01
The Highland Branch
The Bahnaric languages are the languages of the plateaus and forested ranges behind the central coast of Vietnam, known in Vietnamese as Tây Nguyên and to the French as the Hauts-Plateaux. The branch also reaches west into southern Laos and north-eastern Cambodia. There are about thirty languages. Bahnar, Sedang, Hre, Koho (also called Sre), Mnong and Stieng each belong to ethnic groups of more than 100,000 people, and Jru' (Laven) and Brao have tens of thousands of speakers, but most of the others are small.
Paul Sidwell, whose reconstruction of Proto-South Bahnaric appeared in 2000, divides the branch into regional groups. A northern chain includes Sedang, Hre, Jeh and Halang. A western chain in Laos and Cambodia includes Brao, Jru' and Oi. A central and southern group includes Bahnar, Mnong, Koho and Stieng, and the small Cua language on the coast may stand on its own. The amount of internal diversity suggests that Proto-Bahnaric began to break up about 3,000 years ago.
The branch was later cut in two. Speakers of Chamic languages, Austronesian newcomers from the coast, moved up into the highlands, and Jarai and Rade now occupy a broad band of the plateau between the northern and southern Bahnaric languages.
02
Missions, War and the Plateau Today
Bahnar was among the first highland languages to be written. French Catholic missionaries settled among the Bahnar near Kon Tum in the 1850s and began to write the language in Latin letters, and later mission work produced dictionaries of Bahnar and of neighbouring languages. In the 20th century Protestant missions and linguists of the Summer Institute of Linguistics prepared alphabets and scripture for Koho, Mnong, Sedang and others. All of these orthographies use the Latin alphabet, several of them adapted from Vietnamese spelling.
The highland peoples, called Montagnards by the French, were drawn into the wars of the 20th century on every side, and many villages were destroyed, moved or resettled. After 1975 the Vietnamese state encouraged large-scale settlement of the Central Highlands by lowland Vietnamese, and coffee and rubber plantations spread across former forest and swidden land. The Bahnaric peoples are now minorities in much of their own region.
The larger languages are still passed on in many villages, and Vietnam allows teaching in some minority languages, including Bahnar, in primary schools. Vietnamese dominates schooling, government and trade, however, and the smallest Bahnaric languages, some with only a few hundred speakers, are endangered.
Where it’s spoken
- Vietnam
- Cambodia
- Laos
Turning points
- SplitContested
Into the highlands
Proto-Bahnaric, spoken in or near the Central Highlands, begins to break up into northern, western and central-southern groups. The date is an estimate from the depth of internal diversity, and the exact subgrouping is still revised.
Sources (2)
- Contact
Chamic speakers arrive
Chamic-speaking Austronesians, established on the coast, move into the highlands; Jarai and Rade come to separate the northern and southern Bahnaric languages. Chamic borrows heavily from Bahnaric and takes on its word shape, and Bahnaric borrows Chamic words in turn.
Sources (1)
- Writing
Bahnar in Latin letters
French Catholic missionaries at Kon Tum begin to write Bahnar in the Latin alphabet, and mission dictionaries follow. In the 20th century Latin orthographies are made for Koho, Mnong, Sedang and other Bahnaric languages.
Sources (1)
- Contact
Vietnamese settle the plateau
War, resettlement and state-sponsored migration of lowland Vietnamese to the Central Highlands make the Bahnaric peoples minorities in their own region, and Vietnamese becomes the language of school and work.
Sources (1)