Vietic languages
Encyclopedia
The Vietic languages are a branch of the Austro-Asiatic
language family
. The branch was once referred to by the terms Việt–Mường, Annam–Muong, and Vietnamuong, but today these are understood as referring to a sub-branch of Vietic containing only the Vietnamese
and Mường
languages.
as well as parts of Nghệ An Province and Quảng Bình Province
in Vietnam
.
Vietnamese was identified as an Austroasiatic language in the mid-nineteenth century, and there is now strong evidence for this classification. Today, Vietnamese is a monosyllabic tonal language like Cantonese or Thai and has lost many Proto-Austro-Asiatic phonological and morphological features. Vietnamese has also large stocks of borrowed Chinese and Tai
vocabulary. For these reasons, there continues to be resistance to the idea that Vietnamese could be more closely related to Khmer
than to Chinese
or the Tai languages
. However, these typological similarities are considered superficial, as they are due to language contact
(Vietnamese was heavily influenced by Chinese and even used a Chinese writing system for hundreds of years; see Sino-Xenic). Many of the Vietic languages have tonal or phonation
al systems intermediate between that of Viet–Muong and other branches of Austroasiatic that have not had significant Chinese or Tai influence.
. The Vietic languages reflect every stage in this development.
Austro-Asiatic languages
The Austro-Asiatic languages, in recent classifications synonymous with Mon–Khmer, are a large language family of Southeast Asia, also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh. The name Austro-Asiatic comes from the Latin words for "south" and "Asia", hence "South Asia"...
language family
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
. The branch was once referred to by the terms Việt–Mường, Annam–Muong, and Vietnamuong, but today these are understood as referring to a sub-branch of Vietic containing only the Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
and Mường
Muong language
The Mường language is spoken by the Mường people of Vietnam. It is in the Austroasiatic language family and closely related to Vietnamese. It is a tonal language with five tones....
languages.
Origins
Based on linguistic diversity, the most probable homeland of the Vietic languages appears to have been located in modern-day Bolikhamsai Province and Khammouane Province in LaosLaos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
as well as parts of Nghệ An Province and Quảng Bình Province
Quang Binh Province
Quảng Bình , formerly Tiên Bình under the reign of Le Trung Hung of the Lê Dynasty, this province was renamed Quảng Bình in 1604) is a province in the North Central Coast of Vietnam....
in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
.
Vietnamese was identified as an Austroasiatic language in the mid-nineteenth century, and there is now strong evidence for this classification. Today, Vietnamese is a monosyllabic tonal language like Cantonese or Thai and has lost many Proto-Austro-Asiatic phonological and morphological features. Vietnamese has also large stocks of borrowed Chinese and Tai
Tai languages
The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages are a branch of the Tai–Kadai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including standard Thai or Siamese, the national language of Thailand; Lao or Laotian, the national language of Laos; Burma's Shan language;...
vocabulary. For these reasons, there continues to be resistance to the idea that Vietnamese could be more closely related to Khmer
Khmer language
Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...
than to Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
or the Tai languages
Tai languages
The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages are a branch of the Tai–Kadai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including standard Thai or Siamese, the national language of Thailand; Lao or Laotian, the national language of Laos; Burma's Shan language;...
. However, these typological similarities are considered superficial, as they are due to language contact
Language contact
Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics.Multilingualism has likely been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world are multilingual...
(Vietnamese was heavily influenced by Chinese and even used a Chinese writing system for hundreds of years; see Sino-Xenic). Many of the Vietic languages have tonal or phonation
Phonation
Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...
al systems intermediate between that of Viet–Muong and other branches of Austroasiatic that have not had significant Chinese or Tai influence.
Classification
The following classification of the Vietic languages is from Chamberlain (2003:422), as quoted in Sidwell (2009:145). Unlike past classifications, there as a sixth "South" branch that includes Kri, a newly described language.- Vietic
- North (Viet–Muong)
- VietnameseVietnamese languageVietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
- MườngMuong languageThe Mường language is spoken by the Mường people of Vietnam. It is in the Austroasiatic language family and closely related to Vietnamese. It is a tonal language with five tones....
- Nguồn
- Vietnamese
- Northwest (Cuoi)Hung languageCuói, known as Thổ in Vietnam and as Hung in Laos, is a dialect cluster spoken by around 70,000 people in Vietnam and a couple thousand in Laos, mainly in the provinces of Bolikhamxai and Khammouan....
