Pearic languages

The Pearic languages are a group of endangered languages of the Eastern Mon–Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by Pear people (the Por, the Samré, the Samray, the Suoy, and the Chong) living in western Cambodia and southeastern Thailand.^[1][2]

Pearic languages are remnants of the aboriginal languages of much of Cambodia, but have dwindled in numbers due to assimilation. "Pear" is a pejorative term meaning slave or caste.

Classification

Paul Sidwell proposed the following classification of the Pearic languages in (Sidwell 2009:137), synthesizing analyses from Headley (1985), Choosri (2002), Martin (1974), and Peiros (2004)^[3] He divides Pearic into two primary branches (Pear and Chong), with Chong being further divided into four groups.

• Pear of Kompong Thom (Baradat ms.)
• Chong
  • Southern
    • Suoi of Kampong Speu (Pannetier ms., Baradat ms.)
    • Saoch of Veal Renh in Kampong Som (Pannetier ms.)
    • Chung of Kampong Som (Isara Chooseri 2007)
    • Chung of Kanchanaburi (Isara Chooseri 2007)
  • Western (Chong)
    • Chong of Chantaburi (Baradat ms.)
    • (Branch)
      • Chong həəp (Martin 1974)
      • Khlong Phlu Chong (Siripen Ungsitibonporn 2001)
    • (Branch)
      • Chong lɔɔ (Martin 1974)
      • Wang Kraphrae Chong (Siripen Ungsitibonporn 2001)
      • Chong (Huffman 1983)
  • Central (Samre)
    • Samre of Pursat
    • Samre (Pornsawan Ploykaew 2001)
    • Chong (Baradat ms.)
    • Chong of Trat (Pannetier ms., Isarangura 1935)
    • Kasong (Noppawan Thongkham 2003)
  • Northern (Somray)
    • Somray of Battambang (Baradat ms.)
    • Somre of Siem Reap [extinct] (Moura 1883)

Notes

• Sidwell, Paul (2009). Classifying the Austroasiatic languages: history and state of the art. LINCOM studies in Asian linguistics, 76. Munich: Lincom Europa.

External links

• Pearic languages on Ethnologue
• SEAlang Project: Mon–Khmer languages. The Pearic Branch
• Pear and Por vocabulary words
• Linguist races to save a dying language spoken in Cambodia