Language Development by Dr. Thel Thong

CONFERENCE ONLanguage Development, Language Revitalization and Multilingual

Education in Minority Communities in Asia

Language development in post-conflict Cambodia: 1993-2003DrThel Thong

Royal Academy of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I. IntroductionThe language development of Cambodia has not progressed as smoothly as it should dueto decades of civil unrest. Khmer language study is still in its stage of recovery duringthese ten years of post-conflict after it was revitalized in the 80s. The languages ofminority speaking communities have suffered the same fate due to war and neglect. Thisarticle looks into the development of some of the languages of the minority speakingcommunities in the northeastern region of Cambodia.

II. Agencies responsible for language developmentAs background information various language policies of Cambodian governments ofdifferent political persuasions are presented here to trace the history of Khmer languagepolicy. Drastic changes of power, and non-systematic changes forced upon theCambodian traditional society in Cambodia are reflected well in the fate of Khmer andminority languages of Cambodia.

Prior to the conflictThe earliest record of the French authority on minority language policy in Indochina wasa decree issue by the French Governor of Indochina on 2nd December 1935 approving acommon romanized script and writing system for languages spoken by ethnic minoritiesin Vietnam's Highlands, Laos and Cambodia (Le Khac Cuong, 1996, p. 747). Eight yearslater, in 1943, the Royal Government of Cambodia and the French authority embarked onthe romanisation of Khmer language. According to the opinion of the Minister ofEducation of that time, it seemed that the romanisation of Khmer was a great success. Butin fact a large proportion of Khmers in the countryside, religious leaders, and members ofthe Khmer Nationalist Movement were against this policy. Romanisation of Khmer andthe introduction of the Gregorian calendar were the two most hurtful reforms whichaffected most of Cambodians. The aspiration for independence from France and the wishto rally the local people to support its cause led the pro-Japanese government ofCambodia to abrogate these two reforms in July 1945.During the first ten years of independence from France, the French system of educationstill prevailed in Cambodia, and there was no education reform until 1963 when the royalgovernment of Cambodia set up the first agency responsible for Khmer languagedevelopment and policy for secondary education known as the Institute of Khmerisation,Vidyasthan Khemarayanakam. This institute was in operation up to April 1975 when theKhmer Rouge took over Cambodia. Its task was to prepare textbooks for all subjectsstudied in secondary schools. There was no mention of any language policy for theKhmer minorities in Northeastern region. In October 1964, the government launched amassive literacy campaign for adults throughout Cambodia. Everybody had to learn to

speak, read and write Khmer language including the minority ethnic groups and migrantswho had permanent resident status in Cambodia.

During the conflict of the 1970s and 1980s.The government of Long Nol from 1970 to April 1975 did not have any new languagepolicy for Cambodia. The government was mainly pre-occupied with the war and theInstitute of Khmerisation continued its work as usual with minimum resources. The PolPot communist government did not set up any language agency to replace the instituteduring its rule over Cambodia from 1975 to 1978. The government policy was to institutea radical change of Khmer language as well as the languages of those minority groups toreinforce its grip and ruthless control over the population. The language policy of Pol Potreflected the so-called classless government policy; and it created problems andconfusion because it was forced on the people. Everybody had to speak Khmer, thelanguage of Pol Pot's revolution, irrespective of ethnic background. Cambodian peoplewere alienated within their own society, and they could be punished to death for using thewrong language terminology because their real identity had been revealed. Thegovernment of Heng Samrin 1979 to 1991 inherited these problems without qualifiedteachers and adequate educational infrastructures of the past.

HI. Development of Khmer and minority languages in post-conflict CambodiaThe first move in Khmer language development and policy was started in March 1996when the royal government of Cambodia has established a National Higher EducationTask Force with financial assistance from the World Bank to consider the following eightimportant terms of reference to revive the Khmer language to suit the need of thedevelopment of Cambodia. They are:

1. Linguistic standards for the use of Khmer language as a medium of instruction2. Identification of the technical requirements for the establishment of a National

Language Institute3. The identification of priority study and research programmes of the proposed

National Language Institute4. The identification of the components to be integrated into a proposed national

policy on the use of Khmer, and more specifically in higher education5. The development of recommendations for the standardization of computer

software for the Khmer language6. The analysis of data on the current use of Khmer as medium of instruction in

higher education7. The identification of potential scientific and literary material for publication and

translation8. The preparation of recommendations for the use of foreign languages in higher

education

Again up to 1996, there was no mention about the policy of the minority languages inthese eight points of recommendation. The royal government was pre-occupied with theKhmer language for tertiary education. To sum up as well as to present a general pictureof the Khmer language in 1996, it is worthwhile to quote an analogy as stated in theintroduction of the final mission report of the National Higher Education Task Force

which stated that: "the Khmer language development at the moment is comparable to thegrowth of cocoons and clusters of cocoons which produced different quality of silk. Thelanguage planners' task will be to refine those silk products and make them marketableand palatable for the language community" (Thong, 1996, p. 1).

