The Vietic languages are a branch of the

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , also known as Mon–Khmer , are a large language family A language is a structured system of communication used by humans, including speech ( spoken language), gestures (Signed language, sign language) and wri ...

language family A language family is a group of language A language is a structured system of communication Communication (from Latin ''communicare'', meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is "an apparent answer to the painful divisions b ...

, 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 ''Vietic'' was proposed by La Vaughn Hayes, who proposed to redefine ''Việt–Mường'' as referring to a sub-branch of Vietic containing only

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Oversea ...

and Mường. Many of the Vietic languages have tonal or

phonation The term phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics Phonetics is a branch of that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of s, the equivalent aspects of sign. Phoneticians—lingu ...

al systems intermediate between that of Viet–Muong and other branches of Austroasiatic that have not had significant Chinese or Tai influence. Vietnamese, today, has had significant Chinese influence especially in vocabulary and tonal system.

Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary ( vi, Từ Hán Việt, Chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, , literally 'Southern characters') is a logographic In a written language A written language is the representation of a spoken or gestural language by means of a ...

accounts for about 30–60% of Vietnamese vocabulary, not including

calque In linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language, meaning that it is a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise study of language. Linguistics encompasses the analysis of every aspect of language, as well as the me ...

calque

s from China.

Origins

The ancestor of the Vietic language is traditionally assumed to have been located in today's North Vietnam. However, the origin of the Vietic languages remains a controversial topic among linguists. Another theory, based on linguistic diversity, locates the most probable homeland of the Vietic languages in modern-day

Bolikhamsai Province Bolikhamsai (also Borikhamxay, Lao: ບໍລິຄໍາໄຊ) is a province of Laos. Pakxan, Thaphabat, Pakkading, Borikhane, Viengthong, and Khamkeut are its districts and Pakxan is its capital city. The province is the site of the Nam Th ...

and

Khammouane Province Khammouane Province (''Khammouan'') ( Lao: ຄໍາມ່ວນ) is a province in the center of Laos. Its capital lies at Thakhek. Khammouane Province covers an area of and is mostly of forested mountainous terrain. Many streams flow through ...

Laos , national_anthem = "Pheng Xat Lao") , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Vientiane , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = Lao language, Lao , recognised_languages = , languages_type = Spoken langua ...

Laos

as well as parts of

Nghệ An Province Nghệ An () is a province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's ...

and

Quảng Bình Province Quảng Bình (), formerly Tiên Bình under the reign of Lê Trung Hưng of the Lê dynasty (this province was renamed Quảng Bình in 1604), is a Provinces of Vietnam, province along North Central Coast, Vietnam's north-central coast. The provi ...

Vietnam Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,, group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia or SEA, is the ...

Vietnam

. The time depth of the Vietic branch dates back at least 2,500 years to 2,000 years (Chamberlain 1998); 3,500 years (Peiros 2004); or around 3,000 years (Alves 2020).Chamberlain, J.R. 1998,
The origin of Sek: implications for Tai and Vietnamese history
, in The International Conference on Tai Studies, ed. S. Burusphat, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 97-128. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University. Even so, archaeogenetics demonstrated that before the Dong Son period, the Red River Delta's inhabitants were predominantly Austroasiatic: genetic data from Phùng Nguyên culture's Mán Bạc burial site (dated 1,800 BC) have close proximity to modern Austroasiatic speakers; meanwhile, "mixed genetics" from

Đông Sơn culture The Dong Son culture or the Lạc Việt culture (named for Đông Sơn, a village in Thanh Hóa, Vietnam , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Hanoi , coordinates = , ...

's Núi Nấp site showed affinity to " Dai from China,

Tai-Kadai speakers

from Thailand, and Austroasiatic speakers from Vietnam, including the

Kinh The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical sou ...

"; therefore, " e likely spread of Vietic was southward from the RRD, not northward. Accounting for southern diversity will require alternative explanations."

