Vietnamese phonetics for Hmong language

viet-mong

Vietnamese phonetics for Hmong / Cách phát (phiên) âm bồi Tiếng Việt cho Tiếng H'Mông

# Consonants

- these rules denote exception to how they are pronounced in Vietnamese.
- h is silent as in hmong = mong
c, rh, ts, tx             = ch
d                         = đ
ny                        = nh
r                         = tr (like trick)
z                         = gi (like English 'zh')
s                         = sh
xy                        = s
nc                        = nd (example 'nda' pronounce in Japanese as 'n-ya' where n is silent like ん (Hiragana) or ン (Katakana)
p                         = pb

- consonants that also read exactly like English
y                         = d
f                         = ph
k                         = c

# Vowels
Hmong/English = Việt
a /ah (yah)   = a
au/ao (cacao) = ao 
aw/er (offer) = ơ
e /ay (hay)   = ê
o /aw (raw)   = o
w /ew (stew)  = êu

- repeating vowels add -ng to sound

aa = ang, oo = ong, ee = eng

# 7-tone markers (ends with/consonants ending)

- Top forward-slash (High Tone)
ob = ó
oj = ó! (Quick commanding sound!  Like: Hey!)

- Top back-slash (Low Tone)
og = òhhh (Breathy Tone)
os = ò

- Question mark: d, v
ov = ỏ (Question mark.)
od = õ (Like question mark, but I denote as ~ like long dragged up question mark.)

- Other: m
om = ọ (Bottom-period indicate straight-bottom pitch.)

- here, we're using 'o' as example; same rules apply to other vowels.

Commonly taugh as: B-M-J-V-( )-S-G-D
KOB - KOM - KOJ - KOV - (KO) - KOS - KOG - KOD
Kó kọ kó! Kỏ ko kò kòhh kõ

Certain Vietnamese people like to eat dogs so we make up this Mnemonic: 

Bố mẹ jó! Vẩn trên Sài Gòn Dĩa

Translate: Dad and mother dogs are still a menu of Saigon dishes. 

# see also
Vietnamese tones - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language#Tones
Hmong dictionary - http://www.hmongdictionary.com/
Similar reference - https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%E1%BB%AF_Hm%C3%B4ng_Latin_h%C3%B3a

# note
Phiên âm bồi - mean the rules here are very generalize to make prounciation as close as possible 
to the majority of the sound combinations.  That doesn't mean there won't be mistakes so
feel free to comment and let me know how I improve this document.  Thanks.