Agency responsible for language development in post-conflict CambodiaThe term of reference number 2 of the above list is specific to the creation of the NationalLanguage Institute of Cambodia (NLIC). The recommendation of the Task Forceincluded the following aspects 1) nature of the institute, academic authority, status; 2)legal aspects; 3) plan of actions; 4) objectives; and 5) dissemination. The NationalLanguage Institute of Cambodia was officially set up in 1998. The first move of theinstitute towards the minority languages was the preparation to undertake a languagesurvey of those minority languages. Other agencies which are concerned for thedevelopment of minority languages are the Department of Non-formal Education (NFE),and non-government organizations, especially, the International Cooperation Cambodia(ICC) and CARE Cambodia. These two non-government organizations have played animportant role in the development of Tampuan, Krung, Brao, Kavet, and Bunong from1997 up to the present time.

IV. Development of minority languages of the northeastern regionMinority languages of Cambodia have never been considered as useful or equal toKhmer, the national language, by the government in the past. There has been a shift oflanguage policy by the royal government since 1997 in respect to minority languagespeakers. The government policy implemented by the Department of Non-formalEducation in these recent years has been based on social, linguistic, cultural and politicalrights of these speakers by ways of engaging them to preserve their language and culturethrough a bilingual mother tongue literacy programme for Tampuan, Krung, Brao, Kavetand Bunong. The government objectives are to uphold the rights of those speakers and tobe on friendly terms with them as well as to win their heart because this region was oneof the strongholds of the Pol Pot regime. There are two NGOs, the ICC and CARE whichare in operation in the provinces of Ratanakiri and Mondol Kin. They are workingclosely with the department of NFE and the provincial authority of those provinces onbilingual education efforts.

The ICC and the Bilingual Literacy Programme in Ratankiri for school-agedchildren and adultsThe literacy campaign was for a period of three years. It was a kind of a feasibility

project using Khmer and minority mother tongues as medium languages of instruction. Itwas started by a language survey to find out the needs of those minority speechcommunities of that area in 1997. The programme was inspired by the government policyof 'Education for All and All for Education' for young and adult speakers of thosecommunities. Training of local teachers and other necessary logistics were put in place,but the hardest part was the transcription of those languages using Khmer scripts andKhmer writing system. Books, reading materials, and supporting teaching tools wereproduced by native speakers, local Khmer teaching staff and foreign experts working inthe field. The recipients of the programme are school-aged children as well as adults of

minority speech communities. Children are included because in those outback areas thereare no public schools

CARE Cambodia and the community primary schools in RatankiriCARE Cambodia is the second important partner with MoEYS in conjunction with NFEDepartment in the area of primary education for disadvantaged minority school children.Six community schools for grade 1 to grade 3 are set up in six villages in remote areasaccessible only by means of traditional transport. It is a part of the Highland ChildrenEducation Project (HCEP).

School management and its curriculumThe philosophy behind this project is the bridging between the two cultures for thebenefit of educational needs of marginalized ethnic minority children. HCEP has fiveinterdependent components assuring the achievement of its goals. They are:

1. Building a team of ethnic minority resource people to support the establishmentand operations of community schools,

2. Support for community governance and management of schools,3. Production of culturally appropriate curriculum materials in language,

mathematics and socio-cultural studies, adapted from the MoEYS curriculum, intwo minority languages, Krung and Tampuan,

4. Establishment of a stable teaching force of 21 community teachers, increasing incompetence during the project, and

5. Linkages with the provincial and national systems of the MoEYS (CARE, HCEP,2003, p. 2).

Other important elements of HCEP are a) bringing the schools to the community locality,b) full support and participation with contribution of parents, c) self-management andownership through village school councils. Bridging the two cultures through mothertongue maintenance and Khmer means developing the whole child and their parents aswell as the whole community within their natural environment and cultural settings. Itreflects well the UNESCO policy on Early Education of the Child through its MotherTongue.

Minority language policy advocated by the royal governmentIn its regular annual meetings from 2000 to 2003 to evaluate various education andlanguage programmes, and projects through ICC, CARE and other interested agencies,the government has encouraged and facilitated the use of Khmer scripts, the nationallanguage of Cambodia, to transcribe the languages of those ethnic minorities. It reflectsthe government commitment to preserve the languages and culture of the Khmer minorityspeech communities and uphold their language rights and human rights. It fits well withthe accommodation theory (Tollefson, 1991, pp. 69-70) and that of social structuralapproach (Tollefson, 1991, pp. 202-203) of language planning and policy in the field ofsocio-linguistics.

Implementation for equal opportunity, and participationThis language policy provides the opportunity to marginalized masses of uneducated andpoor people to have the opportunity to be literate in their mother tongue and to attend

schools to acquire skills they need for job and political power. It is also the first time, inthe history of Cambodia, that the lowland and highland minority speech communitiescould read and listen in their own languages to political agenda and political policies ofvarious political party campaigns in the general and national election in July 2003. Parentparticipation and support is higher compared to public schools in general. Uniformity inthe implementation of language policy in the classrooms has been observed throughoutthe adult literacy classes and in community schools throughout the areas. Illustration ofsuch activities is shown in the diagramme.

