Help:IPA/Hmong

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Hmong language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. The dialect used in this chart is both White Hmong and Green Hmong. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

Consonants IPA RPA Pahawh English approximation Green White c c 𖬯 Somewhat like joke cʰ ch 𖬧 Somewhat like choke d d 𖬞𖬰 ado dʱ dh 𖬞𖬵 wide hearted tˡ dl 𖬭𖬰 Somewhat like at last tɬ̬ dlh 𖬭𖬵 Somewhat like at last, but with extra clicky sound f f 𖬜𖬵 five ŋ g 𖬠𖬵 sing h h 𖬟 happy l̥ hl 𖬥 clean m̥ hm 𖬣𖬵 No English equivalent; voiceless [m] m̥l̥ hml 𖬠𖬰 No English equivalent n̥ hn 𖬩 No English equivalent; voiceless [n] ɲ̥ hny 𖬣𖬰 No English equivalent; voiceless [ɲ] k k * scope kʰ kh 𖬩𖬰 cope l l 𖬞 life m m 𖬦 map ml ml 𖬠 hamlet n n 𖬬 no ɲɟ nc 𖬤𖬰 and you ɲɟʱ nch 𖬨 * ⁿdˡ ndl 𖬭 ⁿdɮ ndlh 𖬭𖬴 No English equivalent ŋɡ nk 𖬢 finger ŋkʰ nkh 𖬫𖬵 incomplete mb np 𖬨𖬵 combine mbʱ nph 𖬡𖬰 No English equivalent, like abhor, but with prenasalization mbl npl 𖬫𖬰 emblem mbɮ nplh 𖬡𖬵 No English equivalent ɴɢ nq 𖬬𖬰 * ɴɢʱ nqh 𖬬𖬵 * ɳɖ nr 𖬜𖬰 No English equivalent; somewhat like can drink ɳʈʰ nrh 𖬨𖬰 * similar to control nd nt 𖬩𖬵 endanger ndʱ nth 𖬫 wound him ɳɖʐ nts 𖬝 No English equivalent; somewhat like hinge ndz ntx 𖬢𖬰 hands ndzʱ ntxh 𖬥𖬵 hands holding ɲ ny 𖬮𖬵 canyon p p 𖬪𖬵 spin pʰ ph 𖬝𖬵 pin pl pl 𖬟𖬵 Somewhat like apple pɬ plh 𖬪 play q q 𖬦𖬵 * similar to sky qʰ qh 𖬣 * similar to car ʈ r 𖬡 * ʈʰ rh 𖬢𖬵 * similar to trough ʂ s 𖬤𖬵 Somewhat like shoe t t 𖬧𖬵 stool tʰ th 𖬟𖬰 tool ts tx 𖬯𖬵 cats tsʰ txh 𖬦𖬰 No English equivalent ʈʂ ts 𖬝𖬰 Somewhat like June ʈʂʰ tsh 𖬪𖬰 Somewhat like chair v v 𖬜 very s x 𖬮 see ç xy 𖬧𖬰 hue ʝ y 𖬤 Similar to yes ʐ z 𖬥𖬰 Somewhat like vision ʔ 𖬮𖬰 uh-oh!

Vowels IPA RPA Pahawh English approximation Monophthongs a a 𖬖, 𖬗 As in father e e 𖬈, 𖬉 * similar to play i i 𖬂, 𖬃 see ɨ w 𖬘, 𖬙 roses ɔ o 𖬒, 𖬓 off u u 𖬆, 𖬇 cool Nasalized ẽ ee 𖬀, 𖬁 Somewhat like sang ã aa 𖬚, 𖬛 Somewhat like ran ɔ̃ oo 𖬌, 𖬍 Somewhat like song Diphthongs ai ai 𖬊, 𖬋 hi iə ia 𖬔, 𖬕 RP beer aɨ aw 𖬎, 𖬏 Do not curl your tongue for the 'r' in per au au 𖬄, 𖬅 how uə ua 𖬐, 𖬑 truant, elided into a single syllable Hmong Tone Indications IPA Tone Orthographic Spelling (Example) pɔ́ High pob ('ball') pɔ̰ Creaky pom ('see') pɔ̂ High falling poj ('female') pɔ̌ Mid rising pov ('throw') pɔ̄ Mid po ('spleen') pɔ̀ Low pos ('thorn') pɔ̤ Low falling breathy pog ('grandmother')

Notes

^* No equivalent to English ^* ⟨k⟩ is only represented in RPA and not in Pahawh Hmong. For example, to write keeb in RPA, you have to follow the order Consonant + Vowel + Tone (CVT), so it is K + ee + b = Keeb, but in Pahawh Hmong, it is just Keeb "𖬀𖬶" (2nd-Stage Version).

References

• Bruhn, Daniel (6 December 2006). "The Phonetic Inventory of Mong Leng" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2010.
• Bruhn, Daniel. "Toward a Reconstruction of Proto-Far-Western-Hmongic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2010.
• "Common characteristics from multiple languages" (PDF). Anchorage School District. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2022.
• Everson, Michael (20 January 2012). "Final proposal to encode the Pahawh Hmong script in the UCS" (PDF). Unicode Consortium.
• Garellek, Marc; Keating, Patricia; Esposito, Christina M.; Kreiman, Jody (2013). "Voice quality and tone identification in White Hmong". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 133 (2): 1078–1089. Bibcode:2013ASAJ..133.1078G. doi:10.1121/1.4773259. PMC 3574099. PMID 23363123.
• "Hmong Notes" (PDF). UCLA Phonetics Lab Data. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
• "Hmong Speech and Language Development". Bilinguistics. Archived from the original on 21 December 2023.
• Hsiu, Andrew (2015). The classification of Na Meo, a Hmong-Mien language of Vietnam. SEALS 25. Chaing Mai, Thailand. doi:10.5281/zenodo.1127804.
• Jaisser, Annie (Fall 1987). "Hmong Classifiers" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 10 (2). doi:10.32655/LTBA.10.2.14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 January 2021.
• Jaisser, Annie; Ratliff, Martha; Riddle, Elizabeth; Strecker, David; Vang, Lopao; Vang, Lyfu (1995). Hmong For Beginners Part I. Centers for South and Souteast Asia Studies, University of California at Berkeley. ISBN 0-944613-24-1.
• Ly, Chô (2020). "An Explanation of the Logic of Hmong RPA" (PDF). Hmong Studies Journal. 21: 1–15.
• Tapp, Nicholas. "Qha Ke (Guiding the Way) From the Hmong Ntsu of China, 1943". Hmong Studies Journal. 9.
• Thao, Kia (April 2012). Phonetics of the Hmong White Language. Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity. University of Wisconisn, Eau Claire.

See also

• Category:Pages with Hmong IPA (9)