Table of Contents

• Book – Xyaum Ntawv Hmoob Thoob Teb
• Vowels
• The Tones
• The Single Consonants
• The Double Consonants
• The 3 and 4 Consonants

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Introduction

This page is intended to be an exhaustive resource for learning to read the Hmong ‘Thoob Teb’ alphabet. The Hmong ‘Thoob Teb’ alphabet is by far the most popular Romanized alphabet representing the sounds and words of the Hmong language. It is not difficult to learn. Below you will find English and Thai equivalent sounds if they are available. There is also audio pronunciation of the sounds of the letter followed by a simple word that uses that letter. This is a mnemonic device or memory aide used to help native speakers learn more quickly because they are already familiar with that word, so they can connect it to the letter. It is similar to saying ‘A- Apple’ ‘B- Bear’ ‘C-Cat’ for every letter of the English language alphabet.

Every single written syllable in Hmong is made up of at least one part, a vowel, and at most, three parts which are a consonant, a vowel, and then a tone. Below is an example of the word ‘white’ in Hmong with the 3 parts labeled:

There are single and double vowels. This means that there are vowels that are written with one letter like, ‘a’ or written with two letters like, ‘oo.’ In either case, both single and double vowels produce one single syllable.

In the same way, consonants can be written with one, two, three, or even four letters. Despite this, even a consonant with four letters like ‘ntsh’ is still just considered one consonant and when combined with a vowel simply produces one single syllable or one sound. So for example, when you combine the consonant ‘ntsh’ with the vowel, ‘ua’ you get the word, ‘ntshua’ which is pronounced below:

The Hmong language also has 8 tones. They are written at the end of each word by using one of the following English consonants: b, j, s, v, m, g, d and finally, when there is no tone marker written, this is considered ‘no tone’ and pronounced without any tonal inflection. You can learn more about tones in the tones section.

Many of the words in the Hmong language are single syllable words meaning that just one syllable has its own meaning and is its own word. For example, the word ‘miv’ means cat and it is just one syllable. There are some words, however, that perhaps over time were so often pronounced together that they gained their own individual meanings as a double syllable word. Whatever the true origin, many double syllable words are often written without a space between them. For example the word ‘ntiaj teb,’ which means world or earth, is most commonly written together as, ‘ntiajteb.’ Unfortunately, this is not universal. Some people write it together, some write it apart.

Book – Xyaum Ntawv Hmoob Thoob Teb

Below you will find a workbook that can be printed and used to practice the Hmong Alphabet. It was intended to be used to teach native speakers how to read.

Vowels // สระ

Vowels are the only letters in Hmong that can be pronounced alone. They do not need either a tone or a consonant to be pronounced. The following are all of the vowels in Hmong. Vowels that are only used in Green Hmong are marked in green.

A – pronounced like ‘apple’ – สระอา

AU – pronounced like ‘out’ – สระเอา

AI – pronounced like ‘high‘ – สระไอ

IA – pronounced like ‘chia pet’ – สระเอีย

I – pronounced like ‘tree‘ – สระอี

U – pronounced like ‘you‘ – สระอู

UA – pronounced like ‘you uhh…’ – สระอัว

E – pronounced like ‘say‘ – สระเอ

EE – pronounced like ‘sang‘ – สระเอง

O – pronounced like ‘lawn’ – สระอ

OO – pronounced like ‘song‘ – สระอง

AW – no exact equivalent – สระ อา+อื

W – no exact equivalent – สระอื

AA – no exact equivalent – สระอาง

The Tones

What is a Tone? What is a Tone Marker?

For speakers of a non-tonal language, tones can be a difficult concept to grasp and can be very intimidating. But don’t worry! It is not as hard as it seems. Below are some resources to help you grasp the concept. Really, explanation will help some. But the best path to understanding is hearing. So pay close attention to the audio examples.

Hmong call the tones ‘cim’ which means a marker or sign. In the Hmong language, that ‘marker’ or ‘cim’ is followed by a word in Hmong that uses that tone to help as a memory aide to remember which tone we are talking about. So, for example, the high tone in Hmong is called ‘cim siab,’ cim meaning ‘marker,’ and ‘siab’ meaning ‘heart’ but also being a word that ends in that high ‘b’ tone.

