Khmu is the language of the

Khmu people The Khmu (; Khmu: ; lo, ຂະມຸ ; th, ขมุ ; vi, Khơ Mú; ; my, ခမူ) are an ethnic group of Southeast Asia. The majority (88%) live in northern Laos where they constitute the largest minority ethnic group, comprising eleve ...

of the northern Laos region. It is also spoken in adjacent areas of

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and China. Khmu lends its name to the Khmuic branch of the

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...

language family, the latter of which also includes Khmer and

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

. Within Austroasiatic, Khmu is often cited as being most closely related to the

Palaungic The nearly thirty Palaungic or Palaung–Wa languages form a branch of the Austroasiatic languages. Phonological developments Most of the Palaungic languages lost the contrastive voicing of the ancestral Austroasiatic consonants, with the disti ...

and Khasic languages.Diffloth, Gérard (2005). "The contribution of linguistic palaeontology and Austroasiatic". in Laurent Sagart, Roger Blench and Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, eds. ''The Peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics.'' 77–80. London: Routledge Curzon. The name "Khmu" can also be seen romanized as Kmhmu, Khmu', Kammu, or Khamuk in various publications or alternatively referred to by the name of a local dialect.

Dialects

Khmu has several dialects but no standard variety. Dialects differ primarily in consonant inventory, existence of

register Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...

, and the degree to which the language has been influenced by the surrounding

national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...

(s). Dialects are, for the most part, mutually intelligible; however communication can be difficult between speakers of geographically distant dialects. The dialects of Khmu can be broadly categorized into two groups, Western Khmu and Eastern Khmu. *Western Khmu dialects have fewer consonant phonemes and instead use phonemic register contrast, as seen in other Austroasiatic languages, of "lax" breathy register and "tense" modal register. In at least one dialect of Western Khmu, known as ''Khmu Rook'',

tonogenesis Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

is evident as the register contrast has developed into a system of two phonetic tones with six phonemic realizations.SUWILAI Premsrirat, author. 2001. "Tonogenesis in Khmu dialects of SEA." Mon-Khmer Studies: a Journal of Southeast Asian Linguistics and Languages 31: 47-56. *Eastern Khmu dialects show the opposite tendency. Completely lacking either register or tone distinction, these dialects utilize a three-way distinction of stops (voiced, voiceless and aspirated voiceless) and

nasals In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...

(voiced, voiceless, and pre-glottalized) in the syllable-initial position for phonemic contrast.Suwilai, Premsrirat, et al. Mahidol University
''Dictionary of Khmu in Laos''

Suwilai Premsrirat (2002)

Suwilai Premsrirat (2002)Premsrirat, Suwilai. 2002. ''Dictionary of Khmu in Laos''. Mon-Khmer Studies, Special Publication, Number 1, Volume 3. Salaya, Thailand: Mahidol University. reports the following locations and dialects of Kmhmu' in Laos, Vietnam, China, and Thailand. * Laos: spoken in the 8 northern provinces of Luang Namtha, Udomsai, Bokeo, Sayaburi, Phongsali, Luang Prabang, and Xiaq kvaaq, with a few villages near Vientiane. Dialects include Kmhmu' Rook, Khmu Lw, and Kmhmu' Cwaq (also known as Kmhmu' Uu). *

: Kim Hua, Sop Pot, Sop Caw and Pung Kamong Villages, Kim Da Subdistrict,

Tương Dương District ''Tương'' (, Chữ Hán: 醬) is the name applied to a variety of condiments, a kind of fermented bean paste made from soybean and commonly used in Vietnamese cuisine. Originally, the term ''tương'' refers to a salty paste made from fermente ...

Vinh Vinh () is the biggest city and economic and cultural center of north-central Vietnam. Vinh is the capital of Nghệ An Province, and is a key point in the East–West economic corridor linking Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The city is ...

City, Nghệ An Province. Also in

Lai Châu Province Lai or LAI may refer to: Abbreviations * Austrian Latin America Institute (Österreichisches Lateinamerika-Institut) * ''Latin American Idol'', TV series * La Trobe University#La Trobe Institute, La Trobe Institute, Melbourne, Australia * Leaf ...

Sơn La Province ''Toxicodendron succedaneum'', the wax tree, Japanese Hazenoki tree (Sumac or wax tree), sơn in Vietnam or charão in Portuguese, is a flowering plant species in the genus ''Toxicodendron'' found in Asia, although it has been planted elsewhere, ...

, and Thanh Hóa Province. * China: Pung Soa village (more conservative with voicing contrasts in the initial consonants) and Om Kae village (has tonal contrasts) in

Sipsongpanna Xishuangbanna, Sibsongbanna or Sipsong Panna ( Tham: , New Tai Lü script: ; ; th, สิบสองปันนา; lo, ສິບສອງພັນນາ; shn, သိပ်းသွင်ပၼ်းၼႃး; my, စစ်ဆောင်� ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

: many villages, including the representative datapoint of Huai Ian village, Lai Ngao subdistrict, Wiang Kaen district, Chiang Rai province (originally from Pak Bang district of Laos, where the language is called Khmu Khrong, meaning 'Mekong Khmu'). Also in Nan province and

Lampang province Lampang ( th, ลำปาง, ; Northern Thai: ) is one of Thailand's seventy-six provinces (''changwat''), lies in upper northern Thailand. The old name of Lampang was ''Khelang Nakhon''. Geography Lampang is in the broad river valley of the ...

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Khmu' is shown in the table below. The

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

s in the colored cells are particular to the dialects of Eastern Khmu. The phoneme /f/, present in dialects of both Eastern and Western Khmu', is a result of borrowings from the surrounding

Tai languages The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages ( th, ภาษาไท or , transliteration: or ) are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including Standard Thai or Si ...

.Suwilai, Prēmsīrat. ''The Thesaurus and Dictionary Series of Khmu Dialects in Southeast Asia''. Nakorn Pathom: Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University at Salaya, Thailand, 2002.

Vowels

The vowels of the Khmu' language show little variation across the dialects with all varieties having 19 monophthongs and three diphthongs (, and ).

Grammar

Pronouns

Syntax

Khmu uses mainly an SVO word order although an OVS order is also possible.

Vocabulary

Numeral

Comparison with Khmer

References

Thomas Khammeung Manokoune (Tamong)

External links

* http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage) * http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-66EA-B@view Khmu in RWAAI Digital Archive
Database of audio recordings in Khmu - basic Catholic prayers
{{Austroasiatic languages * Languages of Laos