Chamic languages
| Chamic | |
|---|---|
| Aceh–Chamic | |
| Geographic distribution: |
Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, China (Hainan Island), various countries with recent immigrants) |
| Linguistic classification: | Austronesian
|
| Subdivisions: |
Acehnese
Coastal
Highlands
|
| ISO 639-2 and 639-5: | cmc |
The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in parts of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Hainan, classified as Malayic languages in the Austronesian language family.
After Acehnese, with 3 million, Jarai and Cham are the most widely spoken Chamic languages, with about 230,000 and 280,000 speakers respectively. Tsat is one of the least spoken with only 3,000 speakers.
Contents |
[edit] Classification
Graham Thurgood (1999:36) gives the following classification for the Chamic languages.[1] Individual languages are marked by italics.
- Acehnese
- Coastal Chamic
- Haroi
- Cham proper (Chăm)
- Western Cham
- Phan Rang Cham
- Highlands Chamic
The Proto-Chamic numerals from 7 to 9 are shared with those of the Malayan languages, providing partial evidence for a Malayo-Chamic subgrouping (Thurgood 1999:37).
[edit] Reconstruction
The Proto-Chamic reconstructed below is from Graham Thurgood's 1999 publication From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects.[1]
[edit] Consonants
The following table of Proto-Chamic presyllabic consonants are from Thurgood (1999:68). There are a total of 13-14 presyllabic consonants depending on whether or not ɲ is counted. Non-presyllabic consonants include *ʔ, *ɓ, *ɗ, *ŋ, *y, *w. Aspirated consonants are also reconstructable for Proto-Chamic.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | c | k | |
| Voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ||
| Nasal | m | ɲ[2] | ||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Tap or trill | r | |||||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
The following consonant clusters are reconstructed for Proto-Chamic (Thurgood 1999:93).
- *pl-
- *bl-
- *kl-
- *gl-
- *pr-
- *tr-
- *kr-
- *br-
- *dr-
[edit] Vowels
There are 4 vowels (*-a, *-i, *-u, and *-e, or alternatively *-ə) and 3 diphthongs (*-ay, *-uy, *-aw).[1]
| Height | Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i /i/ | u /u/ | |||||
| Mid | e /e/ | ([ə /ə/]) | |||||
| Open | a /a/ |
[edit] Morphology
Reconstructed Proto-Chamic morphological components are:[1]
- *tə-: the "inadvertent" prefix
- *mə-: common verb prefix
- *pə-: causative prefix
- *bɛʔ-: negative imperative prefix (borrowed from Mon–Khmer languages)
- *-əm-: nominalizing infix
- *-ən-: instrumental infix (borrowed from Mon–Khmer languages)
[edit] Pronouns
Proto-Chamic has the following personal pronouns (Thurgood 1999:247-248):
Singular
- *kəu – I (familiar)
- *hulun – I (polite); slave
- *dahlaʔ – I (polite)
- *hã – you; thou
- *ñu – he, she; they
Plural
- *kaməi – we (exclusive)
- *ta – we (inclusive)
- *drəi – we (inclusive); reflexive
- *gəp – other; group (borrowed from Mon–Khmer languages)
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e Thurgood, Graham (1999). From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects: Two Thousand Years of Language Contact and Change: With an Appendix of Chamic Reconstructions and Loanwords. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications, No. 28, pp. i, iii-vii, ix-xiii, xv-xvii, 1-259, 261-275, 277-397, 399-407.
- ^ Reflexes of ɲ are rare in modern Chamic languages.
- Thurgood, Graham (1999). From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects: Two Thousand Years of Language Contact and Change: With an Appendix of Chamic Reconstructions and Loanwords. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications, No. 28, pp. i, iii-vii, ix-xiii, xv-xvii, 1-259, 261-275, 277-397, 399-407.
