Help:IPA/Hmong

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Hmong on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Hmong in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between , / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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H:IPA-HMNH:IPA-HMN

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Hmong language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. The dialect used in this chart is both White Hmong and Green Hmong. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

Consonants
IPA		RPA	Pahawh	English approximation
Green	White	RPA	Pahawh	English approximation
c		c	𖬯	Somewhat like joke
cʰ		ch	𖬧	Somewhat like choke
	d	d	𖬞𖬰	ado
	dʱ	dh	𖬞𖬵	wide hearted
tˡ		dl	𖬭𖬰	Somewhat like at last
tɬ̬		dlh	𖬭𖬵	Somewhat like at last, but with extra clicky sound
f		f	𖬜𖬵	five
ŋ		g	𖬠𖬵	sing
h		h	𖬟	happy
l̥		hl	𖬥	clean
	m̥	hm	𖬣𖬵	No English equivalent; voiceless
	m̥l̥	hml	𖬠𖬰	No English equivalent
	n̥	hn	𖬩	No English equivalent; voiceless
	ɲ̥	hny	𖬣𖬰	No English equivalent; voiceless
k		k	^*	scope
kʰ		kh	𖬩𖬰	cope
l		l	𖬞	life
m		m	𖬦	map
ml		ml	𖬠	hamlet
n		n	𖬬	no
ɲɟ		nc	𖬤𖬰	and you
ɲɟʱ		nch	𖬨	No equivalent to English
ⁿdˡ		ndl	𖬭
ⁿdɮ		ndlh	𖬭𖬴	No English equivalent
ŋɡ		nk	𖬢	finger
ŋkʰ		nkh	𖬫𖬵	incomplete
mb		np	𖬨𖬵	combine
mbʱ		nph	𖬡𖬰	No English equivalent, like abhor, but with prenasalization
mbl		npl	𖬫𖬰	emblem
mbɮ		nplh	𖬡𖬵	No English equivalent
ɴɢ		nq	𖬬𖬰	No equivalent to English
ɴɢʱ		nqh	𖬬𖬵	No equivalent to English
ɳɖ		nr	𖬜𖬰	No English equivalent; somewhat like can drink
ɳʈʰ		nrh	𖬨𖬰	No equivalent to English; similar to control
nd		nt	𖬩𖬵	endanger
ndʱ		nth	𖬫	wound him
ɳɖʐ		nts	𖬝	No English equivalent; somewhat like hinge
ᶯtʂʰ		ntsh	𖬯𖬰	No English equivalent
ndz		ntx	𖬢𖬰	hands
ndzʱ		ntxh	𖬥𖬵	hands holding
ɲ		ny	𖬮𖬵	canyon
p		p	𖬪𖬵	spin
pʰ		ph	𖬝𖬵	pin
pl		pl	𖬟𖬵	Somewhat like apple
pɬ		plh	𖬪	play
q		q	𖬦𖬵	No equivalent to English; similar to sky
qʰ		qh	𖬣	No equivalent to English; similar to car
ʈ		r	𖬡	No equivalent to English
ʈʰ		rh	𖬢𖬵	No equivalent to English; similar to trough
ʂ		s	𖬤𖬵	Somewhat like shoe
t		t	𖬧𖬵	stool
tʰ		th	𖬟𖬰	tool
ts		tx	𖬯𖬵	cats
tsʰ		txh	𖬦𖬰	No English equivalent
ʈʂ		ts	𖬝𖬰	Somewhat like June
ʈʂʰ		tsh	𖬪𖬰	Somewhat like chair
v		v	𖬜	very
s		x	𖬮	see
ç		xy	𖬧𖬰	hue
ʝ		y	𖬤	Similar to yes
ʐ		z	𖬥𖬰	Somewhat like vision
ʔ			𖬮𖬰	uh-oh!

Vowels
IPA	RPA	Pahawh	English approximation
Monophthongs
a	a	𖬖, 𖬗	As in father
e	e	𖬈, 𖬉	No equivalent to English; similar to play
i	i	𖬂, 𖬃	see
ɨ	w	𖬘, 𖬙	roses
ɔ	o	𖬒, 𖬓	off
u	u	𖬆, 𖬇	cool
Nasalized
ẽ	ee	𖬀, 𖬁	Somewhat like sang
ã	aa	𖬚, 𖬛	Somewhat like ran
ɔ̃	oo	𖬌, 𖬍	Somewhat like song
Diphthongs
ai	ai	𖬊, 𖬋	hi
iə	ia	𖬔, 𖬕	RP beer
aɨ	aw	𖬎, 𖬏	Do not curl your tongue for the 'r' in per
au	au	𖬄, 𖬅	how
uə	ua	𖬐, 𖬑	truant, elided into a single syllable

Hmong Tone Indications
IPA	Tone	Orthographic Spelling (Example)
pɔ́	High	pob ('ball')
pɔ̰	Creaky	pom ('see')
pɔ̂	High falling	poj ('female')
pɔ̌	Mid rising	pov ('throw')
pɔ̄	Mid	po ('spleen')
pɔ̀	Low	pos ('thorn')
pɔ̤	Low falling breathy	pog ('grandmother')
pɔ̰̌	Falling rising	pod (no meaning^{(for now)})

Notes

^* ⟨k⟩ is only represented in RPA and not in Pahawh Hmong. For example, to write keeb in RPA, you have to follow the order Consonant + Vowel + Tone (CVT), so it is K + ee + b = Keeb, but in Pahawh Hmong, it is just Keeb "𖬀𖬶" (2nd-Stage Version).

References

Bruhn, Daniel (6 December 2006). "The Phonetic Inventory of Mong Leng" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2010.
Bruhn, Daniel. "Toward a Reconstruction of Proto-Far-Western-Hmongic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2010.
"Common characteristics from multiple languages" (PDF). Anchorage School District. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2022.
Everson, Michael (20 January 2012). "Final proposal to encode the Pahawh Hmong script in the UCS" (PDF). Unicode Consortium.
Garellek, Marc; Keating, Patricia; Esposito, Christina M.; Kreiman, Jody (2013). "Voice quality and tone identification in White Hmong". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 133 (2): 1078–1089. Bibcode:2013ASAJ..133.1078G. doi:10.1121/1.4773259. PMC 3574099. PMID 23363123.
"Hmong Notes" (PDF). UCLA Phonetics Lab Data. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
"Hmong Speech and Language Development". Bilinguistics. Archived from the original on 21 December 2023.
Hsiu, Andrew (2015). The classification of Na Meo, a Hmong-Mien language of Vietnam. SEALS 25. Chaing Mai, Thailand. doi:10.5281/zenodo.1127804.
Jaisser, Annie (Fall 1987). "Hmong Classifiers" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 10 (2). doi:10.32655/LTBA.10.2.14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 January 2021.
Jaisser, Annie; Ratliff, Martha; Riddle, Elizabeth; Strecker, David; Vang, Lopao; Vang, Lyfu (1995). Hmong For Beginners Part I. Centers for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California at Berkeley. ISBN 0-944613-24-1.
Ly, Chô (2020). "An Explanation of the Logic of Hmong RPA" (PDF). Hmong Studies Journal. 21: 1–15.
Tapp, Nicholas. "Qha Ke (Guiding the Way) From the Hmong Ntsu of China, 1943". Hmong Studies Journal. 9.
Thao, Kia (April 2012). Phonetics of the Hmong White Language. Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity. University of Wisconisn, Eau Claire.
"Pahauh Institute: Yub & Las Qauv nkaws - Lawj 2 (Vowels & Consonants - 2nd-stage version)". Hmong Language Institute of Minnesota.

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