Koho or K'Ho is a
South Bahnaric language spoken by the
Koho people
The K'Ho, Cơ Ho, or Koho are an ethnic group living in the Lâm Đồng province of Vietnam's Central Highlands. They speak K'Ho language, a southern Bahnaric branch of Mon–Khmer language. They are related to the Cho Ro and Mạ people.
...
and
Mạ people
The Mạ or Maa () are a Mon–Khmer-speaking people in Vietnam (population 50,322 in 2019). They are concentrated mostly in the Lâm Đồng and Đồng Nai province of the country, particularly in the area of the upper Đồng Nai River. There ...
, mainly in the
Lâm Đồng Province Lâm is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Lin in Chinese and Im in Korean.
Lam is the anglicized variation of the surname Lâm.
Lam is also a commonly held surname of Cantonese speakers of Chinese descent. Large populations i ...
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 i ...
. It is very close to the
Mnong language
The Mnong language (also known as Pnong or Bunong) (Bunong: ឞូន៝ង) belongs to the Austro-Asiatic language family. It is spoken by the different groups of Mnong in Vietnam and a Pnong group in Cambodia.
Distribution
In Vietnam, Mnong ...
.
The autonym of the Kơho people is ''kon cau'' () while Koho () is a Cham exonym.
Subgroups and dialects
There are at least twelve Kơho dialect groups for the area: Chil (Cil, Til); Kalop (Tulop); Kơyon (Kodu, Co-Don); Làc (Làt, Lach); Mà (Mạ, Maa); Nồp (Nop, Xre Nop, Noup); Pru; Ryông Tô (Riồng, Rion); Sop, Sre (Chau Sơre, Xrê); Talà (To La); and Tring (Trinh). Although Mạ/Maa is a Koho dialect group, the
Mạ people
The Mạ or Maa () are a Mon–Khmer-speaking people in Vietnam (population 50,322 in 2019). They are concentrated mostly in the Lâm Đồng and Đồng Nai province of the country, particularly in the area of the upper Đồng Nai River. There ...
identify as a separate ethnic group.
Phonology
Data below are from Olsen (2015).
Consonants
Initial consonants
* The phoneme /r/ is commonly a voiced alveolar trill
but also often reduces to a flap
when it occurs as the second segment in a consonant cluster.
Final consonants
* Before the palatal finals /c/ and /ɲ/, there is an audible palatal offglide after the vowel
ʲ so that /pwac/ ‘flesh’ is pronounced as
waʲcand /ʔaɲ/ ‘I (1st person singular)’ as
aʲɲ
Vowels
* Vowels contrast in
length.
Morphology
Compounding
Compounding is a common way of coining new words in Koho. Some examples:
* ''muh mat'' ‘face’ < ''muh'' () ‘nose’ + ''mat'' () ‘eye’
* ''phe mbar'' ‘sticky rice’ < ''phe'' () ‘husked rice’ + ''mbar'' () ‘sticky’
* ''ôi ao'' ‘clothes’ < ''ôi'' () ‘blanket’ + ''ao'' () ‘shirt’
Affixing
One of the more productive prefixes in Sre is the causative ''tơn-'' , converts intransitive
verbs to causative verbs. If the prefixed verbs have a nasal initial, then the nasal cluster avoidance rule applied.
References
Sources
*
{{Austro-Asiatic languages
Bahnaric languages
Languages of Vietnam