Romanized Popular Alphabet Explained

The Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA) or Hmong RPA (also Roman Popular Alphabet), is a system of romanization for the various dialects of the Hmong language. Created in Laos between 1951 and 1953 by a group of missionaries and Hmong advisers, it has gone on to become the most widespread system for writing the Hmong language in the West. It is also used in Southeast Asia and China alongside other writing systems, most notably Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong and Pahawh Hmong.

History

In Xiangkhoang Province, Protestant missionary G. Linwood Barney began working on the writing system with speakers of Green Mong (Mong Leng), Geu Yang and Tua Xiong, among others. He consulted with William A. Smalley, a missionary studying the Khmu language in Luang Prabang Province at the time. Concurrently, Yves Bertrais, a Roman Catholic missionary in Kiu Katiam, Luang Prabang, was undertaking a similar project with Chong Yeng Yang and Chue Her Thao. The two working groups met in 1952 and reconciled any differences by 1953 to produce a version of the script.

Orthography

The alphabet was developed to write both the Hmong Der (White Hmong, RPA: Hmoob Dawb) and Mong Leng (Green/Blue Mong, RPA: Moob Leeg) dialects. While these dialects have much in common, each has unique sounds. Consonants and vowels found only in

White Hmong (denoted with †) or Green Mong (denoted with ⁂) are color-coded respectively.^[1] Some writers make use of variant spellings. Much as with Tosk for Albanian, White Hmong was arbitrarily chosen to be the "standard" variant.

Consonants and vowels

Occlusive consonants in the Romanized Popular Alphabet

Occlusives	Nasals				Stops									l	Affricates
	ny	n	m	ml	p	pl	t	d†	dl⁂	r	c	k	q		tx	ts
align=center	Unmodified	align=center	pronounced as //ɲ//	align=center	pronounced as //n//	align=center	pronounced as //m//	pronounced as //mˡ//	align=center	pronounced as //p//	pronounced as //pˡ//	align=center	pronounced as //t//	pronounced as //d//†	pronounced as //tˡ//⁂	align=center	pronounced as //ʈ//	align=center	pronounced as //c//	align=center	pronounced as //k//	align=center	pronounced as //q//	align=center	pronounced as //l//	align=center	pronounced as //ts//	align=center	pronounced as //ʈʂ//
align=center	Preceding (n)					align=center	np pronounced as //ᵐb//	npl pronounced as //ᵐbˡ//	align=center	nt pronounced as //ⁿd//		ndl pronounced as //ⁿdˡ//⁂	align=center	nr pronounced as //ᶯɖ//	align=center	nc pronounced as //ᶮɟ//	align=center	nk pronounced as //ᵑɡ//	align=center	nq pronounced as //ᶰɢ//		align=center	ntx pronounced as //ⁿdz//	align=center	nts pronounced as //ᶯɖʐ//
align=center	Preceding/Following (h)	hny pronounced as //ɲ̥//†	hn pronounced as //n̥//†	hm pronounced as //m̥//†	hml pronounced as //m̥^ɬ//†	align=center	ph pronounced as //pʰ//	plh pronounced as //p^ɬ//	align=center	th pronounced as //tʰ//	dh pronounced as //dʱ//†	dlh pronounced as //t^ɬ//⁂	align=center	rh pronounced as //ʈʰ//	align=center	ch pronounced as //cʰ//	align=center	kh pronounced as //kʰ//	align=center	qh pronounced as //qʰ//	align=center	hl pronounced as //ɬ//	align=center	txh pronounced as //tsʰ//	align=center	tsh pronounced as //ʈʂʰ//
align=center	(n) and (h)					align=center	nph pronounced as //ᵐpʰ//	nplh pronounced as //ᵐp^ɬ//	align=center	nth pronounced as //ⁿtʰ//		ndlh pronounced as //ⁿt^ɬ//⁂	align=center	nrh pronounced as //ᶯʈʰ//	align=center	nch pronounced as //ᶮcʰ//	align=center	nkh pronounced as //ᵑkʰ//	align=center	nqh pronounced as //ᶰqʰ//		align=center	ntxh pronounced as //ⁿtsʰ//	align=center	ntsh pronounced as //ᶯʈʂʰ//

• The glottal stop is not indicated in the orthography. The few truly vowel-initial words are indicated by an apostrophe, which thus acts as a zero consonant.

Fricatives

Labial		Coronal			Dorsal		Glottal
f	v	x	s	z	xy	y	h
align=center		align=center	pronounced as //f//	align=center	pronounced as //v//	align=center	pronounced as //s//	align=center	pronounced as //ʂ//	align=center	pronounced as //ʐ//	align=center	pronounced as //ç//	align=center	pronounced as //ʝ//	align=center	pronounced as //h//

Tones

RPA indicates tone by letters written at the end of a syllable, similarly to Gwoyeu Romatzyh or Zhuang, rather than with diacritics like those used in the Vietnamese alphabet or Pinyin. Unlike Vietnamese and Chinese, all Hmong syllables end in a vowel, which means that using consonant letters to indicate tone will be neither confusing nor ambiguous.

Tone!scope="col"

Example^[2]	Orthographic Spelling
High	pronounced as //pɔ́// 'ball'	pob
Mid	pronounced as //pɔ// 'spleen'	po
Low	pronounced as //pɔ̀// 'thorn'	pos
High falling	pronounced as //pɔ̂// 'female'	poj
Mid rising	pronounced as //pɔ̌// 'to throw'	pov
Creaky	pronounced as //pɔ̰// 'to see'	pom
Low falling breathy	pronounced as //pɔ̤// 'grandmother'	pog

1. (d) represents a phrase-final low-rising variant of the creaky tone

See also

• Standard Zhuang

Bibliography

• • • Book: Smalley. William A.. William A. Smalley. Vang. Chia Koua. Yang. Gnia Yee. 1990. Mother of Writing: The Origin and Development of a Hmong Messianic Script. registration. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 978-0226762876.

External links

• Hmong Language FAQ, David Mortensen
• Mong Literacy – includes lessons on writing Mong Leng with RPA
• http://www.hmongrpa.org/

Notes and References

1. Phonology adapted from: and . See also: Mortensen, David. "Preliminaries to Mong Leng (Hmong Njua) Phonology" (Archive) Unpublished, UC Berkeley. 2004.
2. Examples taken from: Heimbach, Ernest H. White Hmong-English Dictionary [White Meo-English Dictionary]. 2003 ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications, 1969. Note that many of these words have multiple meanings.