- Toum
- Liha
- Phong
- West (Thavưng)Aheu languageThavưng, or Aheu, is a language spoken by the Phon Sung people in Laos and Thailand. There are thought to be some 1,770 speakers in Laos, largely concentrated in Khamkeut District. A further 750 speakers live in Thailand....
- Ahoe
- Ahao
- Ahlao
- Southeast (Chut)Chut languageChut or Ruc-Sach is a dialect cluster spoken by the Chut people of Vietnam, with a smaller population of some 450 speakers in neighbouring Laos . It may be most closely related to Arem....
- Cheut
- Rục
- Sách
- Mày
- Malieng
- (AremArem languageArem is an endangered language spoken in a small area on either side of the Laos-Vietnam border. In 1996 there were estimated to be about twenty speakers in each country. It is therefore on the verge of extinction. Its nearest relative may be the Chut language of Vietnam.Arem lacks the breathy...
?) - (Kata)
- Southwest (Maleng)
- Atel
- Thémarou
- Arao
- Makang
- Malang
- Maleng
- Tơe
- South (Kri)
- Kri
- Phóng
- Mlengbrou
- North (Viet–Muong)
Tone
The discovery that Vietnamese was a Mon–Khmer language, and that its tones were a regular reflection of non-tonal features in the rest of the family, is considered a milestone in the development of historical linguisticsHistorical linguistics
Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
. The Vietic languages reflect every stage in this development.
- AremArem languageArem is an endangered language spoken in a small area on either side of the Laos-Vietnam border. In 1996 there were estimated to be about twenty speakers in each country. It is therefore on the verge of extinction. Its nearest relative may be the Chut language of Vietnam.Arem lacks the breathy...
: This language lacks the breathyBreathy voiceBreathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise...
phonationPhonationPhonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...
common to most Vietic languages, but does have glottalizedGlottalizationGlottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice...
final consonants. - Cuôi: HungHung languageCuói, known as Thổ in Vietnam and as Hung in Laos, is a dialect cluster spoken by around 70,000 people in Vietnam and a couple thousand in Laos, mainly in the provinces of Bolikhamxai and Khammouan....
in Laos, and Thô in Vietnam - AheuAheu languageThavưng, or Aheu, is a language spoken by the Phon Sung people in Laos and Thailand. There are thought to be some 1,770 speakers in Laos, largely concentrated in Khamkeut District. A further 750 speakers live in Thailand....
(Thavung): This language makes a four-way distinction between clear and breathy phonation combined with glottalized final consonants. This is very similar to the situation in the Pearic languagesPearic languagesThe Pearic languages are a group of endangered languages of the Eastern Mon–Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by Pear people living in western Cambodia and southeastern Thailand....
in which, however, the glottalization is in the vowel. - Ruc, Sach, May, and ChưtChut languageChut or Ruc-Sach is a dialect cluster spoken by the Chut people of Vietnam, with a smaller population of some 450 speakers in neighbouring Laos . It may be most closely related to Arem....
: A dialect cluster; the registerRegister (phonology)In linguistics, a register language, also known as a pitch-register language, is a language which combines tone and vowel phonation into a single phonological system. Burmese and the Chinese dialect Shanghainese are examples...
system is the four-way contrast of Aheu augmented with pitchTone (linguistics)Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
. - Maleng (Bo, Pakatan): Tones as in Ruc-Sach.
- Pong, Hung, Tum, Khong-Kheng
- Việt–Mường: VietnameseVietnamese languageVietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
and MườngMuong languageThe Mường language is spoken by the Mường people of Vietnam. It is in the Austroasiatic language family and closely related to Vietnamese. It is a tonal language with five tones....
. These two dialect chains share 75% of their vocabulary, and have similar systems of 5–6 contour tones. These are regular reflexes of other Vietic languages: The three low and three high tones correspond to voiced and voiceless initial consonants in the ancestral language; these then split depending on the original final consonants: Level tones correspond to open syllables or final nasal consonantNasal consonantA nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
s; high rising and low falling tones correspond to final stopsStop consonantIn phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
, which have since disappeared; dipping tones to final fricatives, which have also disappeared; and glottalized tones to final glottalized consonants, which have deglottalized.
Further reading
- Barker, M. E. (1977). Articles on Proto-Viet–Muong. Vietnam publications microfiche series, no. VP70-62. Huntington Beach, Calif: Summer Institute of Linguistics.