Bilingual Model for Adults and ChildrenCommunity Schools forchildren (CARE)Languages and % of timecommitment

Year

1234

mothertongue

80%60%40%20%

Khmer

20%40%60%80%

Literacy community classes for school-aged childrenand adults (ICC)

Languages and % of time commitmentUp to 2003

Year

123

Mothertongue80%50%20%

Khmer

20%50%80%

Reform effective from2004Year

1

2

Mothertongue90%50%10%

Khmer

10%50%90%

Benefit of uniform script and writing systemFor a long term interest of both, majority and minority languages, benefits are quiteobvious in using a uniform script and writing system. The goals are to:

1. Enhance language learning in Khmer and minority speech communities,2. Enhance the transferring of skills in speaking, reading, and writing between both

languages,a. character recognition can enhance reading and writing in bi-lingual

programmeb. word recognition can enhance pronunciation and meaningc. code switching at all levels of linguistic aspects between languagesd. acceptance of loanwords in the modern field of knowledge

3. Enhance the semantic transfer between languages due to inter-borrowing terms,4. Enhance a better communication and maintain good relationship between

different speech communities,5. Enhance and sustain a long term friendship for a peaceful co-existence based on

mutual respect and understanding, and6. Foster active participation in political, social, cultural, and economic life of the

minority speech communities.

Linguistic problems in using Khmer to transcribe those languagesAn evaluation meeting was organized with participation of all parties concerned held atthe provincial city of Ratanakiri to reflect on programmes implemented during the pastthree years. The meeting studied and re-evaluated language materials and languagesupport teaching tools. They came up with adjustments to the writing symbols andsystems that have been used in the past (see appendix of those additional consonant

sounds for Krung, Brao and Kavet). In this exercise, I limit myself to the minority speechof Tampuan which is simple and familiar to me. The other four language varieties,Krung, Brao, Kavet and Bunong have more complex phonological and morphologicalfeatures compared to Khmer.

Linguistic aspects of Tampuan: consonants and vowelsIt is necessary to remind readers and experts in the field of minority languages that thevowel charts presented in Khmer language do not necessary reflect the true sense ofvowels as it should be in linguistic field. It includes a number of monosyllables which aretraditionally consider as Khmer vowels. As a result there are more vowels than expected.As a result of historical processes, Khmer writing system now uses two consonantsymbols for each IPA symbol; and a single vowel symbol for two IPA symbols. Khmervowel and consonant charts should be taken to mean writing symbols rather than torepresent an accurate IPA as such. What I have to do is to broadly transcribe them andkeep them as faithfully as possible to the original sources in Khmer. I adopt the IPA ofTampuan consonants and vowels presented by J. D. Crowley (1999).

Tampuan consonants, consonant clusters, and corresponding Khmer scriptsTampuanphonemes(IPA)k

kh

0

c

n

?d

n

t

th

P?b

ph

m

Khmer scripts

fi

3

W

to - o0

Q]n)tif lf l-g (n-n)

fi

ti

fl

u - no - odfiH - H

Tampuan words

fnthn)Iff! B

tUJOJ

ttiimfi

QJiH1Q]itJirutfurutmi5

.

asmtuutOfitiio(fitHlffl

Transcription

kaman

khlaomkhs:j

rja:r

ca:k

fia:?snu

?da:l

nob.

taor

ths?thun

pa:j

?bD?be:t

pha:mphe:

maon

Meaning

wife

to blowto be accustomed

work

to walk

whatlife, age

shallow

that, there

ear

smallseason

to cook rice

a little

blooduncooked rice

3rd person plural

Based on J.D. Crowley's consonant and vowel chart

jr

1

w

<?

h

T3

hn

hi

hm

hn

hr

?j

?1

?w

OJ - ttJ

I - I

ej - ru2

? -- twtn - t/lH

fl

|fl10mUI|flpOfHI318S9

tuonun8jtJ

UstwotuiH1H

Iff

Hnjtrj:

HPHttrji

Ht/JttJ

Hstgi

myJitLtnHJB*

HJR»

8P|9

jo:c

rsrait

bQ

wac

gaim

hai

?a:m?e:

?iihnah

hla:

?mhmao?mhmo:j

?nhnam

kshrsihre:

?jou??ju:t

?lo??lo:rj

?wai

wrong

to tremble, shiver

from

abdomen

bird

to watch

sweet3rd person singular

fingernail

leaf

rock, stoneguest

medicine

redrattan

to be afraidto wipe

to knowwood

to reside

They are consonants and consonant clusters in Tampuan with corresponding Khmerscripts

