Telue (pinyin transcription: Duoluo 多罗; Tolo) or White Gelao is a Gelao language spoken in China and Vietnam.
Dialects
The primary dialectal areas where Telue (White Gelao) is still spoken are:
- Guizhou, China (in Liuzhi Special District): Judu 居都
- Guangxi, China (in Longlin County): Moji 磨基 (also spoken in Wantao 湾桃)
- Yunnan, China (in Malipo County): Yueliangwan 月亮湾 (also spoken in Fengyan 峰岩 and Laozhai 老寨)
- Vietnam (in Hà Giang Province)
Phonology
Duoluo has many uvular and prenasalized consonants.
Consonants
- The sound of the affricates /ts, tsʰ, dz/ are frequently close to interdental affricate sounds [tθ, tθʰ, dð].
- The pronunciation of /j/ can sometimes be close to an alveolo-palatal sound [ʑ], but not as fully articulated.
- /ŋ/ can also form a syllabic nasal [ŋ̍].
- Sounds /tɕʰ, w/ mainly appear in modern Chinese loanwords.
Vowels
- /ɹ̩/ only is heard after dental/alveolar fricatives and affricates only, /i/ is never heard in this position.
- /ə/ and /ɯ/ are typically free variants of each other. When used as a single vowel, it is commonly heard as [ɯ], but when followed by a back vowel /ɯ, u/ it is pronounced as [ə].
Tones
White Gelao of Yueliangwan, Yunnan has 4 tones.
White Gelao of Niupo, Guizhou has 4 tones.
References
