Thavung language

Thavưng
Aheu
Native to	Laos, Thailand
Native speakers	700 (2007)[1]
Language family	Austroasiatic Vietic Thavưng
Dialects	Ahoe Ahao Ahlao
Language codes
ISO 639-3	thm
Glottolog	aheu1239[2]

Thavưng, or Aheu, is a language spoken by the Phon Sung people in Laos and Thailand. There are thought to be some 1,770 speakers in Laos, largely concentrated in Khamkeut District. A further 750 speakers live in 3 villages of Song Dao District, Sakon Nakhon Province, Thailand, namely Ban Nongwaeng (in Pathum Wapi Subdistrict), Ban Nongjaroen, and Ban Nongmuang (Suwilai Premsirat 1996).

Thavung makes a four-way distinction between clear and breathy phonation combined with glottalized final consonants. This is very similar to the situation in the Pearic languages in which, however, the glottalization is in the vowel.

Further Reading

Suwilai Premsrirat (1996) Phonological characteristics of So (Thavung), a Vietic language of Thailand

References

1. Thavưng at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Aheu". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.