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Chru (Vietnamese: Chu Ru) is a Chamic language of Vietnam spoken by the Churu people in southern Lâm Đồng Province (especially in Đơn Dương District) and in Ninh Thuận Province.

Like the other Chamic languages spoken in Vietnam (Cham, Jarai, Rade and Roglai), use of Chru is declining as native speakers are generally bilingual in Vietnamese, which is used for most official or public settings, like schools.

Phonology

Consonant inventory

The following table lists the consonants of Chru.

		Labial	Apical	Alveolo- palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	tɕ	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	dʑ	ɡ
Fricative				ɕ		h
Approximant		w		j

There exist post-aspirated consonants , , , but these behave as sequences of stop plus . For example, from the word phaː ('to plane') the nominal pənhaː ('a plane') can be derived by infixation of -n-.

Vowel inventory

The vowel inventory is given in the following table. All vowels but exist in nasalized form.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i, iː		u, uː
Upper Mid	eː	ə, əː	o, oː
Lower Mid	ɛ, ɛː		ɔ, ɔː
Low	a, aː

The vowel is always followed by .

Phonotactics

Words consist of up to two pre-syllables, and a main syllable. A full example is pətərbləʔ ('to turn over'). The vowels in the pre-syllables are always after a consonant and otherwise.

Grammar

Syntax

Like many other languages of Southeast Asia, including Vietnamese, Chru is an analytic (or isolating) language without morphological marking of case, gender, number, or tense. In its typological profile it reflects extensive language contact effects, as it more closely resembles a Mon-Khmer language with monosyllabic roots and impoverished morphology rather than a canonical Austronesian language with bisyllabic roots and derivational morphology (Grant 2005). It has subject-verb-object (SVO) word order.

Negation

Chru uses a pre-verbal negative particle, 'buh /ʔbuh/ as a simple negative in declarative sentences:

kơu

1SG

'buh

NEG

mưnhũm

drink

alak

wine

kơu 'buh mưnhũm alak

1SG NEG drink wine

'I don't drink wine.' (Chru LL 3)

An optional clause-final negative particle, ou, may also be used, particularly in negative questions and negative responses to questions:

Du

But

phơn

thing

ni

this

nhũ

will

làn

melt

lam

in

ia

water

'bư

NEG

âu?

Du phơn ni nhũ làn lam ia 'bư âu?

But thing this will melt in water NEG

'But this thing will melt in water, right?' (Chru 1st grade primer 59) Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 9 word(s) in line 1, 8 word(s) in line 2 (help);

Lăm

klơu

Aràng

hu

Aràng

sêi

prong

rơlau

rêi?

Lăm klơu Aràng hu Aràng sêi prong rơlau rêi?

In the godhead is there one person bigger than another?

'Bư

âu:

Klơu

pồ

Aràng

ring

gơu.

'Bư âu: Klơu pồ Aràng ring gơu.

No: The godhead is equal to each other. (Chru mass 40)

References

1. Chru at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. ^ Fuller, Eugene (1977). "Chru phonemes". In Thomas, D.; Lee, E.; Nguyen, D. L. (eds.). Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No. 4: Chamic Studies. Pacific Linguistics Series A No. 48. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-A48. hdl:1885/145081.

• Chamic languages
• Languages of Vietnam