Stieng language

Stieng
Xtiêng, ស្ទៀង
Native to	Vietnam,Cambodia,possibly alsoLaos
Ethnicity	Stieng people
Native speakers	90,000 in Vietnam and Cambodia (2008 & 2009 censuses)
Language family	Austroasiatic Bahnaric South Bahnaric Stieng
Writing system	Khmer,Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: sti– Bulo Stieng stt– Budeh Stieng
Glottolog	stie1250
ELP	Bulo Stieng

Stieng(IPA:[stiə̯ŋ],Vietnamese:Xtiêng,Khmer:ស្ទៀង) is the language of theStieng peopleof southernVietnamand adjacent areas ofCambodia,and possibly Laos (under the nameTariang). Along withChrauandMnong,Stieng is classified as a language of the SouthBahnaricgrouping of theMon–Khmer languageswithin theAustroasiaticlanguage family. In the Austroasiatic scheme, the Bahnaric languages are often cited as being most closely related to the Khmer language.

There are noted dialects of Stieng, some of which may not be mutually intelligible. However, due to the lack of widely available research, this article will primarily describe the dialect known as Bulo Stieng spoken in the provinces ofBình Phước,Lâm Đồng,Tây Ninhin southwestern Vietnam andKratié(Snuol District) andMondulkiriprovinces in adjacent areas of eastern Cambodia.Bulo Stieng is spoken in more remote areas of the mountains and jungles alongside its close relative, Mnong. Other dialects, including Bu Dek and Bu Biek, are spoken in the lowlands and exhibit more influence from Vietnamese.

Unlike many other Mon–Khmer languages, Stieng does not distinguishvoice quality,nor is it atonallanguage like Vietnamese.Words may be eithermonosyllabicorsesquisyllabic.

Phonology

Consonants

Haupers (1969) analyzes Stieng as having 25 consonant phonemes with three-way contrasts ofvoiced,unvoicedandpre-glottalizedwithaspirationdescribed as a consonant cluster involving simple (i.e. not pre-glottalized) stops plus/h/.Analyses which include the aspirated series as independent phonemes yield 33 consonants and a five-way contrast.

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	Voiceless	p	t		c	k	ʔ
	Voiceless aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		cʰ	kʰ
	Voiced	b	d		ɟ	ɡ
	Voiced aspirated	bʱ	dʱ		ɟʱ	ɡʱ
	Pre-glottalized	ʔb	ʔd
Nasal	Voiced	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
	Preglottalized	ʔm	ʔn
Fricative	Voiceless		s		(ç)		h
Approximant	Voiced	w	l	r(ɾ)	j
	Preglottalized		ʔl		ʔj

Consonants appearing in syllable coda are devoiced and unreleased. For the alveolar approximate, the trilled[r]is found infree variationwith the flapped[ɾ].The voiceless palatal fricative[ç]appears only in syllable coda as acomplementaryallophone of[s].

Vowels

The Stieng vowel system consists of fifteenmonophthongsand twodiphthongs.In addition to vowel quality, quantitative length (duration) is also phonemic for vowels other than[ɛ]([æ])in closed syllables. The vowel[ɛ]([æ])is short beforehand long elsewhere. This lack ofminimal pairsfor[ɛ]([æ])and[ɛː]([æː])suggests that[ɛ],[æ],[ɛː]and[æː]are allallophones.

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iə̯	ɨ	ɨː	u	uːuə̯
Close-mid	e(ɪ)	eː(ɪː)				oː
Open-mid	ɛ(æ)	ɛː(æː)		ʌː		ɔː
Open			a	aː	ɑ

Symbols in parentheses represent allophonic variations.