Riang language

Not to be confused with Riang language (India).

Riang
Native to	Burma, China
Ethnicity	Palaung
Native speakers	(28,000 cited 1995–2008) [1]
Language family	Austroasiatic Khasi–Palaungic Palaungic Palaung–Riang Riang
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: ril  – Riang Lang yin  – Riang Lai
Glottolog	rian1260
ELP	Riang (Myanmar)

Riang is a Palaungic language of Burma and China. Speakers are culturally assimilated with the Karen, but are Palaung by ancestry and their language is unrelated. Riang Lang and Riang Lai (Yinchia) are sometimes considered distinct languages.

Phonology

Riang Lang consonants described by Hall (2018):

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t	c	k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	cʰ	kʰ
	voiced	b	d
Nasal	voiced	m	n	ɲ̟	ŋ
Fricative	voiceless		s			h
	voiced		l
Rhotic	voiced		r
Approximant	voiced	w		j

Vowels (Hall 2018):

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Close-mid	e	ə	o
Open		aː
Open-mid	ɛ	a	ɔ
Diphthongs	[ia]		[ua]

Riang Lang is sesquisyllabic and has two tones. Its typical word template is ((C)ə̆(C)).(C)(C)V(C)t. ^[2]

References

1. Riang Lang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Riang Lai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Hall, Elizabeth. (2018) A phonological analysis of Riang Lang. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society (JSEALS), 11:2.

• Shintani Tadahiko. 2014. The Riang language. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 101. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).