Romanized Popular Alphabet

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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.[1]

Contents

In Xieng Khouang 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 language in Luang Prabang province at the time. Concurrently, Yves Bertrais, a 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.[2]

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.[3] There is no official version of the alphabet, and some writers make use of variant spellings.

Stops Nasals Plosives
l		 Affricates
ny n m ml p pl t d 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         np
/mb/		 npl
/mbˡ/		 nt
/nd/		   ndl
/ndˡ/		 nr
/ɳɖ/		 nc
/ɲɟ/		 nk
/ŋg/		 nq
/ɴɢ/		   ntx
/ndz/		 nts
/ɳɖʐ/
Preceding/Following 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/		 nts
/ʈʂʰ/
and         nph
/mbʱ/		 nplh
/mbɬ/		 nth
/ndʱ/		   ndlh
/ndɬ/		 nrh
/ɳɖʱ/		 nch
/ɲɟʱ/		 nkh
/ŋgʱ/		 nqh
/ɴɢʱ/		   ntxh
/ndzʱ/		 ntsh
/ɳɖʐʱ/
  • The glottal stop is not indicated in the orthography. The few truly vowel-initial words are indicated by an apostrophe.
Fricatives Labial Coronal Dorsal
f v x s z y xy
/f/ /v/ /s/ /ʂ/ /ʐ/ /ʝ/ /ç/
Vowels Monophthongs Nasalized Diphthongs
i e a o u w ee aa oo ai aw au ia ua
/i/ /e/ /a/ /ɔ/ /u/ /ɨ/ /ẽ/ /ã/ /ɔ̃/ /ai/ /aɨ/ /au/ /iə/ /uə/

The mid tone is not indicated in the orthography. The others are indicated by letters written at the end of the syllable.

  • -b – high tone
  • -s – low tone
  • -j – high-falling tone
  • -v – mid-rising tone
  • -m – low-falling (creaky) tone
  • -g – mid-low (breathy) tone
  • -d - phrase-final low-rising variant of -m

  1. ^ Smalley, William et.al. Mother of Writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. p. 151-154
  2. ^ Ibid.
  3. ^ Phonology adapted from: Golston, Chris, and Phong Yang. 2001. "Hmong loanword phonology." In Caroline Féry, Antony Dubach Green, and Ruben van de Vijver, eds., Proceedings of HILP 5. Potsdam: University of Potsdam, 40-57. Smalley, William et.al. Mother of Writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. p. 48-51. See also: Mortensen, David. “Preliminaries to Mong Leng (Hmong Njua) Phonology” Unpublished, UC Berkeley. 2004.

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