Tampuan vowels and corresponding Khmer scriptsTampuan(IPA)

o:4

0

0

Khmerscripts

H

H

H

Tampuan words

on

niuiiitflfian

Transcription

co:k

k3l

trok

tpk

Meaning

cup

headcowto hit

monkey

2 /!/ for 9) - nj /I - ]/ in Khmer can be treated as t and t H t\n with a dot underneath.3 Glottal stop is marked in this paper by the ? symbol4 The two dots indicate : the lengthening of vowel sounds

o:

a:

a

a

£

£

i

si

i:

9

f

9t

t:

0

u

ou

u:

U9

ag

9:

t9

g

HI• •

1 HI

o «>1 HIA e»

H

«a«J a. •)

- HA e»

Hd ol

H£* Ctf

H«=• <=•

H

Hai en

He* e*

H

Hi i

J?i i

HV *

&» a

H3J U

at ct

i tHat ct

t IH

i-] IH]

U8

fflfl

H^nie/uoimo

HJ«u:o «•S-

n:4H

U

I?on

{fiU

Bfi

mtu

8|b9n^tu

fl«

£

9

8jr

tu

tuti

IHJ8

mo:n

bark

?Qkanwar

patam

?JHt

peh

kleh

pih

msi

pri:

csk

krtp

t9tt

kamlf:

lOQ

?lo?

rakul

koummouh

pu:

kU9Q

?ba9

khairj

mtan

nephew

white

womanrat

five

shrubto pound rice

to be exhausted

snake

old sibling

forest

to hold in hand

mouth

slow

morning

water well, ditchto know

knee

to waitnose

3rd person plural

gong

not yet

thing

name mtsn

13

e:

e:

e:

ai

ao

»-3«ilt 1H* «>_1 If?

j «»*-. **t If?

V V

1 IH

H IHI

ts]n

fftfi

Wife

HPtot?

imitin

tiak

ke:rj

sake:

krs:

cai?

taorklao

water

clever

P»g

bed

to put

earhusband

Khmer vowel symbols and the corresponding IPAKhmer vowelsymbolsInherent vowel

H fl

1 HI

1 ' HIj

1o. e*

He> 0

Heh

H<=J eJ

ffQl

H«=» C9

HCtf

Hcs en

He»

H

Hi i

IPA

D

D:o:D

a:

a

ae

£

i

i:

0i3

t

9t

f:

0

Tampuan

ROt

Ofi

L8tJsfifi

cnn

mi

mmfi

f\JtU

«Mne•i9

RfU

]fi

|RU

fiR

o «•mru

fi

Transcription

kol

co:k

troorj

k??

paak

?dar

katar

kytl

pen

pin

tj:

tai

wet

krip

tatt

kamlt:

to?

Meaning

head

cup

road

pot

white

sun, day

to call

nibble

full

we, us

have

seed

toss

every

slow

morning

hot

, If. 9

5an

oi el

I IH

IHi

'-]•-3

1 tH•> •>-.I Ifl•> «»-. •*I tfl

V V

t IH

l-l Uf)

t-1 tfllo o- Hi i0 0

- Ho o

1 HI0 O 0 J

1 HI

o tjo0 rto

O

H;ea o.

S HSCx 0 0 J

o f f °o no

» &o tj oa rt o

1

t-i: IHI:

u

ou

u:U9

SL9

3:

t9

fa

ta

e:

e:

E:

ai

ao

tw

om

om

am

am

ah

ah£

eh

ihoh

L«imsjj

9nu;

tH

tlm

-]KJJOI

«atnb

id

Hefje "

13

tm

tntoqo

R

LR1

RJ1H

moj13

fiS

n:A 0R:

S;

tyn:

cru?

talouh

pu:

PM*y?aa

da:l

phta

pial

tta (81)5

Ke:0

ce:

?ntre:

khai

tao

ptw

com

kom

kram

kjam

kacah

tah

ksh

teh

cih

kroh

deep

overtakr

they

follow

to call

also, too

so that

to huntduck

clever

don't

pestle

moon

there-

hold a child

kiss

to fast

to sink

near

rust

to curse

already

give birth

to ride

dried

5 The distinction between these two words has to be established, although the young generation, especiallycity-dwellers, have a tendency to overlook them.

10

wn: Joi <=*

t-s IH:0 f f 00 d~j 0

2/ i/

oh

a9h

ouh

UK

ifis

fHf iS

kph

lash

takouh, . . — .

dispose of

perch

fight

Khmer scripts in this table contain vowel symbols as well as syllables. Cambodiantraditional grammar considers all of them as vowel symbols, and they are represented by42 symbols which are used to transcribe the tampuan vowels. These three consonant andvowel charts will assist teaching staff and adult learners to work out themselves thevowel quality of Tampuan and Khmer. It is advantageous for Khmer instructors andTampuans alike to distinguish between phonemes and scripts of these two languages. IPAcharts, vowel and consonant charts are for linguists, experts in the field of languages, butnot for people without linguistic background. Cambodians and Tampuans alike areaccustomed to work out through the scripts, therefore, such charts which are based onsigns and symbols are helpful for them in their teaching career.

