Souk

Souk is the native language of the Kai people in Southeast Asia. It is by far the most widely spoken of the Kai-Souk languages, a branch of the Mon-Khmer or Austroasiatic language family. Souk is head-first and primarily isolating, but employs a series of infixes and regular ablaut pluralization. It has a simple, predictable tone system.

11 vowels

 * ə appears only in sesqui-syllables
 * semicolon indicates a long vowel
 * long vowels glide toward a central /ə/

18 consonants

 * Word-initial clusters are permitted; eg. kmou:n [k.mùən]
 * Coda can be any nasal, as well as /l, h, j, w/

3 tones
Checked tone is marked with an apostrophe ('). Low vs. mid is not normally marked, because with few exceptions it is entirely predictable:
 * An open syllable is low when short (bà), mid when long (ba:)
 * A closed syllable is always mid and short (bal), unless a nasal coda, which is low if long (bà:ng)
 * Checked syllables can be short (sou') or long (sou:')