Tai Yo language
| Tai Yo | |
|---|---|
| ไทญ้อ | |
The word "Tai Yo" written in the Lai Tay script | |
| Region | Isan, Mekong floodplain, Vietnam |
| Ethnicity | Nyaw |
Native speakers | (60,000 cited 1990 – 1995 census) |
Kra–Dai
| |
| Vietnamese alphabet (Vietnam) Thai script (Thailand) Lai Tay script (archaic) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:tyj – Tai Yonyw – Tai Nyaw |
| Glottolog | taid1248 |
Tai Yo (Thai: ไทญ้อ), also known as Tai Mène (Thai: ไทแมน) and (Tai) Nyaw (Thai: ญ้อ), is a Tai language of Southeast Asia. It is closely related to Tai Pao of Vietnam, where it may have originated. It was once written in a unique script, the Tai Yo script, but that is no longer in use. The language is known regionally in Laos and Thailand as Tai Mène and Tai Nyaw and, in Vietnam as Tai Do (old-fashioned English transcription) and Tai Quy Chau. Superficially, Tai Yo appears to be a Southwestern Tai language but this is only because of centuries of language contact and it is properly classified with the Northern Tai languages. The Nyaw/Nyo spoken in central Thailand and western Cambodia is not the same as Tai Yo.