Mày language

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,^[2] with only about half of the estimated ethnic population of 1,228 people able to speak the language.^[3]

May is spoken in the villages of Ca Oóc, Bai Dinh, and Cha Lo.^[4] 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.

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.^[5]

The basic word order of May is SVO. A grammar of May was published by Kirill Babaev and Irina Samarina in their 2018 Russian monograph, based on materials collected from the 2013 Russian–Vietnamese Linguistic Expedition, assisted by Dr. Ta Van Thong and Dr. Le Van Truong.^[6] The expedition team also produced corpus databases developed by Alexander Yefimov and Paul Sidwell.

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. May noun phrase structure includes the core noun and right and left dependences, with the left is reserved for quantifiers and classifiers, and the right side is filled with attribute and demonstrative pronouns. 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.

Pu¹

grandfather

ho¹

1SG

[k]acit³

to.kill

klu¹

buffalo

Pu1 ho1 [k]acit3 klu1

grandfather 1SG to.kill buffalo

"My grandfather killed buffalo."

Pʰaʝ

must

li

take

cɤ

BEN

pa-ho

addressee-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 addressee-1SG two CLF flower top tree DIST

"Pick for me two flowers from that tree."

Negation in clauses is expressed by negative construction βǎɳ3 ku0= in preposition to the copula pʰai, or by hom ("not yet").

pakun³

husband

ci⁴

elder.brother

na³

DEM

βǎɳ³

NEG

ku-pʰai

NEG-correct.COP

tʰɤ̌i̯²

teacher

ʔɛ³

Q

pakun3 ci4 na3 βǎɳ3 ku-pʰai tʰɤ̌i̯2 ʔɛ3

husband elder.brother DEM NEG NEG-correct.COP teacher Q

"Her husband is not a teacher?"

Like Vietnamese, argument marking in May are denoted by analytical constructions using a number of grammaticalized verbs, proclitics, or prefixes. Case markers rarely occur in declarative clauses, but can be seen in other clauses such as interrogative.

Passive voice in May is indicated by prefix pa- in the case of zero agent. If the presence of agent is explicit in the sentence, relative ma2 can be utilized instead. The causative voice in May also share the same prefix pa-, though it is no longer productive. May also has an analytic causative construction by grammaticalized verb mɯ̆n2.

lɛ²

PRT

ʔoɲ¹

to.order

cɛk³

to.carry

paβi²

CAU.to.return

mu-kɔo̤i̯⁴

singular-bowl

puɗo¹

alcohol

ʔini¹

OBV

cɤ¹

BEN

pa-mi²

addressee-2SG

lɛ2 ʔoɲ1 cɛk3 paβi2 mu-kɔo̤i̯4 puɗo1 ʔini1 cɤ1 pa-mi2

PRT to.order to.carry CAU.to.return singular-bowl alcohol OBV BEN addressee-2SG

"And he ordered to send a cup of alcohol to you."

Tense in May and other Vietic relies on the character of action, not based on time aspect or context. To mark tense, auxiliary verbs with semantics are used, usually dividing into two types: prepositions and postpositions.

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