Chru ( vi, Chu Ru) is a
Chamic language
The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Malay ...
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 ...
spoken by the
Churu people in southern
Lâm Đồng Province (especially in
Đơn Dương District) and in
Ninh Thuận Province.
Like the other Chamic languages spoken in Vietnam (
Cham,
Jarai,
Rade and
Roglai), use of Chru is declining as native speakers are generally bilingual in Vietnamese, which is used for most official or public settings, like schools.
Phonology
Consonant inventory
The following table lists the consonants of Chru.
:
There exist
post-aspirated consonants , , , but these behave as sequences of stop plus . For example, from the word ('to plane') the nominal ('a plane') can be derived by infixation of ''-n-''.
Vowel inventory
The vowel inventory is given in the following table. All vowels but exist in nasalized form.
:
: The vowel is always followed by .
Phonotactics
Words consist of up to two pre-syllables, and a main syllable. A full example is ('to turn over'). The vowels in the pre-syllables are always after a consonant and otherwise.
Grammar
Syntax
Like many other languages of Southeast Asia, including Vietnamese, Chru is an
analytic
Generally speaking, analytic (from el, ἀναλυτικός, ''analytikos'') refers to the "having the ability to analyze" or "division into elements or principles".
Analytic or analytical can also have the following meanings:
Chemistry
* ...
(or isolating) language without morphological marking of case, gender, number, or tense. In its typological profile it reflects extensive language contact effects, as it more closely resembles a Mon-Khmer language with monosyllabic roots and impoverished morphology rather than a canonical Austronesian language with bisyllabic roots and derivational morphology (Grant 2005). It has subject-verb-object (SVO) word order.
Negation
Chru uses a pre-verbal negative particle, as a simple negative in declarative sentences:
An optional clause-final negative particle, , may also be used, particularly in negative questions and negative responses to questions:
References
{{Austronesian languages
Chamic languages
Languages of Vietnam