The Pacoh language is a member of the
Katuic language group, a part of the Easter
Mon–Khmer languages, Mon–Khmer linguistic branch. Most Pacoh speakers live in central
Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
and central
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
.
Pacoh is undergoing substantial change, influenced by the
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
.
Alternative names are Paco, Pokoh, Bo River Van Kieu. Its dialects are Pahi (Ba-Hi). They are officially classified by the Vietnamese government as Ta'Oi (Tà Ôi) people.
Phonology
Vowels
Sidwell 2003:
Pacoh has six vowel qualities, all of which occur
long
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...
and short, in modal and
creaky voice
In linguistics, creaky voice (sometimes called laryngealisation, pulse phonation, vocal fry, or glottal fry) refers to a low, scratchy sound that occupies the vocal range below the common vocal register. It is a special kind of phonation in which ...
. Creaky vowels are
lowered compared to modally voiced vowels. There are three
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s which also occur modal and creaky. Unlike other languages in the area, vowel phonation does not seem to have originated in the phonation of preceding consonants.
Further reading
* Alves, M. J. (2006). ''A grammar of Pacoh: a Mon–Khmer language of the central highlands of Vietnam''. Pacific linguistics, 580. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University.
*Watson, Richard L. (1964). "Pacoh Phonemes". Mon-Khmer Studies Journal.
References
External links
Alves, Mark J. 2007. Pacoh Pronouns and Grammaticalization Clines.
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20181118185846/http://web.phonetik.uni-frankfurt.de/L/L2314.html The language has these soundsbr>Pacoh-English-Vietnamese dictionary by SIL International
Katuic languages
{{AustroAsiatic-lang-stub