01
Either Side of the Annamite Range
The Katuic languages are spoken on both sides of the Annamite Range, which divides Laos from central Vietnam, and westward across the Mekong into north-eastern Thailand and northern Cambodia. There are around twenty of them, with about a million and a half speakers in all. Kuy and Bru are the largest, with several hundred thousand speakers each. Kuy is spoken in the Thai provinces of Surin, Sisaket and Buriram, in southern Laos and in northern Cambodia. Bru, which includes the Vân Kiều of Vietnam and the So of Thailand, lies further north. The Ta'oi group, Katang, Pacoh and Katu are spoken in the mountains of southern Laos and central Vietnam.
Paul Sidwell's 2005 reconstruction of Proto-Katuic divides the branch into four groups: West Katuic (Kuy and Bru), Ta'oi, Pacoh and Katu. Proto-Katuic was probably spoken near the present Laos–Vietnam border, and it keeps some Proto-Austroasiatic sounds that other branches lost, such as the palatal implosive *ʄ.
In the west, Kuy speakers were long associated with the Khmer and later the Lao and Thai states. The Kuy of Surin are famous as elephant catchers and trainers, and tradition links Kuy iron smelters in northern Cambodia to the Khmer empire. Research on the eastern languages expanded after Laos opened to foreign linguists in the 1990s.
02
Registers, War and Shift
Several Katuic languages turned an old consonant contrast into a contrast of voice quality. In Kuy and Bru the old voiced stops lost their voicing, and the vowels after them took on a breathy 'register', so that syllables with the same consonant are now kept apart by the voice quality of the vowel. Gérard Diffloth traced this history across the branch in 1982. Combined with long and short vowels and diphthongs, register gives these languages some of the largest vowel systems in mainland Southeast Asia. Languages further east, such as Katu, did not develop register in the same way.
In the 20th century the eastern Katuic homeland became a battleground. The Ho Chi Minh Trail ran through Ta'oi, Pacoh and Katu country in southern Laos and Vietnam, and the Bru lived around Khe Sanh. Bombing, fighting and resettlement uprooted many communities.
Today the languages are in very different positions. Katang, Ta'oi and Bru are still learnt by children in much of Laos and Vietnam. In Thailand, many Kuy and So families have shifted to Lao (Isan), Thai or Khmer, and young people often do not speak the language. Katuic languages have no script of their own and are written, where at all, in Latin, Thai, Lao or Khmer letters.
Where it’s spoken
- Vietnam
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Thailand
Turning points
- SplitContested
Proto-Katuic
Proto-Katuic, probably spoken near the present Laos–Vietnam border, divides into West Katuic, Ta'oi, Pacoh and Katu. Both the homeland and the date are estimates.
Sources (1)
- Sound lawContested
Voicing becomes register
In Kuy and Bru the old voiced stops become voiceless, and the following vowels take on a breathy register, so a contrast of consonants becomes a contrast of voice quality. Diffloth traced the change and its effects on vowel quality across the branch; when it happened is not known.
Compare with other stress and prosody across families →
Sources (2)
- Contact
Kuy among Khmer, Lao and Thai
Kuy and Bru speakers west of the Annamites live under Khmer, then Lao and Siamese rule, borrow widely from Khmer and Lao, and in Thailand increasingly shift to Isan, Thai or Khmer.
Sources (1)
Contested classifications
- Minority position
Katu-Bahnaric
Evidence for
The two branches are neighbours and share a number of words not found elsewhere in the family. Gérard Diffloth grouped them together, within a larger eastern Mon-Khmer division, in his tree of Austroasiatic.
Evidence against
Sidwell's reconstructions of both branches found only about a dozen shared items and no shared sound changes, which fits borrowing between neighbours better than common descent. He treats Katuic and Bahnaric as separate primary branches, as this tree does.
Sources (3)