Vietnamese

The

Vietnamese language Vietnamese ( vi, tiếng Việt, links=no) is an that originated in , where it is the and . Vietnamese is spoken natively by over 70 million people, several times as many as the rest of the Austroasiatic family combined. It is the of the , a ...

was identified as

in the mid-nineteenth century, and there is now strong evidence for this classification. Modern Vietnamese has lost many

Proto-Austroasiatic Proto-Austroasiatic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austroasiatic languages The Austroasiatic languages , also known as Mon–Khmer , are a large language family A language is a structured system of communication used by humans, i ...

phonological and morphological features. Vietnamese also has large stocks of borrowed

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, world's most populous country, with a populat ...

vocabulary. However, there continues to be resistance to the idea that Vietnamese could be more closely related to

Khmer

than to Chinese or Tai languages. The vast majority of scholars attribute these typological similarities to

language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...

rather than to common inheritance. Chamberlain (1998) argues that the Red River Delta region was originally Tai-speaking and became Vietnamese-speaking only between the seventh and ninth centuries AD as a result of emigration from the south, i.e., modern

Central Vietnam Image:VietnameseRegions.png, 200px, Regions of Vietnam. Central Vietnam ( vi, Trung Bộ or ), also known as Middle Vietnam or The Middle, formerly known as by South Vietnam, and Annam (French protectorate), Annam under French Indochina, is one o ...

, where the highly distinctive and conservative North-Central Vietnamese dialects are spoken today. Therefore, the region of origin of Vietnamese (and the earlier Viet–Muong) was well south of the Red River.*Chamberlain, James R. 1998.
The Origin of the Sek: Implications for Tai and Vietnamese History
. ''Journal of the Siam Society'' 86.1 & 86.2: 27-48. On the other hand, Ferlus (2009) showed that the inventions of pestle, oar and a pan to cook sticky rice, which is the main characteristic of the

Đông Sơn culture The Dong Son culture or the Lạc Việt culture (named for Đông Sơn, a village in Thanh Hóa, Vietnam , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Hanoi , coordinates = , ...

, correspond to the creation of new lexicons for these inventions in Northern Vietic (Việt–Mường) and Central Vietic ( Cuoi-Toum). The new vocabularies of these inventions were proven to be derivatives from original verbs rather than borrowed lexical items. The current distribution of Northern Vietic also corresponds to the area of Dong Son culture. Thus, Ferlus concludes that the Northern Vietic (Viet-Muong) is the direct heirs of the Dongsonian, who have resided in Southern part of Red river delta and North Central Vietnam since the 1st millennium BC. Furthermore, John Phan (2013, 2016)Phan, John. 2013
Lacquered Words: the Evolution of Vietnamese under Sinitic Influences from the 1st Century BCE to the 17th Century CE
Ph.D. dissertation: Cornell University.Phan, John D. & de Sousa, Hilário. 2016
A preliminary investigation into Proto-Southwestern Middle Chinese
(Paper presented at the International workshop on the history of Colloquial Chinese – written and spoken, Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ, 11–12 March 2016.) argues that “Annamese Middle Chinese” was spoken in the Red River Valley and was then later absorbed into the coexisting Proto-Viet-Muong, one of whose divergent dialect evolved into Vietnamese language. Annamese Middle Chinese belonged to

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country ...

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible In linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of languag ...

in southwestern China that eventually "diversified into"

Waxiang Chinese Waxiang (; ''ɕioŋ˥tsa˧'') is a divergent variety of Chinese, spoken by the Waxiang people, an unrecognized ethnic minority group in the northwestern part of Hunan Hunan () is a landlocked province A province is almost always an admini ...

, the Jiudu patois 九都土話 of

Hezhou Hezhou () is a in the northeast of the , People's Republic of China. Hezhou was home to 2,038,700 inhabitants as of the last 2016 estimation whom 1,415,700 lived in the built-up (''or metro'') area made of Babu and Pinggui urban districts and Zh ...

Hezhou

, Southern

Pinghua Pinghua (; : ''Pìhng Wá''; sometimes disambiguated as /) is a pair of spoken mainly in parts of the , with some speakers in province. Pinghua is a in some areas of Guangxi, where it is spoken as a second language by speakers of . Some spea ...

, and various

Xiang Chinese Xiang or Hsiang (; ); Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese, in linguistics known as Standard Northern Mandarin, Standard Beijing Mandarin or simply Mandarin, is a Mandarin Chi ...

dialects (e.g.,

Xiangxiang Xiangxiang () is a county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a county-level administrative division of the Peop ...

