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.

1 Classification
2 Reconstruction
3 Notes and references
4 External links

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
Plosive	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-

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

^ ^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.