Hmong pronunciation

This is the native language of the Hmong people.

Vowels

• a as in “father”
• aa nasalized, like a more open version of ong of "song" (Note: only found in Green Hmong dialect)
• ai similar to English “eye”
• au between the English “ow” and “oh”
• aw somewhat similar to the British English “oh”
• e similar to the e in "they"
• ee nasalized, varying from the ing of “ring” toward the ung of “rung” depending upon the preceding consonant
• i as in “macaroni”
• ia as in “triage”
• o as in “cot”
• oo nasalized, between the ung of “Jung” and the ong of “song”
• u as in “tube”
• ua similar to the English wa
• w close to the ch in the German “ich” with the tongue in position for an i (sounds like a cat’s hissing)
• ww the Hmong w (above) followed by ng (very rare)

Almost all Hmong vowels are preceded by a glottal stop when said in isolation. That is, there should be an explosive start to the sound as in “Oh oh” as compared to “oooh.” If the word starts with an apostrophe, then there should not be a glottal stop.

Consonants

Hmong combines consonants much more than English. In the following pronunciations, try to say the group of consonants as a single, smooth unit.

Hmong distinguishes between aspirated and unaspirated stops for nearly every morpheme. In English, the voiceless stops /p t k/ are aspirated at the beginnings of words (e.g. tomato) and at the beginnings of word-internal stressed syllables (e.g. potato) and are generally unaspirated at the end of a word. Where “unaspirated” is noted, there should be no puff of air after making the sound, otherwise, the sound should be aspirated. Hmong also has an aspirated, voiced alveolar stop /d/ where the puff of air should follow the sound.

• c unaspirated, similar to the ty in “put you” but made with the middle part of the tongue instead of the tip
• ch same as above, but aspirated
• d like the d in "dream" but with a glottal stop before it
• dh same as above, but aspirated
• f same as standard English
• g the ng of “sing” but used as an initial consonant (very rare)
• h same as standard American English
• hny h plus ny of “canyon”
• hl h plus l but without the vocal cords vibrating. Similar to the Welsh ll
• hn h plus m
• hnl h plus the Hmong nl
• k unaspirated, like the k in “skill”
• kh like the standard English k
• l same as standard English
• m same as standard English
• n at the end of a syllable is silent but causes the preceding vowel to be nasalized; otherwise like in English
• nc n plus the Hmong c
• nch n plus the Hmong sound ch
• nk like the ng in “sing”
• nkh like the nk in “bank”
• nl like ml in “seemly“
• np like the mb in "number"
• nph like the mp in "lump"
• npl like the mbl in "ensemble"
• nplh like the mpl in "sample"
• nr n plus the Hmong r
• nrh n plus the Hmong rh
• nt like the nd in "bend"
• nth like the nt in "bent"
• ntsh similar to the nch in “inch”
• ntx n plus the Hmong tx
• ntxh like the nts in “bunts”
• ny as in “canyon”
• p unaspirated, similar to the p in "speak"
• ph like the standard English p
• pl unaspirated like the pl in "explode"
• plh like the pl in "play"
• q, qh, nq, nqh like the above variations of k, but made in the back of the mouth at the velum
• r retroflex, similar to the Hmong t but made with the tip of the tongue curled back and pointing to the back of the mouth as it touches the top of the mouth (same sound as Vietnamese tr)
• rh same as above, but aspirated
• s like the sh in “shoe”
• t unaspirated, like the t in "steak"
• th like the standard English t
• ts like the j in "jot" but without the vocal cords vibrating
• tsh similar to the ch in “chop”
• tx like the ds in “mudslide”
• txh like the ts in "cats"
• v same as standard English
• x like the English s
• xy the Hmong x (as described above) plus a y
• y same as standard English
• z as in “azure”

Tones

Except for ng, no syllable ends in a final consonant. The tone (except the mid tone) is indicated by a consonant at the end of a syllable. Where there is no tone indication, the syllable has a mid tone.

Your normal speaking voice is your mid tone. Speak a little higher for the high tone and a little lower for low tone. For the rising/falling tone, start at the directed tone and move accordingly (most Americans end a Yes/No question with a mid rising tone).

• -b high tone
• -j high falling tone
• -v mid rising tone
• -- mid tone
• -g breathy mid low tone
• -s low tone
• -m low falling (creaky) tone

The low rising, written –d, is found only in the pronunciation in certain contexts (phrase final) of words that otherwise have the –m tone.