Thavung language

Thavưng
Aheu
Native to Laos, Thailand
Native speakers
700  (2007)[1]
Dialects
Ahoe
Ahao
Ahlao
Language codes
ISO 639-3 thm
Glottolog aheu1239[2]

Thavưng, or Aheu, is a language spoken by the Phon Sung people in Laos and Thailand. There are thought to be some 1,770 speakers in Laos, largely concentrated in Khamkeut District. A further 750 speakers live in 3 villages of Song Dao District, Sakon Nakhon Province, Thailand, namely Ban Nongwaeng (in Pathum Wapi Subdistrict), Ban Nongjaroen, and Ban Nongmuang (Suwilai Premsirat 1996).

Thavung makes a four-way distinction between clear and breathy phonation combined with glottalized final consonants. This is very similar to the situation in the Pearic languages in which, however, the glottalization is in the vowel.

References

  1. Thavưng at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Aheu". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.