| Muong | |
|---|---|
| Thiếng Mươ̒ng | |
| Native to | Vietnam |
| Region | Hòa Bình Province,Thanh Hóa Province,Phú Thọ Province,Sơn La Province |
| Ethnicity | Muong |
Native speakers | 1.5 million (2019 census)[1] |
| Latin (modifiedChữ Quốc ngữ) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mtq |
| Glottolog | muon1246 |
Mường (thiếng Mươ̒ng;Vietnamese:tiếng Mường)[2] is a group of dialects spoken by theMường people ofVietnam. They are in theAustroasiatic language family and closely related toVietnamese. According to Phan (2012), the Mường dialects are not a single language, or even most closely related to each other, but rather are an ethnically defined andparaphyletic taxon.[3]
Mường dialects are primarily spoken in mountainous regions of the northern Vietnamese provinces ofHòa Bình,Thanh Hóa,Vĩnh Phúc,Yên Bái,Sơn La, andNinh Bình.
Mường has allsix tones of Vietnamese; however, thenặng (heavy) tone is present only inPhú Thọ and Thanh Hóa provinces while in Hòa Bình Province, it is merged with thesắc (sharp) tone.[4]
Mường had no written form until Western academics in the 20th century developed a provisional alphabet based on a modifiedVietnamese alphabet, including additional consonants likew and allowing different consonant pairs and final consonants than Vietnamese.[2]
In September 2016, the People's Committee ofHòa Bình Province adopted resolution 2295/QĐ-UBND, specifying a new Mường alphabet to be used in instruction within the province. The alphabet consists of 28 letters and four tone marks.[5] The provincialCommunist Party of Vietnam newspaper,Hòa Bình điện tử (Muong:Wa̒ Bi̒nh diê̠n tứ) began publishing its electronic edition in Mường in addition to Vietnamese and English, surprising some readers with the unusual orthography.[6]
The alphabet is as follows:
A,Ă,Â,B,C,D,Đ,E,Ê,G,H,I,K,L,M,N,O,Ô,Ơ,P,Q,R,T,U,Ư,V,W,X,Y
The lettersF,J,S, andZ are only used in loanwords.
The following table details the consonants of those dialects that show a fullvoiced-voiceless distinction in the stops (being Mường Bi, Mường Thành, Mường Động, and Ba Trại).[7] The spelling is given in italics.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m/m/ | n/n/ | nh/ɲ/ | ng/ŋ/ | ||
| Stop | voiceless | p/p/ | t/t/ | ch/c/ | c/k/ | |
| aspirated | ph/pʰ/ | th/tʰ/ | kh/kʰ/ | |||
| voiced | b/b/ | đ/d/ | g/ɡ~ɣ/ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | x/s/ | h/h/ | |||
| voiced | v/w/o/u/β/ | d/gi/i/y/z~j/ | ||||
| Lateral | l,tl/l,tl~kl/ | |||||
The Mường Vang dialect completely lacks the distinction between the voiced and unvoiced stop pairs/pb/,/td/,/kɡ/, having only the voiceless one of each pair. The Mường Khói and Mường Ống dialects have the full voiceless series, but lack/ɡ/ among the voiced stops. The Thạch Sơn dialect on the other hand lacks/p/.
Furthermore, the Mường Khói dialect lacks the aspirated alveolar/tʰ/, but has a/hr/ instead. This dialect is also described as having the labio-velars/kʷ/ and/kʷʰ/.
All of these consonants can appear syllable-initially. At the end of syllables only the nasals/mnɲŋ/, the voiceless stops/ptck/, the lateral/l/, and the glides/jw/ occur.[8] Of these phonemes, the palatals/cɲ/ have been analysed as glide + velar/ʲkʲŋ/.[9] Furthermore, the distribution of syllable-final/cɲl/ seems to be more restricted than the distribution of the other final consonants.[10]
The vowel inventory is given in the following table. It appears to be quite uniform among the different dialects.[7] Two of the vowels (/ɤ/ and/a/) can be long or short.
Apart from these monophthongs, there are also threediphthongs/iə,ɯə,uə/.
All Mường dialects are tonal. The Kim Thương dialect (Phú Thọ province) has been the object of an experimental phonetic study.[11]
| English | Mường | Vietnamese | Proto-Vietic | Other languages | Khmer | Proto-Mon-Khmer | Other languages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zero | không | không | fromMiddle Chinese 空 | sony សូន្យ | fromSanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “zero”) | ||
| one | mốch, môch | một | *moːc | muŏy មួយ | *muuj ~ *muəj ~ *muuɲ | ||
| two | hal | hai | *haːr | pir ពីរ | *ɓaar | ||
| three | pa | ba | *pa | bĕi បី | *piʔ | ||
| four | pổn | bốn | *poːnʔ | buŏn បួន | *punʔ | ||
| five | đằm, đăm | năm | *ɗam | pram ប្រាំ | *pɗam | ||
| six | khảu | sáu | *p-ruːʔ | prămmuŏy ប្រាំមួយ | |||
| seven | páy | bảy | *pəs | prămpir ប្រាំពីរ | |||
| eight | thảm | tám | *saːmʔ | prămbĕi ប្រាំបី | |||
| nine | chỉn | chín | *ciːnʔ | prămbuŏn ប្រាំបួន | |||
| ten | mườl | mười | *maːl | dáb ដប់ | fromOld Chinese 十 (*di̯əp) | ||
| hundred | tlăm | trăm | *k-lam | muŏy rôy មួយរយ | fromThai, ร้อย (roi) | ||
| water | đác | nước (dialects include nác) | *ɗaːk | tɨk ទឹក | *ɗaːk | ||
| language | thiểng | tiếng | fromOld Chinese 聲 | phiəsaa ភាសា | fromSanskrit भाषा (bhāṣā) | ||
| river | không | sông | *k-roːŋ | tŭənlei ទន្លេ (kŭənlɔɔng គន្លង) | *d(n)liʔ | ||
| sky | tlời | trời (Middle Vietnamese: blời) | *b-ləːj | meik មេឃ | FromSanskrit मेघ (megha, “cloud”) | ||
| moon | tlăng | trăng (Middle Vietnamese: blăng) | *b-laŋ | look khae លោកខែ | FromSanskrit लोक (loka, “world”) andProto-Mon-Khmer *khəjʔ (“moon; month”) | ||
| bird | chim | chim | *-ciːm | baksəy បក្សី | FromSanskrit पक्षि (pakṣi) | ||
| forest | rầng | rừng | *k-rəŋ | prɨy ព្រៃ | *briiʔ |
| Mường | Vietnamese |
|---|---|
| Cải tlỗngchăng bong, lòngchăng yểng. | Cái bụngkhông vâng, lòngkhông theo. |
| Nả tang cháitlốc. | Nó đang chảiđầu. |
| Tlước ăn chay khau ănnhúc. | Trước ăn chay sau ănthịt. |
| Ho làthôn mễ Tử. | Tôi làcháu bà Tự. |
