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Muong (Thiểng Mường[2]) is a group of dialects spoken by the Mường people of Vietnam. They are in the Austroasiatic language family and closely related to Vietnamese. 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 and paraphyletic taxon.[3]

Muong
Thiểng Mường, 㗂𤞽
Native to	Vietnam
Region	west of Hanoi
Native speakers	1.1 million (1999 census)[1]
Language family	Austroasiatic Vietic Viet–Muong Muong
Writing system	Latin (Chữ Quốc ngữ) Chữ Nôm
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mtq
Glottolog	muon1246

Mường dialects are primarily spoken in mountainous regions of the northern Vietnamese provinces of Hòa Bình, Thanh Hóa, Vĩnh Phúc, Yên Bái, Sơn La, and Ninh Bình.

Mường has all six tones of Vietnamese; however, the nặng (heavy) tone is present only in Phú Thọ and Thanh Hóa provinces while in Hòa Bình Province, it is merged with the sắc (sharp) tone.[4]

Writing system

Mường had no written form until Western academics in the 20th century developed a provisional alphabet based on a modified Vietnamese alphabet, including additional consonants like w and allowing different consonant pairs and final consonants than Vietnamese.[2]

In September 2016, the People's Committee of Hòa 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 provincial Communist 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]

Phonology

Consonant inventory

The following table details the consonants of those dialects that show a full voiced-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 /p b/, /t d/, /k ɡ/, 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 /m n ɲ ŋ/, the voiceless stops /p t c k/, the lateral /l/, and the glides /j w/ occur.[8] Of these phonemes, the palatals /c ɲ/ have been analysed as glide + velar /ʲk ʲŋ/.[9] Furthermore, the distribution of syllable-final /c ɲ l/ seems to be more restricted than the distribution of the other final consonants.[10]

Vowel inventory

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.

	Front	Back
		unrounded	rounded
Close	i /i/	ư /ɯ/	u /u/
Mid	ê /e/	ơ, â /ɤː, ɤ/	ô /o/
Open	e /ɛ/	a, ă /aː, a/	o /ɔ/

Apart from these monophthongs, there are also three diphthongs /iə, ɯə, uə/.

Tone

All Muong dialects are tonal. The Kim Thuong dialect (Phu Tho province) has been the object of an experimental phonetic study.[11]

References

Further reading

• Hà Quang Phùng (2012-09-06). "Tìm hiểu về ngữ pháp tiếng Mường (Thim hiếu wuê ngử pháp thiểng Mường)" [Understanding Muong grammar]. (in Vietnamese and Muong). Thanh Sơn–Phú Thọ Province Continuing Education Center. Archived from the original (FlashPaper) on September 19, 2016. (More)
• Nguyễn, Văn Khang, Bùi Chi, and Hoàng Văn Hành. (2002). Từ điển Mường-Việt (A Mường-Vietnamese dictionary). Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Văn Hoá Dân Tộc.
• Nguyễn Văn Tài (1982). Ngữ âm tiếng Mường qua các phương ngôn [Phonetics of the Mường language through its dialects] (Ph.D.) (in Vietnamese).

External links

• Wa̒ Bi̒nh diê̠n tứ – online newspaper in Mường (in Muong)

На других языках

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- [en] Muong language

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[fr] Muong (langue)

Le muong (autonyme : Thiểng Mường ; en vietnamien : Tiếng Mường) est une langue parlée au nord du Viêt Nam par les Muongs. Elle est proche du vietnamien, avec laquelle elle fait partie du groupe dit des langues viêt-muong de la famille des langues austroasiatiques. Les deux langues ont environ 75 % de leur vocabulaire de base commun. Le muong a aussi un système de 5 ou 6 tons homologue à celui du vietnamien, qui recourt à des types de phonation spécifiques[2]. Le muong a par ailleurs fait de nombreux emprunts au langues chinoises et aux langues tai. Ceci semble indiquer que les deux langues se sont séparées des autres langues môn-khmer durant le Ier millénaire apr. J.-C., pendant que la région était sous domination chinoise.

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[ru] Мыонгский язык

Мыонгский язык — язык северной (вьет-мыонгской) подгруппы вьетской группы мон-кхмерских языков, на котором говорят люди народности мыонг. Большинство из 1 140 000 носителей проживает на севере Вьетнама, в провинциях Хоабинь, Тханьхоа, Футхо, Йенбай, Шонла и Ниньбинь[1]. Родственен вьетнамскому и тьытскому языкам.

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