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The Arem language (''Cmbrau'' ) is an
endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...
spoken in a small area on either side of the
Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
border. It is an Austro-Asiatic language that is a member of the Vietic language family. Specifically, it is a member of the Chut language group, which is one of the six
Vietic languages The Vietic languages are a branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by the Vietic peoples in Laos and Vietnam. The branch was once referred to by the terms ''Việt–Mường'', ''Annamese–Muong'', and ''Vietnamuong''; the term ' ...
. This language is considered severely endangered by UNESCO. Like other Vietic languages, the Arem language makes use of a tonal or phonational system that is unique to Vietic languages. Like many southern Vietic Languages, the Arem language also makes use of pre-syllables or
sesquisyllable Primarily in Austroasiatic languages (also known as Mon–Khmer), in a typical word a minor syllable is a reduced (minor) syllable followed by a full tonic or stressed syllable. The minor syllable may be of the form or , with a reduced vowel, as i ...
s within the language. Arem lacks the breathy
phonation The term phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, ''phonation'' is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the defi ...
common to most Vietic languages, but does have
glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent consonan ...
final consonants.


History and background

Arem is an ethnographic term to describe a group of indigenous people that reside on the border of Southern Vietnam and Laos. The people prefer to call themselves Cmbrau . However, because this is the only attested sesquisyllabic structure in the language, it is theorized that this may also be an ethnographic term that was borrowed from another nearby language. The Arem people were only known to exist by local populations of Vietnam until 1959, when they were discovered by the Vietnamese military.FERLUS, Michel. 2014. Arem, a Vietic Language. ''Mon-Khmer Studies'' 43.1:1-15 (ICAAL5 special issue) Previously, the local authorities had thought them members of the local Bru khùa community. The Arem population was only 53 people in 1960: 30 men and 23 women. The most recent survey of the area in 1999 indicated that there were 102 Arem people. Of these 102 Arem people, only around 25% of the population was estimated to be using the Arem language on a consistent basis.Trần Trí Dõi. 1999. ''Nghiên cứu ngôn ngữ các dân tộc thiểu số Việt Nam'' tudy of languages of ethnic minorities in Vietnam Nhà xuất bản đại học quốc gia Hà-Nội. rem: demography p.110; vocabulary p. 16 and 37/ref> All speakers of the Arem language are bilingual speakers of Vietnamese and some are also fluent in Khùa and/or Lao as well.Trần Trí Dõi. 1995. ''Thực trạng kinh tế và văn hóa của ba nhóm tộc người đang có nguy cơ bị biến mất'' ctual state of the economy and culture of three endangered ethnic groups Nhà xuất bản văn hóa dân tộc. rem: population pp. 71-76; no vocabulary/ref>


Grammatical properties

The Arem language makes use of both monosyllabic words and sesquisyllabic words. It is estimated that 55-60% of the Arem language's consists of sesquisyllabic words. This is much higher than the majority of other Vietic languages that typically utilize sesquisyllables in only 35-40% of their lexicon, if the particular language contains any sesquisyllables at all.


Notes and references


Notes


Bibliography

* (see note on talk page) *Ferlus, Michel. 2014
Arem, a Vietic Language
''Mon-Khmer Studies'' 43.1:1-15 (ICAAL5 special issue).


External links


Arem corpus
collected by
Michel Ferlus Michel Ferlus (born 1935) is a French linguist whose special study is in the historical phonology of languages of Southeast Asia. In addition to phonological systems, he also studies writing systems, in particular the evolution of Indic scripts ...
and Trần Trí Dõi.
Pangloss Collection The Pangloss Collection is a digital library whose objective is to store and facilitate access to audio recordings in endangered languages of the world. Developed by the LACITO centre of CNRS in Paris, the collection provides free online access ...
( CNRS, Paris). {{authority control Languages of Laos Vietic languages Languages of Vietnam Endangered Austroasiatic languages