Cham language
Cham | |
---|---|
ꨌꩌ | |
![]() 'Cham' in Cham script | |
Pronunciation | [cam] |
Native to | Cambodia and Vietnam |
Region | Mainland Southeast Asia |
Ethnicity | Cham |
Native speakers | 320,000 (2002 – 2008 census)[1] |
Language family | Austronesian
|
Early forms | Proto-Chamic
|
Dialects |
|
Writing system | Cham, Arabic, Latin |
Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | ![]() ![]() |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:cja – Western Chamcjm – Eastern Cham |
Glottolog | cham1328 |
ELP | Eastern Cham |
Cham (Cham: ꨌꩌ) is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian family, spoken by the Chams of Southeast Asia. It is spoken primarily in the territory of the former Kingdom of Champa, which spanned modern Eastern Cambodia and Southern Vietnam. The Western variety is spoken by 220,000 people in Cambodia and 25,000 people in Vietnam. As for the Eastern variety, there are about 73,000 speakers in Vietnam,[2] for a total of approximately 320,000 speakers.
Cham is the principal and most spoken language among the Chamic languages, which are spoken in parts of mainland Southeast Asia, North Sumatra and on the island of Hainan. Cham is notable for being the oldest-attested Austronesian language, with the Đông Yên Châu inscription being verifiably dated to the late 4th century AD.
Phonology[]
The Cham language dialects each have 21 consonants and 9 vowels.[3]
Consonants[]
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless unaspirated | p | t | c | k | ʔ |
voiceless aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | cʰ | kʰ | ||
Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
Liquid | l | |||||
Fricative | s | ɣ | h | |||
Rhotic | r* | |||||
Approximant | j | w |
- /r/ in Western Cham is heard as a velar fricative [ɣ]. In Eastern Cham, it is heard as an alveolar flap [ɾ], glide [ɹ], or trill [r].[4]
Vowels[]
Monophthongs[]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | ɨ | u |
Mid-high | e | ə | o |
Mid-low | ɛ | ɔ | |
Low | a |
Diphthongs[]
ia, iɯ (occurs only before -ʔ), ea, ua, oa, au (occurs only before -ʔ),
iə, ɛə, ɔə, uə.
Grammar[]
![]() | This section needs to be updated.(August 2013) |
Word formation[]
There are several prefixes and infixes which can be used for word derivation.[5]
- prefix pa-: causative, sometimes giving more force to the word
- thău (to know) → pathău (to inform)
- blẽi (to buy) → pablẽi (to sell)
- bier (low) → pabier (to lower)
- yău (like, as) → payău (to compare)
- jœû (finished) → pajœû (well finished)
- prefix mœ-: sometimes causative, often indicates a state, possession, mutuality, reciprocity
- jruu (poison) → mœjruu (to poison)
- gruu (teacher) → mœgruu (to study)
- téan (belly) → mœtéan (pregnancy)
- boḥ (egg, fruit) → mœboḥ (lay an egg, give fruit)
- daké (horn) → mœdaké (having horns)
- prefix ta- or da-: frequentative
- galuṇg (to roll) → tagaluṇg (to roll around)
- dâp (to hide oneself) → dadâp (to be wont to hide oneself)
- infix -an-: noun formation
- pvâch (to speak) → panvâch (speech)
- tiêu (row) → taniêu (oar)
- dok (to live) → danok (house, living place)
- infix -mœ-: no specific meaning
- payău (to compare) → pamœyău (to compare)
Reduplication is often used:[5]
- palẽi, pala-palẽi (country)
- raḅaḥ, raḅaḥ-raḅœp (misery)
Syntax and word order[]
Cham generally uses SVO word order, without any case marking to distinguish subject from object:[6]
Dahlak
I
atong
beat
nhu.
he
"I beat him."
Nhu
he
atong
beat
dahlak.
I
"He beats me."
Dummy pronominal subjects are sometimes used, echoing the subject:
Inœû hudiêp dahlak
my wife's mother
nhu
she
atong
beat
adẽi puthang nhu.
her husband's younger sister
"My wife's mother beats her husband's younger sister."
Composite verbs will behave as one inseparable verb, having the object come after it:
Bloḥ
then
nhu
she
ḍiḥ dii apvẽi
lie at fire (i.e.: give birth)
anẽk lakẽi.
son
"Then she gave birth to a son."
Sometimes, however, the verb is placed in front of the subject:
Lêk
fall
dahlak.
I
"I fall."
Auxiliary verbs are placed after any objects:
Nhu
he
ba
bring
hudiêp nhu
his wife
nau.
go
"He brings his wife."
If a sentence contains more than one main verb, one of the two will have an adverbial meaning:
Nhu
he
dâp
hide
klaḥ
evade
mœtai.
death
"He evaded death by hiding."
