Tsukong (autonym: ') is a
Loloish language
The Loloish languages, also known as Yi in China and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of fifty to a hundred Sino-Tibetan languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of China. They are most closely related to Burmese and its rel ...
of
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 ...
, China. It is closely related to the
Coong language of northwestern Vietnam. Tsukong speakers are found in
Xishuangbanna Prefecture.
Phonology
The following phonemes are reported in Udomkool (2006).
Tsukong has twenty-four
consonants /p pʰ b m w t tʰ s ts d n l ʃ c cʰ ɲ j k kʰ x g ŋ ʔ h/, 9
vowels
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
/i e æ a ɨ ə u o ɔ/, and 3
diphthongs
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
/əi iu ui/.
Tsukong has a three-tone system. The tones are 35 (mid-rising), 33 (mid), and 31 (mid-falling).
References
* Udomkool, Kitjapol. 2006.
A phonological comparison of selected Bisoid varieties'. M.A. dissertation. Chiang Mai: Payap University.
Southern Loloish languages
Languages of Yunnan
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