Cao Lan phonology.

Cao Lan is a little-studied language of Austro-Tai stock. Its non-numerous speakers live in North Vietnam. In 2003, the author of the present article – being a member of Russian-Vietnamese linguistic expedition – had a lucky opportunity to participate in the fi eld studies in Bac Giang province and collect a Cao Lan word list, which allowed to present more or less comprehensive phonological system of the language. Our description highlights Cao Lan syllable layout, vocalism, initial and fi nal consonantism, and prosody structure. The latter – besides tones totaling to 2 in syllables with occlusive fi nals and 4, in all others – comprises phonation distinction with tense correlate radically modifying a number of vowels and phonologically irrelevant vowel nasalization after laryngeal initials.