Adjectives come after the nouns they modify:[7]
thang
house
prong
big
"a big house"
If the order is reversed, the whole will behave like a compound:
ôrang
person
prong
big
shap
noise
"a noisy person"
Composite sentences can be formed with the particle krung:[8]
thaa drẽi athău thaa drẽi mœyău
the dog and the cat
krung
which
aï nhu brẽi kaa nhu
his brother gave him
"the dog and the cat his brother gave him"
nau tapak
to go straight
danau
lake
krung
which
aï that ikan
brother is fishing
"to go straight to the lake where his brother was fishing"
It is also possible to leave out this particle, without change in meaning:[6]
Dahlak brẽi athêh nan
I give this horse
kaa va dahlak
to my uncle
∅
who
dok dii palẽi Ram.
live in the village of Ram
"I have given this horse to my uncle, who lives in the village of Ram."
Questions are formed with the sentence-final particle rẽi:[9]
Anẽk
child
thău
know
vakhar
writing
rẽi?
Q
"Can you write, child?"
Other question words are in situ:
Hẽû
you
nau
go
hatau?
where
"Where are you going?"
Nominals[]
Like many languages in Eastern Asia, Cham uses numeral classifiers to express amounts.[10] The classifier will always come after the numeral, with the noun coming invariably before or after the classifier-numeral pair.
limϞ
five
boḥ
CLF
chœk
mountain
"five mountains"
palẽi
village
naṃ
six
boḥ
CLF
"six villages"
The above examples show the classifier boḥ, which literally means "egg" and is the most frequently used — particularly for round and voluminous objects. Other classifiers are ôrang (person) for people and deities, ḅêk for long objects, blaḥ (leaf) for flat objects, and many others.
The days of the month are counted with a similar system, with two classifiers: one (bangun) used to count days before the full moon, and the other one (ranaṃ) for days after the full moon.[11]
harẽi
day
thaa
one
bangun
CLF
"first day after new moon"
harẽi
day
dvaa
two
klaṃ
CLF
"second day after full moon"
Personal pronouns behave like ordinary nouns and do not show any case distinctions. There are different forms depending on the level of politeness. The first person singular, for example, is kău in formal or distant context, while it is dahlak (in Vietnam) or hulun (in Cambodia) in an ordinarily polite context. As is the case with many other languages of the region, kinship terms are often used as personal pronouns.[8]
Comparative and superlative are expressed with the locative preposition di/dii:[12]
tapaa
big
di
at
aï nhu
his brother
"bigger than his brother"
Verbs[]
There are some particles that can be used to indicate tense/aspect.[13] The future is indicated with shi or thi in Vietnam, with hi or si in Cambodia. The perfect is expressed with jϞ. The first one comes in front of the verb:
Arak ni
now
kău
I
shi
FUT
nao.
go
"I will go now."
The second one is sentence-final:
Shit traa
little more
kău
I
nao
go
jϞ.
PRF
"I'll be gone in a moment."
Certain verbs can function as auxiliaries to express other tenses or aspects.[14] The verb dok ("to stay") is used for the continuous, vœk ("to return") for the repetitive aspect, and kiœng ("to want") for the future tense.
The negation is formed with ôh/ô at either or both sides of the verb, or with di/dii[15] in front.[13]
The imperative is formed with the sentence-final particle bêk, and the negative imperative with the preverbal jvai/jvẽi (in Vietnam and Cambodia respectively).[13]
Sociolinguistics[]
Diglossia[]
Brunelle observed two phenomena of language use among speakers of Eastern Cham: They are both diglossic and bilingual (in Cham and Vietnamese). Diglossia is the situation where two varieties of a language are used in a single language community, and oftentimes one is used on formal occasions (labelled H) and the other is more colloquial (labelled L).[16][17]
Dialectal differences[]
Cham is divided into two primary dialects. Western Cham is spoken by the Cham in Cambodia as well as in the adjacent Vietnamese provinces of An Giang and Tây Ninh. Eastern Cham is spoken by the coastal Cham populations in the Vietnamese provinces of Bình Thuận, Ninh Thuận, and Đồng Nai. The two regions where Cham is spoken are separated both geographically and culturally. The more numerous Western Cham are predominantly Muslims (although some in Cambodia now practice Theravāda Buddhism), while the Eastern Cham practice both Islam and Hinduism. Ethnologue states that the Eastern and Western dialects are no longer mutually intelligible. The table below gives some examples of words where the two dialects differed as of the 19th century.[18]
Cambodia southern Vietnam vowels child anœk anẽk take tuk tôk not jvẽi jvai sibilants one sa tha save from drowning srong throng salt sara shara equal samu hamu final consonants heavy trap trak in front anap anak lexical differences market pasa darak hate amoḥ limuk
Lê et al. (2014:175)[19] lists a few Cham subgroups.
- Chăm Poông: in Thạnh Hiếu village, Phan Hiệp commune, Bắc Bình District, Bình Thuận Province. The Chăm Poông practice burial instead of cremation as the surrounding Cham do.
