Pearic languages

Pearic
Geographic
distribution:
Indo-China
Linguistic classification:

Austroasiatic

  • Pearic
Subdivisions:
  • Chong
  • Pear
Glottolog: pear1246[1]

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.[2][3]

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)[4] He divides Pearic into two primary branches (Pear and Chong), with Chong being further divided into four groups.

Notes

  1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Pearic". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  2. "Overview of the distribution of Pear (Por) people in Cambodia". ngoforum.org. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  3. "Pearic languages". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2007-11-19.
  4. Sidwell, Paul (2009). Classifying the Austroasiatic languages: history and state of the art. LINCOM studies in Asian linguistics, 76. Munich: Lincom Europa.

External links