Chamic languages

Chamic
Aceh–Chamic
Geographic distribution:	Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, China (Hainan Island), various countries with recent immigrants)
Linguistic classification:	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (MP) Nuclear MP Malayo-Sumbawan ? Chamic
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.

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
    • Western Cham
    • Phan Rang Cham
• Highlands Chamic
  • Rade–Jarai
    • Rade (E De)
    • Jarai
  • Chru–Northern
    • Chru
    • Northern Cham
      • Roglai
      • Tsat

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).

Reconstruction

The Proto-Chamic reconstructed below is from Graham Thurgood's 1999 publication From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects.^[1]

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.

Proto-Chamic Presyllabic Consonants^[1]

		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).

1. *pl-
2. *bl-
3. *kl-
4. *gl-
5. *pr-
6. *tr-
7. *kr-
8. *br-
9. *dr-

Vowels

There are 4 vowels (*-a, *-i, *-u, and *-e, or alternatively *-ə) and 3 diphthongs (*-ay, *-uy, *-aw).^[1]

Proto-Chamic Vowels

Height		Front		Central		Back
Close		i /i/				u /u/
Mid		e /e/		([ə /ə/])
Open				a /a/

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)

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)

Notes and references

1. ^ ^{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.
2. ^ 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.

External links

• Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: Word lists for Chamic languages
• Ethnologue entry