Vietic languages


The Vietic languages are a branch of the Austroasiatic language family. The branch was once referred to by the terms Việt–Mường, Annamese–Muong, and Vietnamuong; the term Vietic was proposed by Hayes, who proposed to redefine Việt–Mường as referring to a sub-branch of Vietic containing only Vietnamese and Mường.
Many of the Vietic languages have tonal or phonational systems intermediate between that of Viet–Muong and other branches of Austroasiatic that have not had significant Chinese or Tai influence.
Vietnamese, today, has had significant Chinese influence especially in vocabulary and tonal system. Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary accounts for about 30–60% of Vietnamese vocabulary, not including calques from China.

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 Laos as well as parts of Nghệ An Province and Quảng Bình Province in Vietnam. The time depth of the Vietic branch dates back at least 2,000 years.
The ancestor of the Vietic language is traditionally assumed to have been based around the Red River area and in what is now Northern Central Vietnam. However, the origin of the Vietic languages remains a controversial topic among linguists.

Vietnamese

The Vietnamese language was identified as Austroasiatic in the mid-nineteenth century, and there is now strong evidence for this classification. Modern Vietnamese is a monosyllabic tonal language like Cantonese and has lost many Proto-Austroasiatic phonological and morphological features. Vietnamese also has large stocks of borrowed Chinese vocabulary. However, there continues to be resistance to the idea that Vietnamese could be more closely related to Khmer than to Chinese or Tai languages. The vast majority of scholars attribute these typological similarities to language contact rather than to common inheritance.
Chamberlain argues that the Red River Delta region was originally Tai-speaking and became Vietnamese-speaking only between the seventh and ninth centuries AD as a result of emigration from the south, i.e., modern Central Vietnam, where the highly distinctive and conservative North-Central Vietnamese dialects are spoken today. Therefore, the region of origin of Vietnamese was well south of the Red River.
On the other hand, Ferlus showed that the inventions of pestle, oar and a pan to cook sticky rice, which is the main characteristic of the Đông Sơn culture, correspond to the creation of new lexicons for these inventions in Northern Vietic and Central Vietic. The new vocabularies of these inventions were proven to be derivatives from original verbs rather than borrowed lexical items. The current distribution of Northern Vietic also correspond to the area of Dong Son culture. Thus, Ferlus conclude that the Northern Vietic is the direct heirs of the Dongsonian, who have resided in Southern part of Red river delta and North Central Vietnam since the 1st millennium BC.
Furthermore, John Phan argues that “Annamese Middle Chinese” was spoken in the Red River Valley and was then later absorbed into the coexisting Proto-Viet-Muong, one of whose divergent dialect evolved into Vietnamese language. Annamese Middle Chinese belonged to Middle Chinese dialect continuum in southwestern China that eventually "diversified into" Waxiang Chinese, the Jiudu patois 九都土話 of Hezhou, Southern Pinghua, and various Xiang Chinese dialects.. Phan lists three major types of Sino-Vietnamese borrowings, which were borrowed during different eras:
Vietic speakers reside in and around the Nakai–Nam Theun Conservation Area of Laos and north-central Vietnam. Many of these speakers are referred to as Mường, Nhà Làng, and Nguồn. Chamberlain lists current locations in Laos for the following Vietic peoples. An overview based on first-hand fieldwork has been proposed by Michel Ferlus.
In Vietnam, some Vietic hill-tribe peoples, including the Arem, Rục, Maliêng, and Mày, were resettled at Cu Nhái. The Sách are also found in Vietnam.
The following table lists the lifestyles of various Vietic-speaking ethnic groups. Unlike the neighboring Tai ethnic groups, many Vietic groups are not paddy agriculturalists.
LifestyleVietic group
Small-group foraging nomadsAtel, Thémarou, Mlengbrou,
Originally collectors and traders who have become emergent swidden sedentistsArao, Maleng, Malang, Makang, Tơe, Ahoe, Phóng
Swidden cultivators who move every 2–3 years among pre-existing village sitesKri
Combined swidden and paddy sedentistsAhao, Ahlao, Liha, Phong, Toum

Languages

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 linguistics. Vietic languages show a typological range from a Chinese or Tai typology to a typical Mon-Khmer Austroasiatic typology, including complex tonal systems, complex phonation systems or blends; CVC or CCVC syllable templates; monosyllabic or polysyllabic and isolating or agglutinative typology.

Chamberlain (2003)

The following classification of the Vietic languages is from Chamberlain, as quoted in Sidwell. Unlike past classifications, there is a sixth "South" branch that includes Kri, a newly described language.
Chamberlain uses the term Kri-Mol to refer to the Vietic languages, and considers there to be two primary splits, namely Mol-Toum and Nrong-Theun. Chamberlain provides the following phylogenetic classification for the Vietic languages.
;Kri-Mol
Based on comparative studies by Ferlus and new studies in Muong languages by Phan, Sidwell pointed out that Muong is a paraphyletic taxon and subgroups with Vietnamese. Sidwell's proposed internal classification for the Vietic languages is as follows.
Vietic
notes that the 12-year animal cycle names in the Khmer calendar, from which Thai animal cycle names are also derived, were borrowed from a phonologically conservative form of Viet-Muong. Ferlus contends that the animal cycle names were borrowed from a Viet-Muong language rather than from a Southern Vietic language, since the vowel in the Old Khmer name for "snake" m.saɲ corresponds to Viet-Muong /a/ rather than to Southern Vietic /i/.
AnimalThai nameKhmer IPAModern KhmerAngkorian KhmerOld KhmerProto-Viet-MuongVietnameseMườngPongKari
鼠 RatChuat cuːtjūt ɟuotɟuot*ɟuotchuộtchuột /cuot⁸/--
牛 OxChalu cʰlouchlūv caluuc.luː*c.luːtrâutlu /tluː¹/kluː¹săluː²
虎 TigerKhan kʰaːlkhāl kʰaalkʰa:l*k.haːlˀkháikhảl /kʰaːl³/kʰaːl³-
兔 RabbitThɔ tʰɑhthoḥ tʰɔhtʰɔh*tʰɔhthỏthó /tʰɔː⁵/tʰɔː³-
龍 DragonMarong roːŋroṅ marooŋm.roːŋ*m.roːŋrồngrồng /roːŋ²/-roːŋ¹
蛇 SnakeMaseng mə̆saɲmsāñ' masaɲm.saɲ*m.səɲˀrắnthẳnh /tʰaɲ³/siŋ³-
馬 HorseMamia mə̆miːmamī mamiam.ŋɨa*m.ŋǝːˀngựangữa /ŋɨa⁴/-măŋəː⁴
羊 GoatMamɛɛ mə̆mɛːmamæ mamɛɛm.ɓɛː*m.ɓɛːˀ----
猴 MonkeyWɔɔk vɔːkvak vɔɔkvɔːk*vɔːkvoọcvoọc /vɔːk⁸/vɔːk⁸-
雞 RoosterRakaa rə̆kaːrakā rakaar.kaː*r.kaːgàca /kaː¹/kaː¹kaː¹
狗 DogJɔɔ cɑːca cɔɔcɔː*ʔ.cɔːˀchóchỏ /cɔː³/cɔː³cɔː³
豬 PigKun kao/kolkur kurkur*kuːrˀcúicủi /kuːj³/kuːl⁴kuːl⁴