Cuoi language

Cuói
	Hung (hnu); Thổ (tou)
Native to	Vietnam, Laos
Ethnicity	Thổ
Native speakers	71,000 (1999 census)[1]
Language family	Austroasiatic Vietic Cuói; ;
Dialects	Cuối Chăm; Làng Lỡ; Pong (Toum, Liha, Phong);
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; hnu – Hung; tou – Thô
Glottolog	cuoi1242[2]
Linguasphere	46-EAD-a

Cuói, known as Thổ in Vietnam and as Hung in Laos,[3] is a dialect cluster spoken by around 70,000 Thổ people in Vietnam and a couple thousand in Laos, mainly in the provinces of Bolikhamsai and Khammouane.

Phonology

Làng Lỡ dialect

Consonants

The consonant inventory of the Làng Lỡ dialect, as cited by Michel Ferlus:[4]

Initial consonants of Cuối Làng Lỡ
		Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		[m]		[n]		[ɲ]	[ŋ]
Stop	tenuis	[p]		[t]	[ʈ]	[c]	[k]	[ʔ]
	glottalized	[ɓ]		[ɗ]		[ˀɟ]
	aspirated			[tʰ]			[kʰ]
Fricative	voiceless	[f]		[s]	[ʂ]			[h]
	voiced	[β]	[v]	[ð]			[ɣ]
	glottalized			[ˀð]
Approximant				[l]	[ɽ ~ ʐ]	[j]

[ʈ] is found in Vietnamese loanwords with initial /ʈ/ (orthographic [tr])
[β ð ɣ ˀð] originate in the borrowing of segments from a variety of Vietnamese that existed several centuries ago.

Vowels

Monothongs of Cuối Làng Lỡ
	Front	Central	Back
Close	[i]	[ɨ]	[u]
Close-mid/ Mid	[e]	[ə]	[o]
Open-mid/ Open	[ɛ]	[ʌ̆] [ă] [a]	[ɔ]


Diphthongs of Cuối Làng Lỡ	iə	ɨə	uə	eə	oə

Tones

There're eight tones in the Làng Lỡ. Tones 1 to 6 are found on sonorant-final syllables (a.k.a. ‘live’ syllables): syllables ending in a vowel, semi-vowel or nasal. Tones 7 and 8 are found on obstruent-final syllables (a.k.a. ‘stopped’ syllables), ending in -p -t -c -k.[4] This is a system comparable to that of Vietnamese.

Vocabulary

The data is from Cuoi Cham vocabulary recordings and the Mon-Khmer Etymological Dictionary.

English	Cuối Chăm	Làng Lỡ	Vietnamese
cloud	mʌl¹	mʌn¹	mây
rain	mɐː²	mɨə¹	mưa
wind	sɒː³	juə³	gió
thunder	kʰrʌm⁴	ʂəm⁴	sấm
earth, land	tʌt⁷	tʌt⁷	đất
cave	haːŋ¹	haːŋ¹	hang
deep	kʰruː²	ʂuː²	sâu
water	daːk⁷	daːk⁷	nước
river	kʰrɔŋ¹	ʂɔːŋ¹	sông
puddle	puŋ⁶	-	vũng
mud	puːl²	vuːn²	bùn
rock, stone	taː³	δaː³	đá
bark	pɒː⁵	ʂɔː⁵⁶	vỏ
dog	cɒː³	cɔː³	chó
cultivated field	rɔːŋ⁴	ʂɔːŋ⁴	ruộng
to go	tiː²	tiː²	đi
to have	kɒː³	kɔː³	có

gollark: > “We thought my poor grandmother’s remains had been buried in accordance with her wishes,” growls Elizabeth’s direct descendant, Catherine Gratwick. “Can’t you let her rest in peace? This is her body that you’re messing with. You can’t just irradiate and poison her; you must ask me first! How would you like it if your family’s remains were exhumed and mutilated? You must never use cells from deceased people without the explicit pre-mortem consent of the patient or their relatives. As for granny - I insist that all remaining samples of her be buried, and that you financially compensate her family for the pain and grief you have caused!”

gollark: > Two generations ago, scientists took a biopsy of a tumor from a cancer patient named Elizabeth Gratwick, who died soon after. Without her knowledge or consent, these cells were preserved in the laboratory and proved to be exceptionally stable in replication. As stable cancer cell lines are highly useful for medical research, “ElGr cells” have been sent to and used by scientists all over the world. However, objections are now being raised by Elizabeth’s descendants.

gollark: Now I need to answer a question!

gollark: And top 1% for crime.

gollark: * 0.8%

References

Hung at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Thô at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Cuoi". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
"The Vietic Branch". sealang.net.
Ferlus, Michel 2015, I.2