Chamic languages#Reconstruction

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.{{sfn|Thurgood|1999}}{{sfn|Sidwell|2009}}

Graham Thurgood gives the following classification for the Chamic languages.{{sfn|Thurgood|1999|p=36}} Individual languages are marked by italics.

File:WIKITONGUES- T.A., Iqbal, and Kalam speaking Acehnese.webm

File:Coastal Chamic language.jpg

File:Highland Chamic language.jpg

{{tree list}}

• Chamic
• Acehnese
• Coastal Chamic
• Haroi ({{langx|vi|H'roi}})
• Cham ({{langx|vi|Chăm}})
• Western Cham
• Eastern Cham (Panduranga Cham)
• Highlands Chamic
• Rade–Jarai
• Bih{{efn|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.}}
• Rade ({{langx|vi|Ê-đê}})
• Jarai ({{langx|vi|Gia Rai}})
• Chru–Northern
• Chru ({{langx|vi|Chu Ru}})
• Northern Cham
• Roglai ({{langx|vi|Ra Glai}})
• Northern Roglai
• Southern Roglai
• Tsat

{{tree list/end}}

The Proto-Chamic numerals from 7 to 9 are shared with those of the Malayic languages, providing partial evidence for a Malayo-Chamic subgrouping.{{sfn|Thurgood|1999|p=37}}

Roger Blench{{cite web |last=Blench |first=Roger |year=2009 |url=http://icaal.org/abstract/blench-are.html |title=Are There Four Additional Unrecognised Branches of Austroasiatic?}} 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.{{Cite journal |last=Sidwell |first=Paul |date=2006 |title=Dating the Separation of Acehnese and Chamic By Etymological Analysis of the Aceh-Chamic Lexicon |url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/sidwell2006dating.pdf |journal=Mon-Khmer Studies |language=en |volume=36 |pages=187–206 |doi=10.15144/MKSJ-36.187 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108030716/http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/sidwell2006dating.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=2014-11-08}}

==Reconstruction==

{{Infobox proto-language

| name = Proto-Chamic

| familycolor = Austronesian

| ancestor = Proto-Austronesian

| ancestor2 = Proto-Malayo-Polynesian

| target = Chamic languages

}}

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

The following table of Proto-Chamic presyllabic consonants are from Thurgood.{{sfn|Thurgood|1999|p=68}} There are a total of 13–14 presyllabic consonants depending on whether or not *{{IPA|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:{{sfn|Thurgood|1999|p=93}} *pl-, *bl-, *kl-, *gl-, *pr-, *tr-, *kr-, *br-, *dr-. Initial *n did not exist, it was replaced by *l instead (*nanaq → *lanah "pus").{{sfn|Thurgood|1999|p=69}}

There are four vowels (*-a, *-i, *-u, and *-e, or alternatively *-ə) and three diphthongs (*-ay, *-uy, *-aw).{{sfn|Thurgood|1999}}

Reconstructed Proto-Chamic morphological components are:{{sfn|Thurgood|1999}}

• *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)

Proto-Chamic has the following personal pronouns:{{sfn|Thurgood|1999|pp=247–248}}

Singular

• {{Lang|mis|*kəu}} – 'I' (familiar)
• {{Lang|mis|*hulun}} – 'I' (polite); 'slave'
• {{Lang|mis|*dahlaʔ}} – 'I' (polite)
• {{Lang|mis|*hã}} – 'you; thou'
• {{Lang|mis|*ñu}} – 'he, she; they'

Plural

• {{Lang|mis|*kaməi}} – 'we' (exclusive)
• {{Lang|mis|*ta}} – 'we' (inclusive)
• {{Lang|mis|*drəi}} – 'we' (inclusive); reflexive
• {{Lang|mis|*gəp}} – other; group (borrowed from Austroasiatic languages)

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

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last=Sidwell |first=Paul |url=https://www.academia.edu/1540105 |title=Classifying the Austroasiatic Languages: History and State of the Art |publisher=LINCOM Europa |year=2009 |language=en |access-date=2017-11-02 |archive-date=2019-03-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324073527/https://www.academia.edu/1540105/Classifying_the_Austroasiatic_languages_history_and_state_of_the_art |url-status=dead }}
• {{cite book |last=Thurgood |first=Graham |date=1999 |title=From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects: Two Thousand Years of Language Contact and Change: With an Appendix of Chamic Reconstructions and Loanwords |series=Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/512808378/From-Ancient-Cham-to-Modern-Dialects|pages=i, iii–vii, ix–xiii, xv–xvii, 1–259, 261–275, 277–397, 399–407 |jstor=20006770 |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |isbn=0824821319 |language=en}}

{{Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages}}

{{Chamic Languages}}

Category:Malayo-Chamic languages