The adoption of Khmer writing system and its related problemsThe Khmer writing system has been officially approved to transcribe the minorityspeeches, Tampuan, Krung, Brao, Kavet, and Bunong at the general meeting of allinterested and concerned parties in March 2003. MoEYS approval of the official used ofKhmer to transcribe those languages was in August, 30th 2003. Khmer writing systeminvolves on the two vowel and consonant registers as has been explained in Henderson,1952. As a starting point, the Khmer writing system has to adjust itself to the existingspeech patterns of those languages, for example, avoiding the syllable structures whichare based on sound registers. Khmer writing system has to use the existing diacriticsymbols as a means to avoid influences on consonants and vowels from its positions insyllabic structures6.

Linguistic problems in transcription of minority languagesMy discussion is based on a MoYS paper entitled Official Approval by MoEYS on usingKhmer orthography to write ethnic minority languages in Cambodia, dated 26 March2003. There are problems for Krung, Brao and Kavet in relation to two voiced consonantsounds /j/ and /d/ which are represented by two pairs of Khmer scripts 0 d for /j7 and fl

3 for /d/. It is the question of symbols or scripts representing the sound rather than the

sounds themselves. Native speakers, members of the committee, wish to see these fourscripts having common or uniform diacritics as in the first pair of the same list, namelyusing the symbol ̂ called /chnal/ (=spur) to be incorporated in those two pairs of scripts(see appendix: chart of additional consonants, items no.3 to 6). Foreign linguists, expertin the field, explained that the choice of these four Khmer scripts 0 QU and U m is

based on the following three reasons. Firstly, they are part of the existing Khmer scripts;

6 Example in consonsnt cluster CC, the first C belonging to /a:/ series changes the second C belonging toly.l series into an /a:/ one. e.g. the Khmer clusters [fi g [G fl d

11

secondly, they have not been used yet; and lastly for technical reason. It does not requireany extra modifications which may cause problems for Khmer font development in thefuture. Dr Iv Chan representing the National Language Institute of Cambodia explainedto the meeting that he would raise the matter with NEF department and MoEYS when hereturned to Phnom Penh7.

Problems with Krung, Brao and Kavet in relation to alteration of consonant scriptsFrom the beginning, they used eleven consonant scripts for voiced consonants which donot exist in Khmer. They are represented by Khmer consonants preceded by angapostrophe or ' . The meeting in March 2003 has decided to drop these single and

double apostrophe diacritic marks. There are two problems related to these scriptchanges, firstly, the reprint of books using the old system and secondly, there was nounanimous decision yet on the form of four consonant scripts representing /j/ and /d/.

They are represented in Khmer by / 0 /, /Cli# and /l5/, /tW. No reprint of materials

developed in the early time will be possible due to these two problems. So far, Tampuonand Bunong seem to have less problems in relation to transcription compared to Krung,Brao, and Kavet (see appendix: chart of additional consonants)

Effect of changes on teachers and studentsTeachers and students on Krung, Brao and Kavet programmes of the past have to learnthe scripts and the sounds of these eleven additional consonants again if they wish to beon the programme in the years to come. Some temporary adjustments have taken place.Twenty-five teachers of Krung, Brao and Kavet have been retrained in October to copewith these changes. They cannot reprint the old materials because it is too costly to do so.Students and teachers still use the old reading materials, but they correct them graduallyby hand.

V. Some linguistic aspects of Tampuan in relation to KhmerIn this study, I consider only Tampuan for the following reasons. Firstly, Tampuan is oneof the major minority languages in terms of speakers. Secondly, this language is socially,culturally and broadly linguistically related to Khmer. Thirdly, there are. enough words inTampuon that I can collect them from bilingual reading materials available in PhnomPenh. Tampuan is central Bhanaric and Khmer is in a separate branch of Mon-Khmercalled Khmeric.9The aim of the study is to look for prototype sounds and words in Tampuan and Khmeras well as some other grammatical features in order to add other dimensions of Tampuanlinguistic features to enable native Tampuans, Khmers and foreign linguists working inthe field, and Khmer ministry officials to have a better understanding of it as well as tofacilitate the preparation of a Tampuan grammar book for primary bilingual schools ofthat language as well as for the adult literacy bilingual programme. The steps involved inthis work is to collect Tampuan words from classroom textbooks and prepare a list ofcognate words, and to analyze them according to linguistic characteristics. We wish to

7 This was the answer of my query to Dr Iv Chan in Phnom Penh.8 See appendix on consonant chart.9 In a private discussion, Dr Gregerson told me that Khmer language has its own group called Khmeric.

12

know who would be the main borrower in the past and who can be considered as theprototyped language among the two. I do not consider Tampuan words which are ofrecent loans. Shortcoming in this exercise is expected because it involves only Tampuanand Khmer There are at least two benefits resulted from the study of cognate wordswhich are to trace the 'lost' root words in the Khmer language, and to discover somelinguistic features common to these two languages.

