Cuói
Thổ
Native toVietnam, Laos
EthnicityThổ
Native speakers
71,000 (1999 census)[1]
Dialects
  • Cuối Chăm
  • Làng Lỡ
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
tou – Tho
hnu – Hung
Glottologcuoi1242
ELP
Linguasphere46-EAD-a

Cuối, known as Thổ,[2] is a dialect cluster spoken by around 70,000 Thổ people in Vietnam and a couple thousand in Laos, mainly in the provinces of Bolikhamsai and Khammouane.

Phonology

Làng Lỡ dialect

Consonants

The consonant inventory of the Làng Lỡ dialect, as cited by Michel Ferlus:[3]

Initial consonants of Cuối Làng Lỡ
Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive tenuis p t ʈ c k ʔ
glottalized ɓ ɗ ˀɟ
aspirated tʰ kʰ
Fricative voiceless f s ʂ h
voiced β v ð ɣ
glottalized ˀð
Approximant l ɽ ~ ʐ j
  • [ʈ] is found in Vietnamese loanwords with initial /ʈ/ (orthographic ⟨tr⟩)
  • [β ð ɣ ˀð] originate in the borrowing of segments from a variety of Vietnamese that existed several centuries ago.

Vowels

Monothongs of Cuối Làng Lỡ
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Close-mid/
Mid		 e ə o
Open-mid/
Open		 ɛ ʌ̆
ă a		 ɔ
Diphthongs of Cuối Làng Lỡ iəɨəuəeəoə

Tones

There're eight tones in the Làng Lỡ. Tones 1 to 6 are found on sonorant-final syllables (a.k.a. 'live' syllables): syllables ending in a vowel, semi-vowel or nasal. Tones 7 and 8 are found on obstruent-final syllables (a.k.a. 'stopped' syllables), ending in -p -t -c -k.[3] This is a system comparable to that of Vietnamese.

Vocabulary

The data is from Cuoi Cham vocabulary recordings and the Mon-Khmer Etymological Dictionary.

English Cuối Chăm Làng Lỡ Vietnamese
cloud mʌl1 mʌn1 mây
rain mɐː² mɨə1 mưa
wind sɒː³ juə³ gió
thunder kʰrʌm⁴ ʂəm⁴ sấm
earth, land tʌt⁷ tʌt⁷ đất
cave haːŋ1 haːŋ1 hang
deep kʰruː² ʂuː² sâu
water daːk⁷ daːk⁷ nước
river kʰrɔŋ1 ʂɔːŋ1 sông
puddle puŋ⁶ - vũng
mud puːl² vuːn² bùn
rock, stone taː³ δaː³ đá
bark pɒː⁵ ʂɔː56 vỏ
dog cɒː³ cɔː³ chó
cultivated field rɔːŋ⁴ ʂɔːŋ⁴ ruộng
to go tiː² tiː² đi
to have kɒː³ kɔː³ có

References

  1. ↑ Tho at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Hung at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ "The Vietic Branch". sealang.net.
  3. 1 2 Ferlus 2015, I.2

Further reading

  • Ferlus, Michel (2015). Hypercorrections in the Thổ dialect of Làng Lỡ (Nghệ An, Vietnam): an example of pitfalls for comparative linguistics (Ph.D.).
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