Consonants
Hmong makes a number of phonemic contrasts unfamiliar to English speakers. All non-glottal stops and affricates distinguish aspirated and unaspirated forms, most also prenasalization independently of this. The consonant inventory of Hmong is shown in the chart below. (Consonants particular to Hmong Daw and Mong Njua are color-coded respectively.)
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| * | * | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m̥ | (m̥ˡ) | n̥ | ɲ̥ | |||||||
| m | (mˡ) | n | ɲ | ||||||||
| Plosive | p | (pˡ) | t | (tˡ) | ʈ | c | k | q | ʔ | ||
| pʰ | (pˡʰ) | tʰ | (tˡʰ) | ʈʰ | cʰ | kʰ | qʰ | ||||
| d dʱ |
|||||||||||
| ** | ᵐb | (ᵐbˡ) | ⁿd | (ⁿdˡ) | ᶯɖ | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | ᶰɢ | |||
| ᵐpʰ | (ᵐpˡʰ) | ⁿtʰ | (ⁿtˡʰ) | ᶯʈʰ | ᶮcʰ | ᵑkʰ | ᶰqʰ | ||||
| Affricate | ts | tʂ | |||||||||
| tsʰ | tʂʰ | ||||||||||
| ** | ⁿdz | ⁿdʐ | |||||||||
| ⁿtsʰ | ⁿtʂʰ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | f | s | ɬ | ʂ | ç | h | |||||
| v | ʐ | ʝ | |||||||||
| Approximant | l | ||||||||||
The Danashan standard of China is similar. (Phonemic differences from Hmong Daw and Mong Njua are color-coded. Minor differences, such as the voicing of prenasalized stops, or whether /c/ is an affricate or /h/ is velar, may be a matter of transcription.) Aspirates, voiceless fricatives, voiceless nasals, and glottal stop only occur with yin tones (1, 3, 5, 7). Standard orthography is added in ⟨brackets⟩. Glottal stop is not written; it is not distinct from a zero initial. There is also a /w/, which occurs only in foreign words.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| * | * | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m̥ ⟨hm⟩ | n̥ ⟨hn⟩ | ɲ̥ ⟨hni⟩ | ||||||||
| m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ | ɲ ⟨ni⟩ | ŋ ⟨ngg⟩ | ||||||||
| Plosive | p ⟨b⟩ | (pˡ) ⟨bl⟩ | t ⟨d⟩ | (tˡ) ⟨dl⟩ | ʈ ⟨dr⟩ | k ⟨g⟩ | q ⟨gh⟩ | (ʔ) | |||
| pʰ ⟨p⟩ | (pˡʰ) ⟨pl⟩ | tʰ ⟨t⟩ | (tˡʰ) ⟨tl⟩ | ʈʰ ⟨tr⟩ | kʰ ⟨k⟩ | qʰ ⟨kh⟩ | |||||
| ** | ᵐp ⟨nb⟩ | (ᵐpˡ) ⟨nbl⟩ | ⁿt ⟨nd⟩ | ᶯʈ ⟨ndr⟩ | ᵑk ⟨ng⟩ | ᶰq ⟨ngh⟩ | |||||
| ᵐpʰ ⟨np⟩ | (ᵐpˡʰ) ⟨npl⟩ | ⁿtʰ ⟨nt⟩ | ᶯʈʰ ⟨ntr⟩ | ᵑkʰ ⟨nk⟩ | ᶰqʰ ⟨nkh⟩ | ||||||
| Affricate | ts ⟨z⟩ | tʂ ⟨zh⟩ | tɕ ⟨j⟩ | ||||||||
| tsʰ ⟨c⟩ | tʂʰ ⟨ch⟩ | tɕʰ ⟨q⟩ | |||||||||
| ** | ⁿts ⟨nz⟩ | ⁿtʂ ⟨nzh⟩ | ⁿtɕ ⟨nj⟩ | ||||||||
| ⁿtsʰ ⟨nc⟩ | ⁿtʂʰ ⟨nch⟩ | ⁿtɕʰ ⟨nq⟩ | |||||||||
| Fricative | f ⟨f⟩ | s ⟨s⟩ | ɬ ⟨hl⟩ | ʂ ⟨sh⟩ | ɕ ⟨x⟩ | x ⟨h⟩ | |||||
| v ⟨v⟩ | ʐ ⟨r⟩ | ʑ ⟨y⟩ | |||||||||
| Approximant | l ⟨l⟩ | (w) | |||||||||
^* The status of the consonants described here as single phonemes with lateral release is controversial. A number of scholars instead analyze them as biphonemic clusters with /l/ as the second element. The difference in analysis (e.g. between /pˡ/ and /pl/) is not based on any disagreement in the sound or pronunciation of the consonants in question, but on differing theoretical grounds. Those in favor of a unit-phoneme analysis generally argue for this based on distributional evidence (i.e. if clusters, these would be the only clusters in the language, although see below) and dialect evidence (the laterally released dentals in Green Mong, e.g. /tl/, correspond to the voiced dentals of White Hmong), while those in favor of a cluster analysis tend to argue on the basis of general phonetic principles (other examples of labial phonemes with lateral release appear extremely rare or nonexistent).
^** Some linguists prefer to analyze the prenasalized consonants as clusters whose first element is /n/. However, this cluster analysis is not as common as the above one involving /l/.
Read more about this topic: Hmong Language, Phonology