Sedang is an Austro-Asiatic language spoken in eastern

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

and Kon Tum Province in south central

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. The Sedang language has the most speakers of any of the languages of the North Bahnaric language group, a group of languages known for their range of

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

phonation The term phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, ''phonation'' is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the defi ...

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Sedang itself has 24 pure vowels: 7 vowel qualities, all of which may be plain ( , nasalized ( �, and creaky ( ̰ and three of which /i a o/ may be both nasal and creaky ( �̰. While it does not have the length distinctions of other North Bahnaric languages, it has more

diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, 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 ...

s, between 33 and 55 vowel sounds all together. (The above set yields 50.) Sedang is thus sometimes claimed to have the largest vowel inventory in the world. However, other Bahnaric languages have more vowel qualities (Bahnar, for example, has 9) in addition to phonemic vowel length so the language with the record depends closely on how the languages are described and distinct vowels are defined.

Diphthongs

References

External links

Sedang Dictionary
with English, Vietnamese, and French glossaries *Paul Sidwell'

at the Australian National University.
Sound sample
showing the distinction between clear and creaky vowels, from the link above.
Smith's dissertation
{{Austro-Asiatic languages Languages of Laos Languages of Vietnam Bahnaric languages Kon Tum province