and contact: re-evaluating the Burmese dialects". IIAS. Retrieved 2024-12-10.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f McCormick, Patrick (2025-04-07), Darquennes, Jeroen; Salmons, Joseph C.; Vandenbussche, Wim (eds.), "22. The development of the Tavoyan dialect of Burmese and the hidden role of language contact", Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft / Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science [HSK] 45/2, De Gruyter, pp. 389–407, doi:10.1515/9783110443011-022, ISBN 978-3-11-044301-1, retrieved 2025-05-10
^ Census of India, 1901 – Burma. Vol. XII. Burma: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. 1902. p. 76.

[e18-1] Tavoyan proper at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Dawei Tavoyan (Taungyo) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[:0-2] McCormick, Patrick (Autumn 2016). "Hierarchy and contact: re-evaluating the Burmese dialects". IIAS. Retrieved 2024-12-10.

[:1-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f McCormick, Patrick (2025-04-07), Darquennes, Jeroen; Salmons, Joseph C.; Vandenbussche, Wim (eds.), "22. The development of the Tavoyan dialect of Burmese and the hidden role of language contact", Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft / Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science [HSK] 45/2, De Gruyter, pp. 389–407, doi:10.1515/9783110443011-022, ISBN 978-3-11-044301-1, retrieved 2025-05-10

[census-1901-4] Census of India, 1901 – Burma. Vol. XII. Burma: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. 1902. p. 76.

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