Sila (also called Sida[2]) is a Loloish language spoken by 2,000 people in Laos and Vietnam (Bradley 1997).
Sila speakers are an officially recognized group in Vietnam, where they are known as the Si La.
Source:[2] Alveolar Unaspirated plosives are usually realised as voiced stops.
/p/ vs. /pʰ/: /pa33la33/ ‘moon’ vs. /ɐ31pʰa31/ ‘leaf’ /t/ vs. /tʰ/: /ta31/ ‘to look at’ vs. /tʰa33/ ‘PROHIBITIVE’ /tɕ/ vs. /tɕʰ/: /tɕɐ31/ ‘to have, to exist’ vs. /tɕʰɐ31/ ‘to speak’ /k/ vs. /kʰ/: /ki55lɯ55/ ‘green’ vs. /a31kʰi55/ ‘foot’ /f/ vs. /s/: /fɔ31/ ‘to protect vs. /sɔ31/ ‘to study’ /x/ vs. /ɣ/: /xɯ55/ ‘gold’ vs. /ɣɯ55/ ‘good’ /m/ vs. /n/: /ma̰31/ ‘person’ vs. /na̰31/ ‘deep’ /ɲ/ vs. /ŋ/: /ɲa55/ ‘frost’ vs. /ŋa55/ ‘salty’ /w/ vs. /j/: /wa33/ ‘careless’ vs. /ja31/ ‘child’ /l/ vs. /l̥/: /lɐ33wa33/ ‘palm of hand’ vs. /l̥a33/ ‘to fall down’ All vowels can be creaky vowels, which are contrastive.
Unvoiced stops and nasals can occur as codas, but these are only found in words recently borrowed from Lao According to Edmondson (2002), the Sila number about 700 people in Vietnam and live in the following 3 villages.