Consonants

Working orthography	IPA	Example words
m	m	Initial position:  母 mu3 – female relative Final position: sam1 – clothes Syllabic: m4 – five
n	n palatal allophone	Initial position: noi4 – too long (time) Final position: gin4 – close, near
ng	ŋ	Final position: geeng1 – walk Syllabic: 牛 ng2 – cow
b	p (unaspirated)	Initial position: bo2 – grandma Final position: kab – pick up
p	ph	Initial position: pa’ – hit
d	t (unaspirated)	Initial position: dem2 – sweet Final position: gid – tangerine
t	th	Initial position: toi2 – table
g	k (unaspirated)	Initial position: gid – tangerine Final position: leg – to roll
k	kh	Initial position: keen2 – fist
l	l	Initial position: leg – to roll
s	s	Initial position: soi4 – sit
h	h ~ ɸ	Initial position: X huad – soggy, dau4 hu5 [ɸu]
y (i in coda)	j	Initial position: yong2 – sheep, goat Final position: toi2 – table
w	w	Initial position: wai4 – stomach
j	t͡s tɕ (optional allophone before rounded vowels)	Initial position: ji3 – finger; to point [tsi] Initial position: joi3 – mouth [tɕɔj]
c	t͡sh tɕh (optional allophone before rounded vowels)	Initial position: ci4 – watch [tshi] Initial position: cud – exit [tɕhut]

Vowels

Working Orthography	IPA	Example Words
i	i	it – one, nim3 – drink
e	ɛ	Open syllable: he4 – crab Closed syllable: leng2 – deaf, bed – eight
a	a	sam1 – three
u	u	bud7 – fall down
o	ɔ	mo3 – female (animal)

Diphthongs

Working Orthography	IPA	Example Words
au	au	tau2 – head (never with other coda)
ou	ɔu	Open syllable: ou3 – vomit (maybe never with onset) (never with other coda)
oi	ɔi	Open syllable: toi2 – table (never with other coda)
oe	oi	poe2 – skin (never with other coda)
ee	eɛ	geeng2 – walk, gen2 – tall, gee1 – chicken

Tonal System:
Longdu tones differ slightly from the neighboring majority languages of Yue (Cantonese) and Mandarin.  In mid-columns of the chart below, 1 represents the lowest, and 5 the highest level. For the purpose of a working orthography, tones are given a corresponding number.  This number will follow the word.  (Words in Longdu only have one tone.)

Working Orthography	Final	Non-final	Example words
1	45	52	雞 gee1 – chicken, 雞母 gee1-mo2 – hen
2	34	33	geeng2 – walk
3	13	13	買 me3 – buy, geeng3 – neck 買X me3 poi6 – buy food
4	31/21	33	賣 me4 – sell 賣豆 me4 dau4 – sell beans
5	11	11	到 dau5 – arrive dau5 dei5 nei5 – arrive where
6	2	4	拾khap6 – pick up 盘bud6 – tray
7	4		跌bud7 – fall down

Minimal pairs:
geeng1 ‘walk’ vs. geeng2 ‘neck’ vs. geng5 ‘cut’
ci4 ‘watch’ vs. ci3 ‘persimmon’
bud6 ‘tray’ vs. bud7 – fall down