Syllable structure[]
Words in the Hakha Chin language are predominantly monosyllabic with some sesqui syllables featuring a "reduced syllable"[1]. Full syllables are either open or closed with a rising, falling, or low tone.
Consonants[]
The Hakha Chin language differentiates between voiced, voiceless, and voiceless aspirated obstruents. Additionally, two sets of sonorants are realised.[2]
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | voiced | m | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | |
| voiceless | m̥ | n̥ | ɳ̊ | ɲ̊ | ŋ̊ | ||
| Plosives | tenuis | p | t | ʈ | c | k | ʔ |
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | ʈʰ | cʰ | kʰ | ||
| voiced | b | d̪ | ɖ | ɟ | ɡ | ||
| Central affricates | tenuis | t͡s | |||||
| aspirated | t͡sʰ | ||||||
| Lateral affricates | tenuis | tɬ | |||||
| aspirated | tɬʰ | ||||||
| Fricatives | voiceless | f | s̪ | ç | x | h | |
| voiced | v | z̪ | ʝ | ɣ | |||
| Approximants | voiced | l | j | ||||
| voiceless | l̥ | j̊ | |||||
| Trills | voiced | ʙ | r | ||||
| voiceless | ʙ̥ | r̥ | |||||
Consonants allowed in syllable codas are /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l, r, j, w/.
The unattested parent language, Proto-Chin, featured a voiced velar plosive ɡ. The phoneme itself was lost in all of its daughter languages, due to a spirantisation to ɣ, which a labialisation followed afterwards.[2] Only certain loanwords, not native words, have the voiced velar plosive.
In the Hakha alphabet, ⟨h⟩ transcribes the glottal fricative in initial position, but a glottal stop in coda position.[3] Voiceless approximants are distinguished in writing from their voiced counterparts with a prefixed ⟨h⟩.
Vowels[]
The Hakha language features five vowels which may be long or short. Allophones occur for closed syllables.[2]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Close-mid | ɪ | ɘ | ʊ |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɜ | ɔ |
| Open | æ | a | ɒ |
The Hakha language also features diphthongs.[2]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | ia iu | ui ua | |
| Mid | ei eu | oi | |
| Open | ai au |