Sedang is an Austro-Asiatic language spoken in eastern

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

and Kon Tum Province in south central Vietnam. The Sedang language has the most speakers of any of the languages of the

North Bahnaric language The Bahnaric languages are a group of about thirty Austroasiatic languages spoken by about 700,000 people in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Paul Sidwell notes that Austroasiatic/Mon–Khmer languages are lexically more similar to Bahnaric and Katui ...

group, a group of languages known for their range of vowel

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 defini ...

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Diphthongs

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, 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, 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.

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