Phonology
The phonemic inventory and alphabetic transcription are as follows.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatalized alveolar |
Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | voiced | m /m/ | n /n/ | ni /nʲ/ | ng /ŋ/ | ||
| aspirated | hm /m̥ʰ/ | hn /n̥ʰ/ | hni /n̥ʲʰ/ | ||||
| Plosive | tenuis | b /p/ | d /t/ | di /tʲ/ | g /k/ | gh /q/ | (/ʔ/) |
| aspirated | p /pʰ/ | t /tʰ/ | ti /tʲʰ/ | k /kʰ/ | q /qʰ/ | ||
| Affricate | tenuis | z /ts/ | j /tɕ/ | ||||
| aspirated | c /tsʰ/ | q /tɕʰ/ | |||||
| Central fricative |
voiced | w /v/ | r /z/ | y /ʑ/ | v /ɣ/ | ||
| tenuis | f /f/ | s /s/ | x /ɕ/ | h /h/ | |||
| aspirated | hf /fʰ/ | hs /sʰ/ | hx /ɕʰ/ | hv /xʰ/ | |||
| Lateral fricative |
tenuis | dl /ɬ/ | dli /ɬʲ/ | ||||
| aspirated | hl /ɬʰ/ | hli /ɬʲʰ/ | |||||
| Lateral approximant | l /l/ | li /lʲ/ | |||||
is not distinct from a zero initial (that is, if we accept /ʔ/ as a consonant, there are no vowel-initial words in Hmu), and only occurs with tones 1, 3, 5, 7.
The aspirated nasals and fricatives do not exist in Southern or Eastern Hmu; cognates words use their unaspirated homologues. Further, in Eastern Hmu, di, ti merge into j, q; c merges into x; r (Northern /z/) merges into ni; and v is pronounced . In Southern Hmu, words cognate with hni (and some with ni) are pronounced ; those with r are ; and some words exchange s and x.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i /i/ | u /u/ | ||||
| Mid | ai /ɛ/ | en /en/ | e /ə/ | o /o/ | ong /oŋ/ | |
| Open | a /ɑ/ | ang /ɑŋ/ | ||||
Ai /ɛ/ does not occur after palatalized consonants. /en/ after palatalized consonants is spelled in.
| Closing | |
|---|---|
| Close component is front | ei /ej/ |
| Close component is back | eu /əw/ |
Additional diphthongs occur in Chinese loans.
All dialects have eight tones. There is no sandhi. In the chart below, Northern Hmu is represented by Yanghao village (Kaili City), Eastern Hmu by 偶里 village (Jinping County), and Southern Hmu by 振民 (Rongshui County).
| Tone | Letter | Northern | Eastern | Southern |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | b | ˧ 3 | ˧ 3 | ˧ 3 |
| 3 | d | ˧˥ 35 | ˨̤ 2 | ˧˥ 35 |
| 5 | t | ˦ 4 | ˦˥ 45 | ˦ 4 |
| 7 | k | ˥˧ 53 | ˨˦ 24 | ˨˦ 24 |
| 2 | x | ˥ 5 ~ ˦˥ 45 | ˦˨ 42 | ˥˧ 53 |
| 4 | l | ˩̤ 1 | ˨˩ 21 | ˧˩ 31 |
| 6 | s | ˩˧̤ 13 | ˥ 5 | ˨̤ 2 |
| 8 | f | ˧˩ 31 | ˩˨̤ 12 | ˨˩˧ 213 |
The lowest tones—Northern tones 4 and 6, Eastern tones 3 and 8, and Southern tone 6—are said to make the preceding consonant murmured (breathy voiced), presumably meaning that these are murmured tones as in other Hmongic languages. They are marked with ⟨◌̤⟩ in the chart.
Read more about this topic: Hmu Language