Jarai language
Jarai (/dʒəˈraɪ/; Vietnamese: Cho-Rai, Chor, Chrai, Djarai, Gia-Rai, Gio-Rai, Jorai or Mthur; Khmer: ចារ៉ាយ, Charay [caːraːj]) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Jarai people of Vietnam and Cambodia. The speakers of Jarai number approximately 530,000,[1] not including other possible Jarai communities in countries other than Vietnam and Cambodia such as United States of America. They are the largest of the upland ethnic groups of Vietnam's Central Highlands known as Degar or Montagnards, and 25 per cent of the population in the Cambodian province of Ratanakiri.
Jarai
Central Highlands, Vietnam
Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia
530,000 (2019)[1]
-
Malayo-Polynesian
- Malayo-Sumbawan (?)
- Chamic
- Highlands
- Jarai
- Highlands
- Chamic
- Malayo-Sumbawan (?)
Vietnam: modified Vietnamese alphabet
Cambodia: modified Khmer alphabet
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[edit]
The Jarai language belongs to Chamic branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages. Although often classified as a 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]
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 Khmer scripts. Additionally there are some hundreds of Jarai speakers in United States from the Jarai refugees settled in that country after 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.
Other related groups include: