The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in

Aceh Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a s ...

(

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of

Malayo-Sumbawan languages The Malayo-Sumbawan languages are a proposed subgroup of the Austronesian languages that unites the Malayic and Chamic languages with the languages of Java and the western Lesser Sunda Islands (western Indonesia), except for Javanese (Adelaar 2 ...

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 Borneo or perhaps the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...

. After Acehnese, with 3.5 million, Jarai and Cham are the most widely spoken Chamic languages, with about 230,000 and 280,000 speakers respectively, 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 The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...

, to have many vocabulary items in common.

Classification

Graham Thurgood gives the following classification for the Chamic languages. Individual languages are marked by ''italics''. *'' Acehnese'' *Coastal Chamic **'' Haroi'' ** Cham language ( vi, Chăm) ***''Western Cham'' ***''Phan Rang Cham'' *Highlands Chamic **Rade–Jarai ***''

Rade Rade may refer to: * E De people, a people group in Southeast Asia also called "Rhade" or "Rade" * places in Lower-Saxony, Germany: ** Rade, Neu Wulmstorf, a village in the district of Harburg * places in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany: ** Rade, S ...

'' ( vi, Ê-đê) ***'' Jarai'' ( vi, Gia Rai) **Chru–Northern ***'' Chru'' ( vi, Chu Ru) ***Northern Cham ****'' Roglai'' ( vi, Ra Glai) ****'' Tsat'' The Proto-Chamic numerals from 7 to 9 are shared with those of the

Malayic languages The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The most prominent member is Malay, which is the national language of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia; it further serves as basis for Indon ...

, 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 * 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-.

Vowels

There are four vowels (*-a, *-i, *-u, and *-e, or alternatively *-ə) and three

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...

s (*-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 * – 'I' (familiar) * – 'I' (polite); 'slave' * – 'I' (polite) * – 'you; thou' * – 'he, she; they' Plural * – 'we' (exclusive) * – 'we' (inclusive) * – 'we' (inclusive); reflexive * – other; group (borrowed from Austroasiatic languages)