Thavưng or Aheu is a language spoken by the
Phon Sung people in
Laos
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...
and
Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
. There are thought to be some 1,770 speakers in Laos, largely concentrated in
Khamkeut District. A further 750 speakers live in 3 villages of
Song Dao District,
Sakon Nakhon Province
Sakon Nakhon (, ; , ) is one of Thailand's seventy-six provinces (''changwat''). It lies in upper northeastern Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from north clockwise) Nong Khai, Bueng Kan, Nakhon Phanom, Mukdahan, Kalasin, and Udon Thani ...
, Thailand, namely Ban Nong Waeng (in Pathum Wapi Subdistrict), Ban Nong Charoen, and Ban Nong Muang.
[Suwilai Premsrirat (1996)]
Phonological characteristics of So (Thavung), a Vietic language of Thailand
Retrieved 22. Nov. 2017.
Thavung makes a four-way distinction between clear and breathy phonation combined with glottalized final consonants. This is very similar to the situation in the
Pearic languages
The Pearic languages (alternatively called the Chongic languages) are a group of endangered languages of the Eastern Mon–Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by Pear people (the ''Por'', the ''Samré'', the ''Samray'', t ...
in which, however, the glottalization is in the vowel.
Phonology
Consonants[Steven Moran and Daniel McCloy and Richard Wright. 2019. Thavung sound inventory (PH).
In: Moran, Steven & McCloy, Daniel (eds.)]
Vowels
The vowels can also be long. In Thavung there are 3 Diphthongs: ia ɨa ua.
Further reading
*Premsrirat, Suwilai (1996).
Phonological characteristics of So (Thavung), a Vietic language of Thailand'.
References
Languages of Laos
Vietic languages
Languages of Thailand
{{AustroAsiatic-lang-stub