List of cognate words in Tampuon and KhmerTampuonmy/mnmtjnjff:cmtflnj

mnjtm:tinnjifi

«9lfl«ynaim/rnttnjtnnj

trjjiIP"tyittf

» a.*>mat

hfifi

tnti

hthti

fin)

Transcriptionkapouw

kapi:

kacil

cih

?da:w

?del

ta:nlu

tab

thokna:t

tia

tide

blok

pakaaw

pahjaa

pan

piar

pro:k

maoj

rateh

rarait

raoQ

ramaQ

wal

Khmer(fiU

jfiin

§nj

0s

B1J

tfll

fiPffltm:tmntihR

m

8fi

5"

5t|^>

tnnjmfiLUfi

HtU

U9:

5BM

mtt

JHltl

/in)

Transcriptionkrspai

krapa:

khcil

cih

ta:w

dae

tpa:n

doh

taokyark

tie

ttk

phluk

phka:

phnae

pan

pi:

kaprok

muaj

rateh

no:

roog

maorj

woal

Meaningwater buffalo

crocodile

lazy

to ride

sword

also

to weave

to take off

miserable

duck

water

ivory

flower

to send

to shoot

two

squirrel

one

carriage,cartto tremble,shiver

meetinghouseschombingdeerto measure

Number1

2

3

4

5

6

8

9

10

13• _-«,

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

IOFor convenient sake, I use fl for Khmer letter n) instead of the ordinary IPA

13

wiwriwimWlffil

wnuw:rifOflfOnUP

tnufiiutt/fleIt/lU

BJltil

spsjnj

8Jtii

HSHiPti

Hlti

win)HIS

H:HjnHtlfp

HBigi

339 Dk

saktr

sakerr

somrap

seh

srs:

sre:k

ha:

hu:p pharp

hisn

heep

lana:

Islon

log

?nsaoQ

?arj

?an

?a:n

?ouh

?ysDk

?mhmao

?nhnam

Wfi(t(U3S)u

WLwtffl^Q)wnutWJ

f(W

i(funtmjtmin

tjamu

ty«f£fl

H|fi

et^fiti«itiHQ3

H18

HW

tun

8

#

sok

sko:

srskia

samrap

seh

srae

srek

ha:

ru:p phiep

rian

hoep

Irp:

lun

?anb3r]li

tansaog

?3Q

?an

a:n

ous

jo:k

thrno:

thnam

hair on body

drum

sour

for

horse

open field

thirsty

open

picture

to study

box, case

sesame

to rubbrisklywell, pond,ditchwild ox

to roast

I

to read

to drag

to take

rock, stone

medicine

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

People with linguistic background can notice straight away the similarity and differencesbetween Tampuan and Khmer and suggest which one of them may be the prototype-sounds or prototype-words for these two languages. I consider some examples as anexercise to trace this phenomenon, and there is limit on it.From the .first look, the items no. 45, /?mhmao/ and /thmo:/ , and 46, /?nhnam/ and/thnam/ show parallel evolution and changes that took place sometimes in the past. Theprototypes, /?mhmao/ and /?nhnam/ has dropped the prefixes /?m/ and /?n/ and beenreplaced both by /th/ in Khmer to be accepted as regular clusters /thm/ and /thn/. If we goa step further to include other languages in the corpus as it has been discussed byCrowley, 1999, p. 3, we find the term /tamo:/ in Proto North Bahnaric which is closer to

11 When I cannot find a suitable transcription, I follow the transcription used in the Cambodian-Englishdictionary by Headley, R. K. et al., 1997.

14

Khmer than the Tampuan language can offer. The problem is to answer how it turnedfrom N to /th/ in Khmer. For the word /thnam/medicine, Dr Gregerson in a privatediscussion has suggested to me that it might have come from the prototype Malay root/tarn/ to plant. I found the old Khmer word /torn/ in Long, 2000, p. 265 which means the

•same. This means that /torn/ R to plant was a Khmer prototype for Khmer language

rediscovered from the old Khmer repertoire which is the stone inscription dated 7th AD.o o

We could not see the connection because we use /tam/fll for old Khmer /tom/fi. How to

explain the change that took place? fi can have a subscript ' ^ ' as a second element ofo

the cluster as well as /th/ ti in /tnaot/ t JJ1R and /thnam/ Cjl .

The Tampuan word /tiskf tSjfi and the Khmer word /ttk/ 8fi, (item no. 12), for water is

useful to decide whether the Khmer word for water was derived from the Pali word dakaor the Pali-Sanskrit udaka as it has been suggested by Khmer Pali scholars, see Khmer

K Cff

dictionary, v ol. 1, p. 431 and p. 1791. These two words /tisk/ 18] fi and /ttk/ 8 fi, are in a

minimal pair contrast between the two vowels hi and /is/. If we can decide the likelihoodof the direction of the change of the vowel, then we can decide which term was theprototype, /is/ is a front vowel and the final consonant /k/ is a back one. The consonant/k/ which is in the back position may facilitate the /ia/ vowel to retract to the centralposition to form the vowel hi. If one contemplates to justify that the Khmer word /ttk/was derived from udaka or daka, how can one explains the change of/a/ to hi.

