Jarai language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jarai
Jrai
Native to
Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia
Native speakers
530,000 (2019)[1]
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-3jra
Glottologjara1266
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Jarai (

Ratanakiri
.

The language is in the Chamic subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, and is thus related to the Cham language of central Vietnam.

A number of Jarai also live in the United States, having resettled there following the Vietnam War.

Classification

The Jarai language belongs to

Mon-Khmer language until the 20th century, the affiliation of Jarai to the Chamic sister languages Cham and Rade, and a wider connection to Malay was already recognized as early as 1864.[2]

Geographic distribution and dialects

Jarai is spoken by some 262,800 people in Cambodia and Vietnam (Simons, 2017) where it is recognized as an official minority language, although in Cambodia it has not its own writing in the

Vietnamese War. Jarai dialects can be mutually unintelligible. Đào Huy Quyền (1998)[3] lists the following subgroups of Jarai dialects
and their respective locations.

  • Jarai Pleiku: in the Pleiku area.
  • Jarai Cheoreo: in AJunPa (Phú Bổn).
  • Jarai ARáp: in northwestern
    Kon Tum
    .
  • Jarai H’dRung: in northeastern
    Kon Tum
    .
  • Jarai Tbuan: western Pleiku.

Other related groups include:

  • HRoi: in western
    Bình Định
    . Mixed Ede and Jarai people.
  • M’dhur: in southern
    Phú Yên
    . Mixed Ede and Jarai people.
  • Kon Tum
    , and some in Laos and Cambodia. Mixed Sedang and Jarai people.

Phonology

Influenced by the surrounding

loanwords
. The typical Jarai word may be represented:

(C)(V)-C(C)V(V)(C)

where the values in parentheses are optional and "(C)" in the cluster "C(C)" represents a

mid-central unrounded vowel, /ə/, unless the initial consonant is the glottal stop /ʔ/. The second vowel of the stressed syllable produces a diphthong
.

Alphabet

During the French Indochina, they introduced a Jarai alphabet using the Vietnamese alphabet at the beginning of the 20th century. With the introduction of the Bible in Jarai language, using that alphabet by Christian missionaries in Vietnam after the Vietnamese War, the Jarai increased their literacy and there are today many publications for the Vietnamese Jarai. There are 40 letters: 21 consonant letters and 19 vowel letters, for 34 phonemes: 9 vowels and 25 consonants. Aspirated ph th kh are written with digraphs.[4]

1–10 Aa Ăă Ââ Bb Ƀƀ Čč Dd
Đđ
 Ee
Ĕĕ
IPA aː a ɨ b ʔb tʃ
d
d
 ɛː ɛ
Km[5]
 អះ អា អិ ប អប ឆ ដ ឆដ អេ អេ
11–20 Êê Ê̆ê̆ Gg Hh Ii
Ĭĭ
 Jj Dj dj Kk Ll
IPA eː e ɡ h iː i dʒ ʔdʒ k
l
Km
 អះ អេ គ ហ អីះ អី ឌយ អេឌយ កា ល
21–30 Mm Nn Ññ Ng ng Oo Ŏŏ Ôô Ô̆ô̆ Ơơ Ơ̆ơ̆
IPA m
n
 ɲ ŋ ɔː ɔ oː o əː ə
Km
 ម ន ញ ង អុះ អុ អ អូ អឺះ អឺ
31–40 Pp Rr Ss Tt Uu Ŭŭ Ưư Ư̆ư̆ Ww Yy
IPA p
r
 s
t
 uː u ɯː ɯ w j
Km
 ផ រ ស ទ អូះ អូ អ៊ូ អូ វ យ

Vowels

There are 9 vowels:[6]

Front Central Back
Close i ĩ ɯ u
Mid e ə o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a ã

Consonants

There are 24 consonants:[6]

Labial Dental/
Alveolar 		Post-
alveolar 		Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p
t
 		k ʔ
aspirated pʰ
tʰ
 		kʰ
voiced
 		b
d
 		ɡ
implosive ɓ ɗ ʄ
Affricate
voiceless
 		tʃ
voiced
 		dʒ
Fricative s h
Nasal
voiced
 		m
n
 		ɲ ŋ
preglottalized
 		ʔm
Tap ɾ
Lateral
l
Approximant w j

The implosives have also been described as preglottalized stops, but Jensen (2013) describes that the closure of glottis and oral cavity occur simultaneously.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Jarai at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ David Thomas (1989). A 19th century perception of Chamic relationships. Mahidol University and Summer Institute of Linguistics. Link retrieved on 05.01.2017 from http://sealang.net/archives/mks/pdf/16-17:181-182.pdf
  3. ^ Đào Huy Quyền (1998). Nhạc khí dân tộc Jrai và Bahnar [Musical instruments of the Jrai and Bahnar]. Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản trẻ.
  4. ^ Siu, Lap M. (2009). Developing the First Preliminary Dictionary of North American Jarai. Master of Arts thesis in Anthropology, Texas Tech University.
  5. Khmer Alphabet using IPA
  6. ^ a b c Jensen (2013)

Further reading

External links

Jarai language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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