The Cua language (also known as Bòng Mieu) is a Mon–Khmer language spoken in the
Quảng Ngãi
Quảng Ngãi () is a city in central Vietnam. It serves as the capital city of Quảng Ngãi Province. Quảng Ngãi City borders Tư Nghĩa District to the south and west, Sơn Tịnh District to the northwest and Bình Sơn District to the n ...
and
Quảng Nam provinces of
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 ...
. Cua dialects include Kol (Kor, Cor, Co, Col, Dot, Yot) and Traw (Tràu, Dong). Maier & Burton (1981) is currently the most extensive Cua dictionary to date.
Classification
Paul Sidwell
Paul James Sidwell is an Australian linguist based in Canberra, Australia who has held research and lecturing positions at the Australian National University. Sidwell, who is also an expert and consultant in forensic linguistics, is most nota ...
(2009) considers Cua to constitute an independent primary branch of
Bahnaric
The Bahnaric languages are a group of about thirty Austroasiatic languages spoken by about 700,000 people in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Paul Sidwell notes that Austroasiatic/Mon–Khmer languages are lexically more similar to Bahnaric and Katui ...
, which he calls East Bahnaric. Cua has also had extensive contact with North Bahnaric languages. However, Sidwell (2002) had previously classified Cua as a Central Bahnaric language.
Phonology
The phonology of Cua, as cited by Sidwell (based on Maier 1969):
Consonants
Vowels
References
*Sidwell, Paul. 2009. "How many branches in a tree? Cua and East (North) Bahnaric". In Evans, Bethwyn (ed). ''Discovering History Through Language: Papers in Honour of Malcolm Ross''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Further reading
*Burton, Eva. 1966. "A brief sketch of Cua clause structure." Van-hóa Nguyêt-san 15: 187-90.
*Maier, Jacqueline G. 1966. "Cua phonemes." Van-hóa Nguyêt-san 15: 361-71.
*Maier, Jacqueline G. and Eva Burton, compilers. 1966. Cua (Kool) dictionary.
anuscriptn.p.
*Maier, Jacqueline G., Đinh Đổ, and Đinh Mốc. 1974. Bay hok pok Kool Kua = Bài học tiếng Cua = Cua language lessons. Tủ sách ngôn-ngữ dân tộc thiểu số Việt Nam, 10. Saigon: Department of Education. viii, 37 p.
*Maier, Jacqueline G. and Eva Burton. 1981. Cua-English-Vietnamese Dictionary: 1981 Pre-publication Manuscript Based on a 1966 Manuscript. (Held by SIL, Dallas)
*Smith, Kenneth D. 1973.
Eastern North Bahnaric: Cua and Kotua" Mon–Khmer Studies 4: 113-18.
*Sidwell, Paul. 2010.
Cua (Kor) historical phonology and classification" Mon-Khmer Studies 39: 105-122.
{{Austro-Asiatic languages
Bahnaric languages
Languages of Vietnam