Vowels
Lahu vowels contain all the vowels in English with a few extras.
| Lahu | English Equivalent |
|---|---|
| i | as in ‘in’ |
| e | as in ‘get’ |
| eh | as above |
| ui | like the Thai ‘เ◌ือ’ |
| eu | like the Thai ‘◌ือ’ |
| a | as in ‘are’ |
| u | as in ‘cue’ |
| o | as in ‘got’ |
| aw | as in ‘claw’ |
There is also a tenth vowel ‘uh’ that does not occur at the beginning of a word. It only occurs with nine consonants and in these cases can actually sound different. #tab-uh shows how ‘uh’ is effected with various consonant combinations.
| Written | Meaning | Spoken |
|---|---|---|
| tcuh ve | to send | cuh ve |
| tsuhˇ ve | to wash | chuhˇ ve |
| tzuhˆ ve | to itch | juhˆ ve |
| suh ve | to die | suh ve |
| zuhˆ ve | to sleep | yuhˆ ve |
Diphthongs
Diphthongs can be described as a sound made by combining two vowels together smoothly in one syllable. For example the word ‘kite’ in English has a diphthong represented by the letter i. Phonetically it could be written ‘k-eye-ee-t’ if said slowly.
The following table shows the diphthongs used in Lahu:
| Lahu | English Equivalent |
|---|---|
| ai | as in ‘fly’ |
| ao | as in ‘grouch’ |
| aweh | as in ‘boy’ |
| awan | said quickly as written (rare) |