Sedang language
Austroasiatic language of Laos and Vietnam
title: "Sedang language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-laos", "languages-of-vietnam", "bahnaric-languages", "quảng-ngãi-province"] description: "Austroasiatic language of Laos and Vietnam" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedang_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Austroasiatic language of Laos and Vietnam ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Sedang |
| nativename | Rơtéang, Rơteăng |
| states | Vietnam and Laos |
| region | Kon Tum, Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Dak Lak(Vietnam) |
| ethnicity | Sedang people |
| speakers | |
| date | 2007 |
| ref | e18 |
| familycolor | Austro-Asiatic |
| fam2 | Bahnaric |
| fam3 | North Bahnaric |
| fam4 | Sedang–Todrah |
| script | Latin (modified Vietnamese alphabet) |
| iso3 | sed |
| glotto | seda1262 |
| glottorefname | Sedang |
| notice | IPA |
| map | Sedang language.jpg |
| :: |
| name = Sedang | nativename = Rơtéang, Rơteăng | states = Vietnam and Laos | region = Kon Tum, Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Dak Lak(Vietnam) | ethnicity = Sedang people | speakers = | date = 2007 | ref = e18 | familycolor = Austro-Asiatic | fam2 = Bahnaric | fam3 = North Bahnaric | fam4 = Sedang–Todrah | script = Latin (modified Vietnamese alphabet) | iso3 = sed | glotto = seda1262 | glottorefname = Sedang | notice = IPA | map = Sedang language.jpg
Sedang is an Austro-Asiatic language spoken in eastern Laos and Kon Tum Province in south central Vietnam. The Sedang language has the most speakers of any of the languages of the North Bahnaric language group, a group of languages known for their range of vowel phonations.
Phonology
Consonants
::data[format=table]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | Nasal | Plosive | unaspirated | aspirated | prenasalized | Fricative | voiceless | voiced | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
Vowels
Sedang itself has 24 pure vowels: 7 vowel qualities, all of which may be plain ([a]), nasalized ([ã]), and creaky ([a̰]) and three of which /i a o/ may be both nasal and creaky ([ã̰]). While it does not have the length distinctions of other North Bahnaric languages, it has more diphthongs, between 33 and 55 vowel sounds all together. (The above set yields 50.) Sedang is thus sometimes claimed to have the largest vowel inventory in the world. However, other Bahnaric languages have more vowel qualities (Bahnar, for example, has 9) in addition to phonemic vowel length so the language with the record depends closely on how the languages are described and distinct vowels are defined. ::data[format=table]
| Front | Central | Back | High | Upper Mid | Lower Mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
Diphthongs
::data[format=table title="{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Kenneth D. |title=Phonology and Syntax of Sedang, A Vietnam Mon-Khmer Language |date=1975 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |pages=62–64}}"]
| Front Glide | Central Glide | Back Glide | /i/ Nucleus | /u/ Nucleus | /e/ Nucleus | /o/ Nucleus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| , | , , , | , | ||||
| , , , | , | |||||
| , , , | , , | |||||
| , | , , | |||||
| :: |
References
References
- (1975). "Phonology and Syntax of Sedang, A Vietnam Mon-Khmer Language". University of Pennsylvania.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::