- Chăm Hroi (population 4,000): in (Bình Định Province), Đồng Xuân District (Phú Yên Province), and Tây Sơn District (Bình Định Province)
- Chàvà Ku, a mixed Malay-Khmer people in Châu Đốc
Writing systems[]
Cham script is a Brahmic script.[2] The script has two varieties: Akhar Thrah (Eastern Cham) and Akhar Srak (Western Cham). The Western Cham language is written with the Arabic script or the aforementioned Akhar Srak.[20][21]
Dictionaries[]
The Ming dynasty Chinese Bureau of Translators produced a Chinese-Cham dictionary.[citation needed]
John Crawfurd's 1822 work "Malay of Champa" contains a dictionary of the Cham language.[citation needed]
See also[]
- Cham script
- Cham people
- Cham calendar
- Champa kingdom
Notes[]
- ^ Western Cham at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Eastern Cham at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) - ^ Jump up to: a b c "Cham". The Unicode Standard, Version 11.0. Mountain View, CA: Unicode Consortium. p. 661.
- ^ Ueki, Kaori (2011). Prosody and Intonation of Western Cham (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
- ^ Smith, Alexander D. (2013). A Grammatical Sketch of Eastern Cham.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Aymonier 1889, chapt. X
- ^ Jump up to: a b Aymonier 1889, chapt. XXI
- ^ Aymonier 1889, chapt. XIII
- ^ Jump up to: a b Aymonier 1889, chapt. XII
- ^ Aymonier 1889, chapt. XIX
- ^ Aymonier 1889, chapt. XI
- ^ Aymonier 1889, chapt. VIII
- ^ Aymonier 1889, chapt. XVI
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Aymonier 1889, chapt. XV
- ^ Aymonier 1889, chapt. XIV
- ^ This happens to be homophonous with the locative preposition.
- ^ Brunelle, Marc (2008). "Diglossia, Bilingualism, and the Revitalization of Written Eastern Cham". Language Documentation & Conservation. 2 (1): 28–46. hdl:10125/1848.
- ^ Brunelle, Marc (2009). "Diglossia and Monosyllabization in Eastern Cham: A Sociolinguistic Study". In Stanford, J. N.; Preston, D. R. (eds.). Variation in Indigenous Minority Languages. John Benjamins. pp. 47–75.
- ^ Aymonier 1889, chapt. IX
- ^ Lê Bá Thảo, Hoàng Ma, et. al; Viện hàn lâm khoa học xã hội Việt Nam - Viện dân tộc học. 2014. Các dân tộc ít người ở Việt Nam: các tỉnh phía nam. Ha Noi: Nhà xuất bản khoa học xã hội. ISBN 978-604-90-2436-8
- ^ Hosken, Martin (2019), L2/19-217 Proposal to Encode Western Cham in the UCS (PDF)
- ^ Bruckmayr, Philipp (2019). "The Changing Fates of the Cambodian Islamic Manuscript Tradition". Journal of Islamic Manuscripts. 10 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1163/1878464X-01001001.
Further reading[]
![]() |
Eastern Cham language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
![]() |
Western Cham language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
- Grant, Anthony; Sidwell, Paul, eds. (2005). Chamic and Beyond: Studies in Mainland Austronesian Languages. Pacific Linguistics. 569. Canberra: Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-569. hdl:1885/146271. ISBN 0-85883-561-4.
- Thurgood, Graham (1999). From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects: Two Thousand Years of Language Contact and Change: With an Appendix of Chamic Rreconstructions and Loanwords. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 28. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-2131-9.
- Aymonier, Étienne; Cabaton, Antoine (1906). Dictionnaire čam-français. Volume 7 of Publications de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient. Paris: E. Leroux.
- Aymonier, Etienne (1889). Grammaire de la langue chame. Saigon: Imprimerie coloniale.
- Blood, D. L., & Blood, D. (1977). East Cham language. Vietnam data microfiche series, no. VD 51-72. Huntington Beach, Calif: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- Blood, D. L. (1977). A romanization of the Cham language in relation to the Cham script. Vietnam data microfiche series, no. VD51-17. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- Edwards, E. D.; Blagden, C. O. (1939). "A Chinese Vocabulary of Cham Words and Phrases". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. 10 (1): 53–91. JSTOR 607926.
- Braginsky, Vladimir (2014). Classical Civilizations of South-East Asia. Routledge. pp. 398–. ISBN 978-1-136-84879-7.
- Moussay, Gerard (1971). Dictionnaire Cam-Vietnamien-Français (in French). Phan Rang: Centre Culturel Cam.
- Sakaya (2014). Từ điển Chăm (in Vietnamese). Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Tri Thức. ISBN 978-604-908-999-2.
- Various (2011). Ngôn ngữ Chăm: thực trạng và giải pháp (in Vietnamese). Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Phụ Nữ.
External links[]
- Kaipuleohone has an archive including written materials of Cham
- Languages attested from the 8th century
- Languages of Cambodia
- Languages of China
- Languages of Malaysia
- Languages of Thailand
- Languages of Vietnam
- Chamic languages
- Subject–verb–object languages