湘鄉, Luxi 瀘溪, Qidong 祁東, and

Quanzhou Quanzhou, alternatively known as Chinchew, is a prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait, also known as the Formosa Strait, is a -wide strait A strait is a natural ...

全州). Phan (2013) lists three major types of Sino-Vietnamese borrowings, which were borrowed during different eras: *Early Sino-Vietnamese (

Han Dynasty#REDIRECT Han dynasty The Han dynasty () was the second Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 220 AD), established by the rebel leader Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. Preceded by the short-lived Qin dynas ...

(ca. 1st century CE) and Jin Dynasty (ca. 4th century CE) layers) *Late Sino-Vietnamese (

Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organiza ...

) *Recent Sino-Vietnamese (

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , ''Mongolchuud'', ; russian: Монголы, ) are an eth ...

and post-Ming Dynasty)

Distribution

Vietic speakers reside in and around the

Nakai–Nam Theun Nakai-Nam Theun National Park in Nakai District, Khammouane Province, Laos, is one of the last remaining wildernesses in Southeast Asia. Nakai-Nam Theun covers approximately 4,270 km2 of the Annamite Range and the adjacent Nakai Plateau in Kham ...

Conservation Area of Laos and north-central Vietnam (Chamberlain 1998). Many of these speakers are referred to as Mường, Nhà Làng, and Nguồn. Chamberlain (1998) lists current locations in Laos for the following Vietic peoples. An overview based on first-hand fieldwork has been proposed by

Michel Ferlus Michel Ferlus (born 1935) is a French linguist whose special study is in the historical phonology of languages of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is the United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern su ...

. * Nguồn: Ban Pak Phanang, Boualapha District, Khammouane; others in Vietnam * Liha, Phong (Cham), and Toum:

Khamkeut District Khamkeut District is a district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, seve ...

; probably originally from the northern Nghe An / Khamkeut border area * Ahoe: originally lived in Na Tane Subdistrict of Nakai District, and Ban Na Va village in

; taken to Hinboun District during the war, and then later resettled in Nakai Tay (39 households) and in Sop Hia (20 households) on the Nakai Plateau. * Thaveung (Ahao and Ahlao dialects): several villages near Lak Xao; probably originally from the Na Heuang area * Cheut: Ban Na Phao and Tha Sang, Boualapha District; others probably also in Pha Song, Vang Nyao, Takaa; originally from Hin Nam No and Vietnam * Atel: Tha Meuang on the Nam Sot (primarily Malang people); originally from the Houay Kanil area * Thémarou: Vang Chang on the

Nam Theun Nam Theun (also known as ''Khading''), is a river in Laos , national_anthem = " Pheng Xat Lao") , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Vientiane , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = Lao language, Lao , ...

; Ban Soek near the Nam Noy * Makang: Na Kadok, Khamkeut District (primarily Saek people); originally from the Upper Sot area *

Malang Malang (; read : Kutha Malang) is a landlocked in the n of . It has a history dating back to the age of . It is the second most populous city in the province, with a population of 820,043 at the 2010 Census and 843,810 at the 2020 Census. I ...

: Tha Meuang on the Nam Sot *"Salang": Ban Xe Neua, Boualapha District *Atop: Na Thone,

(primarily Tai Theng people); originally from the Upper Sot area * Mlengbrou: near the Nam One; later relocated to the Yommalath District side of the Ak Mountain, and now living in Ban Sang, Yommalath District (primarily Yooy people) * Kri: Ban Maka In Vietnam, some Vietic

hill-tribe Hill people, also referred to as mountain people, is a general term for people who live in the hills and mountains. This includes all rugged land above and all land (including plateaus) above elevation. The climate is generally harsh, with st ...

peoples, including the Arem, Rục, Maliêng, and Mày (Cươi), were resettled at Cu Nhái (located either in western

or in the southwest of Hương Khê District in

Hà Tĩnh Province Hà is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as He in Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the List of countries and ...

