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Glite Dictionary
Tai Lue

Tai Lue

9.9
A Tai language spoken mainly in southern Yunnan, China
  • noun
: Tai Lue
  • Many children in Xishuangbanna learn Tai Lue in school.

Examples

  • Many members of the community still speak Tai Lue as their primary language.

  • Researchers have published a grammar book on the Tai Lue language.

  • The Tai Lue script is distinctive and used in local literature.

  • Are you familiar with the Tai Lue language?

  • Many members of the community still speak Tai Lue as their primary language.

  • Researchers have published a grammar book on the Tai Lue language.

  • Many children in Xishuangbanna learn Tai Lue in school.

Surface Forms

Tai Lue singular
Tai Lues plural

Morphology

Tai + Lue

This is a transparent proper-name compound: if a learner knows 'Tai' as the language branch and 'Lue' as an ethnonym or subgroup, they can infer that 'Tai Lue' refers to the Tai variety associated with the Lue people. The naming follows a common and cross-linguistically frequent pattern for language/ethnic labels, so the meaning is compositional and readily understandable.

Etymology

Tai Lue likely comes from the name of the people who speak it: Tai is the broad name for a group of related peoples, and Lue is the local name this community used for themselves in southern China. So Tai Lue simply means the 'Tai' people called 'Lue', and today the name refers to their 'language'.