Sedang language

Sedang is an Austro-Asiatic language spoken in eastern Laos and Kon Tum Province in south central Vietnam. The Sedang language has the most speakers of any of the languages of the North Bahnaric language group, a group of languages known for their range of vowel phonations.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Plosive	unaspirated	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	aspirated	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	prenasalized	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Approximant		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink

Vowels

Sedang itself has 24 pure vowels: 7 vowel qualities, all of which may be plain ([a]), nasalized ([ã]), and creaky ([a̰]) and three of which /i a o/ may be both nasal and creaky ([ã̰]). While it does not have the length distinctions of other North Bahnaric languages, it has more diphthongs, between 33 and 55 vowel sounds all together. (The above set yields 50.) Sedang is thus sometimes claimed to have the largest vowel inventory in the world. However, other Bahnaric languages have more vowel qualities (Bahnar, for example, has 9) in addition to phonemic vowel length so the language with the record depends closely on how the languages are described and distinct vowels are defined.

	Front	Central	Back
High	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Upper Mid	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Lower Mid	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Low		Template:IPAlink

Diphthongs

	Front Glide	Central Glide	Back Glide
/i/ Nucleus	,	, , ,	,
/u/ Nucleus		, , ,	,
/e/ Nucleus		, , ,	, ,
/o/ Nucleus	,	, ,

External links

• Sedang Dictionary with English, Vietnamese, and French glossaries
• Paul Sidwell's Mon–Khmer language information at the Australian National University.
• Sound sample showing the distinction between clear and creaky vowels, from the link above.
• Smith's dissertation