Saek
Audio recordings (partial): Andrew Hsiu. (2017). Saek (Nakai) audio word list. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1123400
April 13, 2015 was a fascinating day out in the field that I'll never forget. Jean and I did in fact manage to find some real Laotian Saek speakers! Our informants were Thongmai (19) and Sutyay (21) living in Ban Non Udom, Songkhon District, Savannakhet Province, Laos, which has about 50 households. Both are unmarried and have followed their elder sister Buason (31) to the village when Buason got married there. Her husband had met her when he was building roads up in the Nakai Nam-Theun Conservation area. The sisters were all originally from Ban Beuk [bɯk], Nakai District, Khammouane Province, Laos, which is a remote outpost that takes 5 hours to reach from Mahaxay town (They don't know how many km, since they often count by hours, not km). There is no road from Mahaxay going all the way to Ban Beuk, and you'd have to take a boat in between. Also it's a restricted area that can be difficult for foreigners to get in to do research in. So we were quite lucky to have found some Saek speakers in a much more accessible area.
To get from Savannakhet city to Ban Non Udom, we had to take a songthaew (pickup truck) to Paksong town for nearly 2 hours. The family picked us up at Paksong in their pickup truck, and then we went over 10 km on a road leading further inland. Since it's Lao New Year, we got splashed with water twice. Fortunately our equipment was wrapped in plastic bags.
So Saek of Ban Beuk turned out to be quite close to Gedney's Saek of Ban At Samat, Thailand. Some differences I've found: Lao Saek ȵiil33 'turmeric'; Thai Saek ŋiil6 Lao Saek kloŋ33 'eye'; Thai Saek pra etc.
We've noticed quite a lot of Vietnamese loanwords in Saek too, such as noi21 'to speak' and ŋon33 'delicious'. Jean and I agreed that the Saek ladies even physically looked very much like the northern Vietnamese, unlike the locals in Savannakhet who tend to have a more "Cambodian"-type look.
This was absolutely unlike anything else we've heard before. It's the closest thing to what Proto-Tai would have sounded like. Absolutely astounding.
Lao Saek would be mutually intelligible with Thai Saek, but I'd say Lao Saek would have a few forms that are more conservative (ȵ- instead of ŋ-; kl- instead of tl-). I don't think we'd be missing out on "that" much, but Laotian Saek dialects are definitely worth documenting. I'd say the difference between Lao and Thai Saek would be comparable to the differences within Kam (Dong) or Sui.
I'll be staying in a Phuthai village tomorrow night, so there will be no Internet again for maybe a few more days. More water-splashing up ahead.
Below are some samples lexical items that we had elicited.
dirty sim55
stone ril21 / khok51 ril21
pangolin thua55 lil51
bird flies nok21 bɯl55
hot riit51 ?
forest thual51
fish plaa45
head louse (thua55) raw21
body louse (thua55) mlɛl55
flea mat55
fly ma55 ɲɛl21
frog kap33
toad ɣal55 ɣaak51
bat (thua55) bin21
sun (ta21) ɲɛn55
moon blian55
star traw55
delicious ŋon21 (< Vietnamese ngon)
head tʂhaw55
eye kloŋ55
ear rua55
Actually Jean has confirmed that the girls' surname is indeed Udomsing, and that it's not their brother-in-law's surname.
In Thailand, younger Saek speakers no longer pronounce the final -l and certain consonant clusters anymore, so it's quite an interesting find to see that 20-year-old Saek speakers from Laos still pronounce all the conservative features / consonants.
Later in April 2015, Jean and I also worked with the following languages.
Phuthai of Ban Phak Kha Nya, Atsaphone District, Savannakhet Province, Laos
Phuthai of Hong Saeng (ห้องแซง), Amphoe Loeng Nok Tha, Yasothon Province, Thailand
Yoy of Akat Amnuai, Sakon Nakhon Province, Thailand