Mlabri is a language spoken by the

Mlabri people The Mlabri ( Thai: มลาบรี) or Mrabri are an ethnic group of Thailand and Laos, and have been called "the most interesting and least understood people in Southeast Asia". Only about 400 or fewer Mlabris remain in the world today, with ...

in the border area between

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist s ...

. It is usually classified as a Khmuic language, a subgroup of the

Austroasiatic languages The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...

Linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

Jørgen Rischel has studied the language and described its peculiarities in several works. He divides the language into three varieties: one spoken by a small group in Laos and previously called ''Yumbri'', and two others spoken by larger groups in Thailand. They differ in intonation and in

lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word (), neuter of () meaning 'of or fo ...

. Although it is possible to count up to ten in Mlabri, only the numerals one and two may be used to modify a noun, and the word for 'two' has uses closer to 'pair' or 'couple' in English than a numeral.

Phonology

Mlabri distinguishes rounding in its

back vowel A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be c ...

s. It does not have the

register Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...

systems of some other Austroasiatic languages. All vowels occur long and short. /a/ is fronted after palato-alveolar consonants, and may approach . There is also a very short vowel that has limited distribution. Schwas occur in pre-tonic syllables, but may be

epenthetic In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epent ...

. There are several diphthongs. Consonants include the two implosive stops /ɓ/ and /ɗ/, attested in words such as ''ɓuʔ'' 'slow' and ''ɗɤŋ'' 'can'. These apparent implosive stops could be analyzed as pre-glottalized stops, as pre-glottalization is also a used for sonorants. Consonants also include voiceless sonorants, as in ''m̥ɛʔ'' 'new', ''n̥taʔ'' 'tail', ''ŋ̊uh'' 'sit', ''l̥ak'' '(there is) none', or ''w̥ep'' 'shoulder'. Arguably, these could be analyzed as a sequence of /h/ and a sonorant. is only attested in minor syllables. Mlabri has a different set of consonants which occur at the ends of syllables, including aspirated sonorants . The second is a trill, and the third more post-alveolar than palatal. Other final consonants are

References

External links

* Jørgen Rischel,
In what sense is Mlabri a West Khmuic language?
' * http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage) * http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-66E5-6@view Mlabri in RWAAI Digital Archive Languages of Thailand Khmuic languages Languages of Laos Endangered Austroasiatic languages {{AustroAsiatic-lang-stub

Phonology

References

Further reading

External links