Romanized Popular Alphabet
Encyclopedia
The Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA) or Hmong RPA (also Roman Popular Alphabet), is a system of romanization
for the various dialects of the Hmong language
. Created in Laos between 1951 and 1953 by a group of missionaries and Hmong
advisers, it has gone on to become the most widespread system for writing the Hmong language in the West. It is also used in Southeast Asia and China alongside other writing systems, notably Pahawh Hmong
.
in Luang Prabang province at the time. Concurrently, Yves Bertrais, a Roman Catholic missionary in Kiu Katiam, Luang Prabang, was undertaking a similar project with Chong Yeng Yang and Chue Her Thao. The two working groups met in 1952 and reconciled any differences by 1953 to produce a version of the script.
or pinyin
. Unlike Vietnamese and Chinese, all Hmong syllables end in a vowel, which means that using consonant letters to indicate tone won't be confusing or ambiguous.
Romanization
In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
for the various dialects of the Hmong language
Hmong language
Hmong or Mong is the common name for a dialect continuum of the West Hmongic branch of the Hmong–Mien/Miao–Yao language family spoken by the Hmong people of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos...
. Created in Laos between 1951 and 1953 by a group of missionaries and Hmong
Hmong people
The Hmong , are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China...
advisers, it has gone on to become the most widespread system for writing the Hmong language in the West. It is also used in Southeast Asia and China alongside other writing systems, notably Pahawh Hmong
Pahawh Hmong
Pahawh Hmong is an indigenous semi-syllabic script, invented in 1959, to write the Hmong language.-Form:Pahawh is written left to right...
.
History
In Xieng Khuang province, Protestant missionary G. Lindwood Barney began working on the writing system with speakers of Green Mong (Mong Leng), Geu Yang and Tua Xiong, among others. He consulted with William A. Smalley, a missionary studying the Khmu languageKhmu language
Khmu is the language of the Khmu people of the northern Laos region. It is also spoken in adjacent areas of Vietnam, Thailand and China. Khmu lends its name to the Khmuic branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family, which also includes Khmer and Vietnamese. Within Austro-Asiatic, Khmu is often...
in Luang Prabang province at the time. Concurrently, Yves Bertrais, a Roman Catholic missionary in Kiu Katiam, Luang Prabang, was undertaking a similar project with Chong Yeng Yang and Chue Her Thao. The two working groups met in 1952 and reconciled any differences by 1953 to produce a version of the script.
Orthography
The alphabet was developed to write both the Hmong Der (White Hmong, RPA: Hmoob Dawb) and Mong Leng (Green/Blue Mong, RPA: Moob Leeg) dialects. While these dialects have much in common, each has unique sounds. Consonants and vowels found only in Hmong Der or Green Mong are color coded respectively. Some writers make use of variant spellings.Consonants and vowels
| Stops | Nasals | Plosives | l |
Affricates | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ny | n | m | ml | p | pl | t | |dl | r | c | k | q | tx | ts | |||
| Unmodified | /ɲ/ | /n/ | /m/ | /mˡ/ | /p/ | /pˡ/ | /t/ | /d/ | /tˡ/ | /ʈ/ | /c/ | /k/ | /q/ | /l/ | /ts/ | /ʈʂ/ |
| Preceding ⟨n⟩ | np /ᵐb/ |
npl /ᵐbˡ/ |
nt /ⁿd/ |
ndl /ⁿdˡ/ |
nr /ᶯɖ/ |
nc /ᶮɟ/ |
nk /ᵑɡ/ |
nq /ᶰɢ/ |
ntx /ⁿdz/ |
nts /ᶯɖʐ/ |
||||||
| Preceding/Following ⟨h⟩ | hny /ɲ̥/ |
hn /n̥/ |
hm /m̥/ |
hml /m̥ɬ/ |
ph /pʰ/ |
plh /pɬ/ |
th /tʰ/ |
dh /dʱ/ |
dlh /tɬ/ |
rh /ʈʰ/ |
ch /cʰ/ |
kh /kʰ/ |
qh /qʰ/ |
hl /ɬ/ |
txh /tsʰ/ |
tsh /ʈʂʰ/ |
| ⟨n⟩ and ⟨h⟩ | nph /ᵐbʱ/ |
nplh /ᵐbɮ/ |
nth /ⁿdʱ/ |
ndlh /ⁿdɮ/ |
nrh /ᶯɖʱ/ |
nch /ᶮɟʱ/ |
nkh /ᵑɡʱ/ |
nqh /ᶰɢʱ/ |
ntxh /ⁿdzʱ/ |
ntsh /ᶯɖʐʱ/ |
||||||
- The glottal stopGlottal stopThe glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
is not indicated in the orthography. The few truly vowel-initial words are indicated by an apostropheApostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
, which thus acts as a zero consonantZero consonantA zero consonant, silent initial, or null-onset letter is a consonant-like letter that is not pronounced, but indicates that a word or syllable starts with a vowel...
.
| Fricatives | Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| f | v | x | s | z | y | xy | h | |
| /f/ | /v/ | /s/ | /ʂ/ | /ʐ/ | /ʝ/ | /ç/ | /h/ |
| Vowels | | Monophthongs | |Nasalized | |Diphthongs | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | e | a | o | u | w | ee | |ia | ua | ||||||
| /i/ | /e/ | /a/ | /ɔ/ | /u/ | /ɨ/ | /ẽ/ | /ã/ | /ɔ̃/ | /ai/ | /aɨ/ | /au/ | /iə/ | /uə/ | |
Tones
RPA indicates tone by letters written at the end of a syllable rather than with diacritics like those used in the Vietnamese alphabetVietnamese alphabet
The Vietnamese alphabet, called Chữ Quốc Ngữ , usually shortened to Quốc Ngữ , is the modern writing system for the Vietnamese language...
or pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
. Unlike Vietnamese and Chinese, all Hmong syllables end in a vowel, which means that using consonant letters to indicate tone won't be confusing or ambiguous.
| Tone | Example | Orthographic Spelling |
|---|---|---|
| High | /pɔ́/ 'ball' | pob |
| Mid | /pɔ/ 'spleen' | po |
| Low | /pɔ̀/ 'thorn' | pos |
| High falling | /pɔ̂/ 'female' | poj |
| Mid rising | /pɔ̌/ 'to throw' | pov |
| Creaky Creaky voice In linguistics, creaky voice , is a special kind of phonation in which the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact... |
/pɔ̰/ 'to see' | pom1 |
| Low falling breathy Breathy voice Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise... |
/pɔ̤/ 'grandmother' | pog |
- ⟨d⟩ represents a phrase-final low-rising variant of the creaky tone
External links
- Hmong Language FAQ, David Mortensen
- Mong Literacy – includes lessons on writing Mong Leng with RPA
- http://www.hmongrpa.org/