Pearic/Chongic
Languages Project
Apologies to those of you who have been waiting for me to post here. The following content is provisional and posted to foster research and discussion.
Overview
The Pearic branch of Austroasiatic (AA) is a small endangered group of languages spoken mainly in western Cambodia, the Trat Province of Thailand, and pockets near Siam Reap and Kompong Som. It is known in the linguistic literature as Pearic, based on the Khmer forms poː(r) and pɔə(r), from Sanskrit varṇa ‘colour, caste’. This may be considered an undesirable term, but it has currency in the technical literature. The name Chong [ʨʰɔːŋ] and its variants (Song, Kasong etc.) appear to reflect the original autonym, reported as Tchouang in Tcheou Ta-Kouan’s 13th century description of Cambodia, and the name bears a suggestive resemblance that of the Zhuang (Tai) of Southern China and the Juang (Munda) of India, so I have proposed Chongic in place of Pearic.
Pearic is not very diverse internally, and we can suggest that historical unity of the group goes back to the Old Khmer period (1st millennium CE). It is striking that two other AA branches spoken in the immediate region, Khmer and Mon, also each resolve to single languages in the first Millennium. Furthermore, Pearic, Mon, and Khmer, each show no obvious close relations with each other or other AA branches.
Headley (1985) presented a preliminary reconstruction of proto-Pearic, relying on the manuscript vocabulary of Baradat (1941), works by Martin (1974a,b), the Chong lexicon of Huffman (1985), and various colonial era lexicons consolidated by Headley (1977, 1978). The 1985 study proposed vowel and consonant inventories, a model of syllable structure, and offered 148 proto-forms.
[Map from Choosri 2007]
Headley’s study did not deal with breathy and creaky registers, largely due to the lack of adequate phonetic detail in many of the sources and the modest number of etyma considered. This was understandable: the origins of breathy phonation were already known and had been discussed at the 1973 ICAAL meeting (e.g. Huffman 1976) and consequently it was reasonably expected that breathiness would fall out of the proto-language with the reconstruction of a voiced/voiceless distinction among proto-Pearic onsets. At the same time, while creak was known as a phenomenon in AA languages, it was not well documented or understood, and had not yet attracted much attention.
Subsequent studies documented a four-way register contrast in Chongic lects, abstracted as follows:
Chong Registers
high / tense series R1 [CVC] clear R2 [CVˀC] clear-creaky
low / lax series R3 [CV̤C] breathy R4 [CV̤ˀC] breathy-creaky
Proto-Pearic
In recent years I have been reviewing and revising the reconstruction of proto-Pearic, with particular reference to the origin of creaky phonation. The principle problem is whether creak can be explained as an internal Pearic development, or does it reflect a deep historical feature of Austroasiatic. Beyond that, the Pearic languages are unlikely to significantly inform an proto-Austroasiatic reconstruction, that falls to the larger more diverse branches (i.e. Palaungic, Katuic, Bahnaric, Aslian, etc.).
At the 2019 ICAAL conference I proposed that vowel height was a conditioning factor that helps to explain creak as an internal Pearic development, and you can download my presentation here: Proto-Pearic and the role of vowel height in register formation.
The analysis is based on an emerging comparative data set, you can view a spreadsheet version here. This is shared under a Creative Commons license Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). Please give appropriate attribution for the source materials and my compilation in any publication or derived product.
A full write-up of the proto-Pearic reconstruction is still in preparation, so watch this space.
Sources
Below is a select list of lexical sources utilized for this project, with links to PDF versions.
Baradat, R. 1941. Les dialectes des tribus sâmrê. Manuscrit de l’Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris. 267p.
Ferlus, Michel. 2011. ‘Toward Proto-Pearic: Problems and Historical Implications.’ In Sophana Srichampa, Paul Sidwell and Kenneth Gregerson (eds.) Austroasiatic Studies: papers from ICAAL4. Mon-Khmer Studies Journal Special Issue No. 3, part 1. Dallas, SIL International; Salaya, Mahidol University; Canberra, Pacific Linguistics. pp.38-51.
Huffman, Franklin E. 1985. The Phonology of Chong, A Mon-Khmer Language of Thailand. In Southeast Asian Linguistic Studies presented to André-G. Haudricourt. Edited by Surya Ratanakul, David Thomas, & Suwilai Premsrirat. Bangkok, Mahidol University: 355‐388.
Isara, Choosri. 2007. Investigating contact induced language change: cases of Chung (Saoch) in Thailand and Cambodia. PhD thesis, Mahidol University.
Isara, Choosri. 2008. Chung (Saoch) of Thailand and Cambodia: phonological and lexical comparisions. MKS 38: 69‐85.
Kunwadee Patpitak. 1996. Phaasaa Chong Muu Baan Khlong Saeng, Tambon Dan Chumphon,Amphoe Borai, Changwat Trat. MA Thesis. Silapakorn University. [A description of the Chong language in Khlong Saeng village, Borrai district, Trat province]
Martin, Marie A. 1974a. Esquisse phonologique du sɔmree. ASEMI 5(1): 97‐106.
Martin, Marie A. 1975. Les dialectes Pear dans leurs rapports avec les langues nationales. JSS 63(2):86‐95.
Noppawan Thongkham. 2003. The phonology of Kasong at Khlong Saeng Village, Danchumphon SubDistrict, Bo Rai District, Trat Province. MA Thesis, Mahidol University, Thailand.
Ostapirat, Weera. 2009. Early and Modern Pearic Registers/Tones. Paper presented at the 4th International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics, Mahidol University, Oct. 29-30 2009.
Pornsawan Ploykaew. 2001. Samre grammar. Thesis. ILCRD, Mahidol University.
Sirikarn Charoentham. 1987. Phaasaa Chong Muu Baan Thung Ta-In, Changwat Chanthaburi [Chong Language, Thung Ta-In village, Chanthaburi province]. Thesis, Silapakorn University.
Siripen Ungsitipoonporn. 2001. A phonological comparision between Khlong Phlu Chong and Wangkraphrae Chong. MA thesis. ILCRD, Mahidol University.
Sunee Kamnuansin. 2002. Kasong syntax. MA thesis, ILCRD, Mahidol University.
Suwilai Premsrirat, Siripen Ungsitipoonporn, Isara, Choosri. 2008. Chong-Thai-English Dictionary. Mahidol University, Thailand.
Theraphan L. Thongkum. 1991. An Instrumental Study of Chong Register. In Austroasiatic Languages. Essays in honour of H.L. Shorto. Edited by J.H.C.S. Davidson. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London: 141‐160.