Tsukong (autonym: ') is a
Loloish language
The Loloish languages, also known as Yi (like the Yi people) and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of 50–100 Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of Southwestern China. They are most closely related to Bur ...
of
Yunnan
Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
, 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
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
/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 speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
/i e æ a ɨ ə u o ɔ/, and 3
diphthongs
A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, 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 ...
/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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