Jarai language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jarai | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Vietnam, Cambodia, United States | |
| Region: | Southeast Asia | |
| Total speakers: | 332,557 | |
| Ranking: | ? | |
| Language family: | Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Malayic Achinese-Chamic Chamic South Chamic Plateau Chamic Jarai |
|
| Writing system: | Vietnam: modified Vietnamese alphabet Cambodia: None | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language of: | none, recognised as a minority language in Vietnam | |
| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | jra | |
| ISO 639-3: | jra | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
The Jarai language is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Jarai ethnic group of Vietnam and Cambodia. The speakers of Jarai number approximately 332,557. They are the largest of the upland ethnic groups of Vietnam's Central Highlands known as Degar or Montagnards.
The language is in the Chamic subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, and is thus related to the Cham language of central Vietnam.
A number of Jarai also live in the United States, having resettled there following the Vietnam War.
[edit] Phonology
Influenced by the surrounding Mon-Khmer languages, words of the various Chamic languages of Southeast Asia, including Jarai, have become disyllabic with the stress on the second syllable. Additionally, Jarai has further evolved in the pattern of Mon-Khmer, losing almost all vowel distinction in the initial syllable. While trisyllabic words do exist, they are all loanwords. The typical Jarai word may be represented:
(C)(V)-C(L)V(V)(C)
where the values in parentheses are optional and "L" represents a liquid consonant ("l", "r", "w" and "y" are the possibilities). The vowel of the first sylable in disyllabic words is most often the mid-central unrounded vowel, "ə" unless the initial consonant is the glottal stop. The second vowel of the stressed syllable produces a diphthong.