From the list of cognate words, it is interesting to find the word /tarn/, item no.8, inTampuan which means to weave. /tarn/ is also found in the old Khmer to denote the titleof high ranking officials as well as an element of the compound /kamratarn/, Long, 2000,p. 103, and p.273. The word /tparn/ is found from the same source on page 297. It meansa weaver. The Khmer dictionary, vol.1, page 359, gives the word /tparn/ the meaning toweave and /tamparn/ on page 337. /tamparn/ mean tools used to weave. What is lacking isthe root word /tarn/ which means to weave, /tarn/ has been considered as a long-lost term,/tarn/ is a tampuan word. How can one consider it as a prototype of the Khmer words/tparn/ and /tamparnY? The presence of the old Khmer word /tparfi/ on stone inscription in726 AD, and its derivative /tamparn/ in the present time show that these terms had beendeveloped long ago in the past. This is to show that Khmer has changed more thanTampuan. Tampuan though an undeveloped language compared to Khmer can beconsidered to preserve certain prototype language features such as the term /tarn which islost in the modern Khmer repertoire. We can be sure that /tarn/ is the original root termfrom which the two derivatives are formed, /tparn/ and /tamparn/. /tarn/ in /tparn/ and/tamparn is considered as a 'lost relative' and it can be admitted as a new entry into therevised Khmer dictionary in the future12.

12 In a private discussion, Prof. Long Seam has mentioned to me that in the time of Angkor he came acrossthe Khmer word /ta:fl7.1 am waiting for the edition of the old Khmer dictionary in the time of Angkor toreconsider the case again.

15

Reduplication or prefix particles in TampuanItem no. 21 /rsrait/ is a verb meaning tremble or shiver, and the item no. 37 /blon/ meansto rub brisly. These two terms can be considered as reduplication or derivatives byprefixes /ra—/ and /la--/. These prefixes indicate repetitive actions. This characteristic isagain similar to Khmer.

Classifier in TampuanOther grammatical features of Tampuan that I came across are numerical classifiers andsimple syntactic structures. I provide one example for each of them. The example ofnumerical classifier is taken from Tampuan Reader vol. 1, p. 12.fig fllB Ejf ko:n ptan ?douv flB 6 81 fi four siblings The structure is Noun +

Cardinal Number + Classifier.

Simple syntactic structure in TampuanThe example of a simple syntactic structure is taken from Tampuon Reader vol. 1, p. 7.fl 8 fflBfrlB {Ufi fl 8 tOJJB tntin ?o: ti: ka:nrja:npro? ?o: ti: lisn ca:j

M

fJlBmitnillJ finSLfflfltntin Having no job having no money to spend.

Tracing the origin of Khmer script/r/ I

Two is ttjjl /piar/ in Tampuan and tu /pi:/ in Khmer, item no. 17, and to exchange is

fil/tour/ in Tampuan13 and til /tour/ in Khmer. The 'r' in Khmer is not pronouce, and

why it is there. In this case the Khmer ' I ' in til /tour/ is for etymological reason tracing

the source to old Khmer prototype. Tampuon and Surin Khmer can be considered as theprototype of Khmer for til /tour/.

Is etymological spelling of Khmer loanword into Tampuan necessary?There is one example to highlight the case. The Khmer word UClflj /bon/, ceremony or

merit, has been borrowed into Tampuan14. The loanword has been stripped off theunderscript 'J ' lyl as it is written as UfUl /bon/ or /pon/. This spelling will cause

confusion if the word U^fl /pona?/ (Khmer dictionary, vol. l, p. 557) will be introduced into

Tampuon because according to this rule it will be stripped off its underscript ' ^ ' /n/;

and it will become also another UCUl /bon/ or /pon/. This kind of spelling will not

facilitate the linguistic transfer of bilingual learners and speakers of either Tampuon orKhmer.

There are many cognate words that we can consider in the future once the bilingualTampuan-Khmer dictionary is published. The following areas are suggested to beconsidered in the future study of Tampuan:

13 The Tampuan word fiftour/ is found in Tampuon reader vol. 4.

14 Pampuan reader, vol. 3, p. 141

16

1. word structures e.g. monosyllable and disyllabic2. word formation e.g. affixation1. sources of loanwords from Khmer and Lao, and its Tampuanization4. idiomatic expressions5. grammatical similarities and differences between Khmer and Tampuan etc...

VI. ConclusionTampuan has complex consonant cluster sounds which do not exist in Khmer. Theycreate more problems for Khmer to learn Tampuan than the Tampuans who wish to learnKhmer. Tampuan as well as other foreigners who wish to learn Khmer have two mainproblems which are a) word boundary or syllable boundary within each word andbetween two or three words, and to distinguish consonant and vowel registers within eachsingle words and syllables because each consonant and vowel is determined by thepreceding types of sound registers. Instructors have to be alert on these characteristics inorder to enhance the teaching and learning of Khmer in its written form.

