Cuối language

Cuối, also known as Thổ, is a dialect cluster spoken by around 70,000 people in Vietnam. It is also spoken by a couple thousand people 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:

Initial consonants of Cuối Làng Lỡ

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Plosive	tenuis	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	glottalized	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
	aspirated			Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink
	voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink
	glottalized			Template:IPAlink
Approximant				Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink ~ Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink

• Template:IPAblink is found in Vietnamese loanwords with initial (orthographic Template:Grapheme)
• 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	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Close-mid/ Mid	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Open-mid/ Open	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink

Diphthongs of Cuối Làng Lỡ

Tones

There are 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. 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	Hanoian Vietnamese
cloud
rain
wind
thunder
earth, land
cave
deep
water
river
puddle		-
mud
rock, stone
bark
dog
cultivated field
to go
to have

Further reading

• Template:Cite thesis

• Nguyen, Huu Hoanh and Nguyen Van Loi (2019). Tones in the Cuoi Language of Tan Ki District in Nghe An Province, Vietnam. The Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 12.1:lvii-lxvi.