Welcome to Yuhalu Hmong Text To Speech for RPA

Hmong is a tonal language with classifiers, class nouns, adverbs, reciprocal verbs, phrasal verbs, and more. Words can be monosyllabic, disyllabic, or polysyllabic.

What is RPA?

RPA (Romanized Popular Alphabet) was created in the 1950s by linguists and missionaries working with Hmong speakers in Laos. It uses plain Latin letters, making it easy to type on typewriters and computers.

Base Vowels: Aa, a, ai, au, aw, e, ee, ia, i, o, oo, u, ua, uo, w

Tone Markers: B, g, j, m, s, v (d and one without marker, ex: Ua, zoo)
Tones are represented using extra letters after vowels.

Consonants:
B* Bh* Bl* Blh* C Ch D Dh Dl Dlh F G H Hl Hm Hml Hn Hny Hv* J* Jh* K Kh L M Ml N Nc Nch Ndl Ndlh Nk Nkh Np Nph Npl Nplh Nq Nqh Nr Nrh Nt Nth Nts Ntsh Ntx Ntxh Ny P Ph Pl Plh Q Qh R Rh S T Th Ts Tsh Tx Txh V X Xy Y Z

*Simplified Consonants:
B = np, bh = nph, bl = nplh
J = nts, jh = ntsh
Hv is new cluster consonant for glottal stop that was implemented by retired teacher Nhia Lee Thao.
Examples: UaLi hvos; ntuj hvos, ntuj hvaw; niam hva

Why it Matters

RPA plays a vital role in preserving the Hmong language and culture by enabling consistent reading, writing, and communication worldwide.

Yuhalu is a Hmong text-to-speech platform that transforms written RPA and English text into spoken language. Alongside Yuhalu, our RPA → Diacritic converter helps users type accurately and efficiently. Visit the RPA To Diacritic page to begin.

Last Update: 1/15/2026

Footnote: The Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA) was developed to make Hmong literacy accessible without specialized typewriters or digital encoding. Hover for more info.