B – cim siab – เสียง อ๊

The B tone or ‘cim siab’ is a tone that starts and stays high. –

M – cim niam – เสียง อ่ะ เสียงมันตำ่เหมือน cim mus แต่มันสั้นกว่า

The M tone or ‘cim niam’ is short, low, and clipped. It is the tone of voice that your mother used to (or still does) yell at you in. –

J – cim ntuj – เสียง อ้

The J tone or ‘cim ntuj’ starts high and falls. –

V – cim kuv – เสียง อ๋

The V tone or ‘cim kuv’ is a rising tone, like one would ask a question –

no tone letter – cim ua – เสียง อ

The ‘no tone’ is any word that ends in a vowel. It is monotone, as in, ‘no tone.’ –

S – cim mus – เสียง อ่

The S tone or ‘cim mus’ starts and stays low and is drug out a bit. –

G – cim neeg – เสียง อ่ะ เสียงต่ำที่สุด หายใจออกมาเหมือนเสียงกระซิบ 

The G tone or ‘cim neeg’ is a low, breathy tone, like getting the wind knocked out of you a little. –

D – cim tod –  เสียง D หรือ ‘cim tod’ ออกเสียงเหมือนกับเสียง ‘v’ เพียงแค่ยืดออกไปให้ยาวขึ้นเท่านั้น

The D tone or ‘cim tod’ is pronounced exactly like the ‘v’ tone, it is just stretched out longer. –

The Single Consonants

T – pronounced like t in stake – ต

K – pronounced like the g in ‘go’ – ก

P – pronounced like the p in ‘spin’ – บ

X – pronounced like ‘sin’ – ซ

S – pronounced like ‘shoe’ – ไม่เหมือนพยัญชนะตัวใดๆ

L – pronounced like ‘life’ – ล

N – pronounced like ‘nap’ – น

H – pronounced like ‘happy’ – ห

M – pronounced like ‘map’ – ม

D – pronounced like ‘do’ – ด

V – pronounced like ‘vice’ – ไม่เหมือนพยัญชนะตัวใดๆ

Q – no exact equivalent – คล้ายกับ ข

R – no equivalent – ไม่เหมือนพยัญชนะตัวใดๆ

Z – no exact equivalent – ไม่เหมือนพยัญชนะตัวใดๆ

Y – pronounced like ‘year’ – ย

C – no exact equivalent – ไม่เหมือนพยัญชนะตัวใดๆ

F – as in ‘five’ – ฟ

The Double Consonants

PH – Post-aspirated ‘p’ – พ

TS – no equivalent. Similar to the j in ‘June’ but a little harder – จ

NY – no equivalent. Similar to ‘canyon’ or ‘onion’ – น + ย

TX – no equivalent. Similar to ‘beds,’ but a little harder – ต + ซ

NT – no equivalent. Similar to ‘endanger’ – น + ต

TH – Post-aspirated ‘t’ – ท

NR – Like “can draw.” ‘N’ into ‘r’ – น+r

NC – Like ‘nky’ – น+ฉ

HN – Pre-aspirated ‘n’ – ห+น

HM – Pre-aspirated ‘m’ – ห+ม

HL – Pre-aspirated ‘l’ – ห+ล

KH – Post-aspirated ‘k’ – ค

NK – Like finger – น+ก

PL – Like blame. ‘P’ into ‘l’ – ปล

NQ – More nasalized ‘q’ – น+q

XY – Like crash your car. Should sound like a cat hissing if you do it right. – ซ+ย

NP – English ‘m’ bleeding into a ‘b’ – น+ป

QH – Post-aspirated ‘q’ – q+ห

CH – Post-aspirated ‘c’ – ฉ+ห

DH – Post-aspirated ‘d’ – ด+ห

ML – Similar to hamlet – ท

RH – Post-aspirated ‘r’ – r+ห

3 and 4 Consonants

Below is also an illustration to help you visualize the general idea.

TSH, tsh – Post-aspirated ‘ts’ – จ+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

TXH, txh – Post-aspirated ‘tx’ – ต+ซ+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

NTS, nts – Like unjust – น+จ

NTX, ntx – Like ‘and Xerox’ – น+ต+ซ

NPL, npl – English ‘m’ blend into ‘bl’ – น+ปล

NPH, nph – Post-aspirated ‘np’ – น+พ+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

NTH, nth – Post-aspirated ‘nt’ – น+ต+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

PLH, plh – Post-aspirated ‘pl’ – ปล+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

NRH, nrh – Post-aspirated ‘nr’ – น+r+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

’NCH, nch – Post-aspirated ‘ch’ – น+ฉ+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

NKH, nkh – Post-aspirated ‘nk’ – น+ก+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

NQH, nqh – Post-aspirated ‘nq’ – น+q+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

HNY, hny – Pre-aspirated ‘ny’ – ห+น+ย (แต่ลมจาก ห ต้องออกจากจมูก, ไม่ใช่ปาก)

HML, hml- Pre-aspirated ‘ml’ – ห+ม+ล (แต่ลมจาก ห ต้องออกจากจมูก, ไม่ใช่ปาก)

NTSH, ntsh – Post-aspirated ‘nts’ – น+จ+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

NTXH, ntxh – Post-aspirated ‘ntx’ – น+ต+ซ+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)

NPLH, nplh – Post-aspirated ‘npl’ – น+ปล+ห (ลมต้องออกจากปากตอนสุดท้าย)