Bibliography

CARE Cambodia, 2003. Highland Children's Education Project, (HCEP educationprogramme). Phnom Penh : CARE International in Cambodia (Unpublished paper)CARE Cambodia, 2003. Highland Children s Education Project, (HCEP CurriculumStatement Grade 1 to 3). Phnom Penh : CARE International in Cambodia (Unpublishedpaper)Carroll, T. 2001. Language planning and language change in Japan. Richmond, Surrey :Curzon Press.Crowley, J. D. 1999. Tampuan phonology. In Mon-Khmer Studies 31: 1-13.Fierman, W. 1991. Language planning and national development. Berlin, New York :Mouton de Gruyter.Gregerson, M. 2001. Learning to read in Ratanakiri: an anatomy of some literacy effortsamong the indigenous ethnic minorities of northeastern Cambodia. Paper presented at the5th International Conference on Language and Development, Phnom Penh, Cambodia,September 5-7,2001.Hassan, A. (comp.) 1994. Language planning in Southeast Asia. Kula Lumpur : DewanBahasa dan Pustaka, Ministry of Education.Henderson, E. 1952. The main features of Cambodian pronunciation. In BSOAS 14: 149-174.Henderson, E. 1975. The topography of certain phonetic and morphologicalcharacteristics of South East Asian languages. Paper presented at the Regional ResearchWorkshop on "Linguistic Problems in Minority/Majority Group Relations in SoutheastAsian Countries" at Mahidol University from 13-17 January 1975, Thailand.Khuon, S. 1975. The case of diversity in Cambodian dialects. Paper presented at theRegional Research Workshop on "Linguistic Problems in Minority/Majority GroupRelations in Southeast Asian Countries" at Mahidol University from 13-17 January 1975,Thailand.Le Khac Cuong, 1996. Proposals for a common script system of South-Bahnariclanguages. In Khmer Studies: knowledge of the past and its contributions to the

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rehabilitation and reconstruction of Cambodia. Proceedings of International Conferenceon Khmer Studies, Phnom Penh, 26-30 August 1996, pp. 747-754.Long, S. 2000. Dictionnaire du Khmer ancien (6^-8* century) 'fG81S(fiBt§JUnfin'.

Phnom Penh : Toyota Foundation.Martin, M. A. 1975. The Pear dialects and their relation to the national language. Paperpresented at the Regional Research Workshop on "Linguistic Problems inMinority/Majority Group Relations in Southeast Asian Countries" at Mahidol Universityfrom 13-17 January 1975, Thailand.Ministry of Education and Sports (MoEYS), 2003. Official Approval by MoEYS onusing Khmer orthography to write ethnic minority languages in Cambodia, dated 26March 2003 (Text in Khmer), Phnom Penh : MoEYS, Cambodia.Pisitpanporn, N. 2002. The language situation in Cambodia: r-h variation in Phnom PenhKhmer. PhD. Thesis, Department of Linguistics, La Trobe University, Bundura, Vic.,Australia.Rubin, J. and Jernudd B. H. (edit.) 1971. Can language be planned? Honolulu : TheUniversity Press of Hawaii.Thong, T. 1975. The case of diversity in Cambodian dialects; an annotated bibliographypresented at the Regional Research Workshop on "Linguistic Problems inMinority/Majority Group Relations in Southeast Asian Countries" at Mahidol Universityfrom 13-17 January 1975, Thailand.Thong, T. 1985. Language planning and language policy of Cambodia. In Bradley, D. ed.Paper in South-East Asian linguistics No. 9: Language Policy, language planning andsociolinguistics in South-East Asia, 103-117. Pacific Linguistics, A-67, 1985.Thong, T. 1996. Final Mission* Report, Technical Assistance Mission March 14-April 7,1996. National Higher Education Task Force, National Higher Education Action PlanProject. Cambodian Development Commission (CDC): Phnom Penh, Cambodia.Thong, 1996. Language problems and language planning for Cambodia. In KhmerStudies: knowledge of the past and its contributions to the rehabilitation andreconstruction of Cambodia. Proceedings of International Conference on Khmer Studies,Phnom Penh, 26-30 August 1996, pp. 674-681.Tollefson, J. 1991. Planning language, planning inequality language policy in thecommunity. New York : Longman Inc.

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AppendixChart of additional consonants for Krung, Brao and Kavet

Number1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Consonant scripts

'n

'fi

'o'd'a'a'o

9 ft

'ttf"n"a

Change to1 1ft

»0

nuti

ni

tf

0-«Ha

IPA

/g/

/j/

/)/

/d/

/d/

Ibl

/b/

/?y/

/?g/

The two pairs of Khmer scripts in question are numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6. The four scripts

with spurs look like this: u^ U' Cr Q .