EURPhon: So

Phylum: Mon-Khmer

Genus: Katuic

Lat/lon: 17.356986, 104.269954

ISO code: sss

Consonants

Basic short series

	bilabial	labio-velar	labio-dental	alveolar	palatal	velar	glottal
stop	p, pʰ, b			t, tʰ, d	c, cʰ	k, kʰ	ʔ
tap				ɾ
fricative			f	s			h
nasal	m			n	ɲ	ŋ
approximant		w			j
lateral approximant				l

Vowels

Basic short series

	front	central	back
close	i		ɯ, u
close-mid	e		ɤ, o
open-mid	ɛ		ʌ, ɔ
open		a	ɑ

Long series

	front	central	back
close	iː		ɯː, uː
close-mid	eː		ɤː, oː
open-mid	ɛː		ʌː, ɔː
open		aː	ɑː

Short breathy voiced series

	front	central	back
close	i̤		ɯ̤, ṳ
close-mid	e̤		ɤ̤, o̤
open-mid	ɛ̤		ʌ̤, ɔ̤
open		a̤	ɑ̤

Long breathy voiced series

	front	central	back
close	i̤ː		ɯ̤ː, ṳː
close-mid	e̤ː		ɤ̤ː, o̤ː
open-mid	ɛ̤ː		ʌ̤ː, ɔ̤ː
open		a̤ː	ɑ̤ː

Diphthongs

/ia/, /ɯa/, /ua/, /i̤a/, /ɯ̤a/, /ṳa/

Licit initial clusters

{p,b,t,tʰ,k}{l,r}

Licit finals

p, t, c, k, ʔ, h, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɾ, w, l, j, {w,j}{h,ʔ}, ɲc

Licit syllabic templates

(C)CV(C)(C)

Source: Brian Migliazza, A grammar of So—A Mon-Khmer language of Northeast Thailand, PhD thesis, Mahidol inversity, 1998

Comments: /f/ is mostly found in loans form Thai. /w/ and /j/ are sometimes in free variation. /ia ua/ (in both registers) are in variation with [iɤ uɤ]. Breathy registered vowels ‘generally’ have a low-rising pitch. For a related language western Bru, /wʔ and /jʔ/ are treated in (Tebow and Lew 2013) not as clusters but as glottalised segments; the authors also posit prenasalised phonemic segments where Migliazza posits syllabic nasals in minor syllables.