Katu language

Katu
Low Katu, West Katu
Native to	Laos, Central Vietnam
Ethnicity	Katu
Native speakers	23,000 (2005 census) [1]
Language family	Austroasiatic Katuic Katu languages Katu
Dialects	Triw [2] Dakkang Kantu Kalum
Writing system	Lao (Laos), Latin (Vietnam)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kuf
Glottolog	west2398
ELP	Dakkang
	Triw

Katu, or Low Katu, is a Katuic language of eastern Laos and central Vietnam.

In Vietnam, it is spoken in Huế city, including in A Lưới district. According to the 2009 Vietnamese census, there are 61,588 Katu people. ^[3]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	cʰ	kʰ
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	ɡ
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ	ʄ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Liquid	rhotic		r
	lateral		l
Fricative			( s )			h
Approximant		w		j

• /ʄ/ can also be heard as a preglottal affricate sound [ʔdʒ] or glide [ʔj].
• /cʰ/ can range to an alveolar fricative [s]. ^[4]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː	ɨ ɨː	u uː
Close-mid	e eː	ə əː	o oː
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː	ʌ ʌː	ɔ ɔː
Open		a aː	ɒ ɒː

• Diphthongs occur as /ia,ɨa,ua/. ^[5]

References

1. Katu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. "Mon-Khmer Classification (Draft)".
3. Tổng điều tra dân số và nhà ở Việt Nam năm 2009: Kết quả toàn bộ. Archived 2012-11-14 at the Wayback Machine Hà Nội, 6-2010. Tabl. 5, p. 134-225. Accessed 10/2/2011
4. Wallace, Judith M. (1969). "Katu phonemes". Mon-Khmer Studies . 3: 64–73.
5. Sidwell (2005), pp. 15-16

Further reading

• Nguyễn Hữu Hoành & Nguyễn Văn Lợi. 1998. Tiếng Katu. Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Khoa Học Xã Hội.
• Sidwell, Paul. (2005). The Katuic languages: classification, reconstruction and comparative lexicon Archived 2020-12-04 at the Wayback Machine . LINCOM studies in Asian linguistics, 58. Muenchen: Lincom Europa. ISBN   3895868027
• Theraphan L-Thongkum. 2001. Languages of the Tribes in Xekong Province Southern Laos. The Thailand Research Fund. Bangkok, Chulalongkorn University.