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Chamic
Aceh–Chamic
Geographic distribution	Indonesia (Aceh), Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, China (Hainan Island), various countries with recent immigrants
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian disputed: Malayo-Sumbawan or Greater North Borneo Malayo-Chamic Chamic
Proto-language	Proto-Chamic
Subdivisions	Acehnese Coastal (Cham) Highlands (Cham)
Language codes
ISO 639-2 / 5	cmc
Glottolog	cham1327  (Aceh–Chamic) cham1330  (Chamic)

The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Acehnese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Malayo-Polynesian languages in the Austronesian family. The ancestor of this subfamily, proto-Chamic, is associated with the Sa Huỳnh culture, its speakers arriving in what is now Vietnam from Formosa.

The most widely spoken Chamic languages are Acehnese with 3.5 million speakers, Cham with about 280,000, and Jarai with about 230,000, in both Cambodia and Vietnam. Tsat is the most northern and least spoken, with only 3000 speakers.

History

Cham has the oldest literary history of any Austronesian language. The Dong Yen Chau inscription, written in Old Cham, dates from the late 4th century AD.

Extensive borrowing resulting from long-term contact have caused Chamic and the Bahnaric languages, a branch of the Austroasiatic family, to have many vocabulary items in common.

Classification

Graham Thurgood gives the following classification for the Chamic languages. Individual languages are marked by italics.

• Chamic
  • Acehnese
  • Coastal Chamic
    • Haroi (Vietnamese: H'roi)
    • Cham (Vietnamese: Chăm)
      • Western Cham
      • Eastern Cham (Panduranga Cham)
  • Highlands Chamic
    • Rade–Jarai
      • Bih
      • Rade (Vietnamese: Ê-đê)
      • Jarai (Vietnamese: Gia Rai)
    • Chru–Northern
      • Chru (Vietnamese: Chu Ru)
      • Northern Cham
        • Roglai (Vietnamese: Ra Glai)
          • Northern Roglai
          • Southern Roglai
        • Tsat

The Proto-Chamic numerals from 7 to 9 are shared with those of the Malayic languages, providing partial evidence for a Malayo-Chamic subgrouping.

Roger Blench also proposes that there may have been at least one other Austroasiatic branch in coastal Vietnam that is now extinct, based on various Austroasiatic loanwords in modern-day Chamic languages that cannot be clearly traced to existing Austroasiatic branches.

Reconstruction

The Proto-Chamic reconstructed below is from Graham Thurgood's 1999 publication From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects.

Consonants

The following table of Proto-Chamic presyllabic consonants are from Thurgood. 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.

The following consonant clusters are reconstructed for Proto-Chamic: *pl-, *bl-, *kl-, *gl-, *pr-, *tr-, *kr-, *br-, *dr-. Initial *n did not exist, it was replaced by *l instead (*nanaq → *lanah "pus").

Vowels

There are four vowels (*-a, *-i, *-u, and *-e, or alternatively *-ə) and three diphthongs (*-ay, *-uy, *-aw).

Morphology

Reconstructed Proto-Chamic morphological components are:

• *tə-: the "inadvertent" prefix
• *mə-: common verb prefix
• *pə-: causative prefix
• *bɛʔ-: negative imperative prefix (borrowed from Austroasiatic languages)
• *-əm-: nominalizing infix
• *-ən-: instrumental infix (borrowed from Austroasiatic languages)

Pronouns

Proto-Chamic has the following personal pronouns:

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 Austroasiatic languages)

Proto-Chamic and Chamic lexical correspondences

Proto-Chamic, Mainland Chamic, Acehnese and Malay comparative table:

Notes

1. According to Glottolog 5.1 (2024) it is classified as a separate language. But its classification is still doubtful, some linguists consider it as a Rade dialect.

References

1. ^ Thurgood 1999.
2. Sidwell 2009.
3. Thurgood 1999, p. 36.
4. Thurgood 1999, p. 37.
5. ^ Blench, Roger (2009). "Are There Four Additional Unrecognised Branches of Austroasiatic?".
6. Sidwell, Paul (2006). "Dating the Separation of Acehnese and Chamic By Etymological Analysis of the Aceh-Chamic Lexicon" (PDF). Mon-Khmer Studies. 36: 187–206. doi:10.15144/MKSJ-36.187. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-11-08.
7. Thurgood 1999, p. 68.
8. Reflexes of ɲ are rare in modern Chamic languages.
9. Thurgood 1999, p. 93.
10. Thurgood 1999, p. 69.
11. Thurgood 1999, pp. 247–248.

Bibliography

• Sidwell, Paul (2009). Classifying the Austroasiatic Languages: History and State of the Art. LINCOM Europa. Archived from the original on 2019-03-24. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
• 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. University of Hawai'i Press. pp. i, iii–vii, ix–xiii, xv–xvii, 1–259, 261–275, 277–397, 399–407. ISBN 0824821319. JSTOR 20006770.

• Chamic languages
• Malayo-Chamic languages