). The Sách are also found in Vietnam. The following table lists the lifestyles of various Vietic-speaking ethnic groups. Unlike the neighboring Tai ethnic groups, many Vietic groups are not paddy agriculturalists.

Languages

The discovery that Vietnamese was a Mon–Khmer language, and that its tones were a regular reflection of non-tonal features in the rest of the family, is considered a milestone in the development of

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change Language change is variation over time in a language A language is a structured system of communication used by humans, including s ...

. Vietic languages show a typological range from a Chinese or Tai typology to a typical Mon-Khmer Austroasiatic typology, including (a) complex tonal systems, complex phonation systems or blends; (b) C(glide)VC or CCVC syllable templates; monosyllabic or polysyllabic and isolating or agglutinative typology. * Arem: This language lacks the breathy

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 consonant ...

final consonants. * Cuôi:

Hung Hung may refer to: People * Hung (surname), various Chinese surnames * Hùng king, a king of Vietnam People with the given name Hung include: * Hung Huynh, Vietnamese-American chef, winner of the third season of the television show ''Top Chef'' ...

in Laos, and Thô in Vietnam * Aheu ( Thavung): This language makes a four-way distinction between clear and breathy phonation combined with glottalized final consonants. This is very similar to the situation in the

Pearic languages The Pearic languages (alternative called the Chongic languages) are a group of endangered languages of the Eastern Mon–Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by Pear people (the ''Por'', the ''Samré'', the ''Samray'', the ...

in which, however, the glottalization is in the vowel. * Ruc, Sach,

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars and the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of Spring (season), spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southe ...

, and Chưt: A

dialect cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible In linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of languag ...

; the

register A register is an authoritative list of one kind of information. Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Regis ...

system is the four-way contrast of Aheu augmented with

pitch Pitch may refer to: Acoustic frequency * Pitch (music), the perceived frequency of sound including "definite pitch" and "indefinite pitch" ** Absolute pitch or "perfect pitch" ** Pitch class, a set of all pitches that are a whole number of octaves ...

. *

Maleng Maleng, also known as Pakatan and Bo, is a Vietic language of Laos and Vietnam. Maleng has the four-way register (phonology), register system of Thavung language, Thavung augmented with tone (linguistics), pitch] ''Malieng'', despite having the sa ...

( Bo language (Laos), Bo, Pakatan): Tones as in Ruc-Sach. *

Pong ''Pong'' is a table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small rackets. The game ...

, Tum, Khong-Kheng *Việt–Mường:

and Mường. These two dialect chains share 75% of their basic vocabulary, and have similar systems of 5–6 contour tones. These are regular reflexes of other Vietic languages: The three low and three high tones correspond to

voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics Phonetics is a branch of that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of s, the equivalent aspects of sign. Phoneticians—linguists who specialize in phonetics—study th ...

and

voiceless In linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of language. It encompasses the analysis of every aspect of language, as well as the methods for studying and modeling them. The traditional areas of linguistic analysis include ...

initial consonants in the ancestral language; these then split depending on the original final consonants: Level tones correspond to

open syllable Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band) Open is a band. Background Drummer Pete Neville has been involved in the Sydney/Australian music scene for a number of years. He has recently completed a Masters in screen music at the Australian ...

s or final

nasal consonants In phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Phoneticians—linguists who specialize in phonetics—study the physical ...

; high rising and low falling tones correspond to final stops, which have since disappeared; dipping tones to final

fricative Fricatives are consonants manner of articulation, produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two Place of articulation, articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the bac ...

s, which have also disappeared; and glottalized tones to final glottalized consonants, which have deglottalized.

Classification

Sidwell (2021)

Paul Sidwell Paul James Sidwell is an Australian linguist based in Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new natio ...

proposes the following classification of the Vietic languages, with the most divergent (basal) branches listed first. *Thavung–Malieng: Kri,

, ISO 639:pkt, Malieng, Ahao/Ahlao, Thavung * Chut: Arem, Sach, Ruc,

*Phong–Liha (Pong–Toum): Phong, Toum, Liha *Cuoi–Tho: Cuoi, Tho *Viet–Muong:

, Muong, Nguon The Thavung-Malieng group retains the most archaic lexicon and phonological features, while the Chut group merges *-r and *-l finals to *-l with the northern languages.

