Languages
The discovery that Vietnamese was a Mon–Khmer language, and that its tones were a regular reflection of non-tonal features in the rest of the family, is considered a milestone in the development of historical linguistics. The Vietic languages reflect every stage in this development.
- Arem: This language lacks the breathy phonation common to most Vietic languages, but does have glottalized final consonants.
- Cuôi: Hung in Laos, and Thô in Vietnam
- Aheu (Thavung): This language makes a four-way distinction between clear and breathy phonation combined with glottalized final consonants. This is very similar to the situation in the Pearic languages in which, however, the glottalization is in the vowel.
- Ruc, Sach, May, and Chưt: A dialect cluster; the register system is the four-way contrast of Aheu augmented with pitch.
- Maleng (Bo, Pakatan): Tones as in Ruc-Sach.
- Pong, Hung, Tum, Khong-Kheng
- Việt–Mường: Vietnamese and Mường. These two dialect chains share 75% of their vocabulary, and have similar systems of 5–6 contour tones. These are regular reflexes of other Vietic languages: The three low and three high tones correspond to voiced and voiceless initial consonants in the ancestral language; these then split depending on the original final consonants: Level tones correspond to open syllables or final nasal consonants; high rising and low falling tones correspond to final stops, which have since disappeared; dipping tones to final fricatives, which have also disappeared; and glottalized tones to final glottalized consonants, which have deglottalized.
Read more about this topic: Vietic Languages
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