Chamberlain (2018)

Chamberlain (2018:9)Chamberlain, James R. 2018.
A Kri-Mol (Vietic) Bestiary: Prolegomena to the Study of Ethnozoology in the Northern Annamites
'
Kyoto Working Papers on Area Studies
No. 133. Kyoto: Kyoto University. uses the term Kri-Mol to refer to the Vietic languages, and considers there to be two primary splits, namely ''Mol-Toum'' and ''Nrong-Theun''. Chamberlain (2018:12) provides the following phylogenetic classification for the Vietic languages. ;Kri-Mol *Mol-Toum **Việt-Mường ***

*** Mường, Nguồn **Toum-Ruc *** Toum, Phong, Liha *** Ruc, Cheut,

, Sach, Malieng *Nrong-Theun **Kri-Phoong *** Kri, Phoong *** Mlengbrou ** Ahlao-Atel ***Ahoe-Ahlao ****Ahoe ****Ahlao, Ahao ***Atel-Maleng ****Thémarou ****Atel, Atop, (Makang), Arao,

, Malang, To-e (Pakatan)

Sidwell (2015)

Based on comparative studies by Ferlus (1982, 1992, 1997, 2001) and new studies in Muong languages by Phan (2012), Sidwell (2015) pointed out that Muong is a paraphyletic taxon and subgroups with Vietnamese. Sidwell's (2015) proposed internal classification for the Vietic languages is as follows. Vietic * Viet-Muong: Vietnamese, Mường Muốt, Mường Nàbái, Mường Chỏi, etc. * Pong-Toum: Đan Lai, Hung, Toum, Cuôi, etc. * Chut ** East: Mãliềng, Maleng, Arem, Kri, Chứt (Mày, Rụt, Sách, Mụ Già), etc. ** West: Thavung, Pakatan language, Pakatan, etc.

Chamberlain (2003)

The following classification of the Vietic languages is from Chamberlain (2003:422), as quoted in Sidwell (2009:145). Unlike past classifications, there is a sixth "South" branch that includes Kri, a newly described language. *Vietic **North (Viet–Muong) ***

*** Mường (according to Phan (2012), Mường is

paraphyletic In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and all descendants of that ancestor excluding a few—typically only one or two—Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyleti ...

Phan, John D. 2012. "Mường is not a subgroup: Phonological evidence for a paraphyletic taxon in the Viet-Muong sub-family." ''Mon-Khmer Studies'' 40:1-18.) *** Nguồn ** Northwest (Cuoi) ** West (Thavưng) ***Ahoe ***Ahao ***Ahlao ** Southeast (Chut) ***Cheut ***Rục ***Sách ***Mày ***Malieng ***( Arem ?) ***(Kata) ** Southwest (Maleng) ***Atel ***Thémarou ***Arao ***Makang ***Malang ***Maleng ***Tơe ** South (Kri) ***Kri ***Phóng ***Mlengbrou

Animal cycle names

(1992, 2013)Michel Ferlus
The sexagesimal cycle, from China to Southeast Asia
23rd Annual Conference of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, May 2013, Bangkok, Thailand. notes that the 12-year animal cycle (

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic The ecliptic is the plane (geometry), plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun. From the perspecti ...

) names in the Khmer calendar, from which

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block) ...

Thai

animal cycle names are also derived, were borrowed from a phonologically conservative form of Viet-Muong. Ferlus contends that the animal cycle names were borrowed from a Viet-Muong (Northern Vietic) language rather than from a Southern Vietic language, since the vowel in the

Old Khmer Old Khmer is the oldest attested stage of the Khmer language Khmer (; , ) is an Austroasiatic language The Austroasiatic languages , also known as Mon–Khmer , are a large language family of Mainland Southeast Asia, also scattered throu ...

name for "

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Many species of snakes ...

snake

" m.saɲ corresponds to Viet-Muong /a/ rather than to Southern Vietic /i/.

References

External links

La Vaughn Hayes Vietic Digital Archives
*http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage) * http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-670D-C@view Vietic languages in RWAAI Digital Archive {{Austro-Asiatic languages