| Chru | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Vietnam |
| Ethnicity | Churu people |
Native speakers | 19,000 (2009 census)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cje |
| Glottolog | chru1239 |
| ELP | Chru |
Chru (Vietnamese:Cru, Kru, Chrau Hma, also known asChu,Chu Ru,Churu,Cho Ru,Choru) is aChamic language ofVietnam spoken by theChuru people in southernLâm Đồng Province (especially inĐơn Dương District) and inNinh Thuận Province.
Like the other Chamic languages spoken in Vietnam (Cham,Jarai,Rade andRoglai), use of Chru is declining as native speakers are generally bilingual in Vietnamese, which is used for most official or public settings, like schools.
The following table lists the consonants of Chru.[2]
| Labial | Apical | Alveolo- palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | tɕ | k | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | dʑ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | ɕ | h | ||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
There existpost-aspirated consonants[ph],[th],[kh], but these behave as sequences of stop plus[h]. For example, from the wordphaː ('to plane') the nominalpənhaː ('a plane') can be derived by infixation of-n-.
The vowel inventory is given in the following table. All vowels but[eː,o,oː] exist in nasalized form.[2]
Words consist of up to two pre-syllables, and a main syllable. A full example ispətərbləʔ ('to turn over'). The vowels in the pre-syllables are always[ə] after a consonant and[a] otherwise.[2]
Like many other languages of Southeast Asia, including Vietnamese, Chru is ananalytic (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 hassubject-verb-object (SVO) word order.
Chru uses a pre-verbal negative particle,'buh/ʔbuh/ as a simple negative in declarative sentences:
kơu
'buh
mưnhũm
drink
alak
wine
kơu 'buh mưnhũm alak
1SG NEG drink wine
'I don't drink wine.' (Chru LL 3)
An optional clause-final negative particle,ou, may also be used, particularly in negative questions and negative responses to questions:
Du
But
phơn
thing
ni
this
nhũ
will
làn
melt
lam
in
ia
water
'bư
âu?
Du phơn ni nhũ làn lam ia 'bư âu?
But thing this will melt in water NEG
'But this thing will melt in water, right?' (Chru 1st grade primer 59) Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 9 word(s) in line 1, 8 word(s) in line 2 (help);
Lăm
klơu
Aràng
hu
Aràng
sêi
prong
rơlau
rêi?
Lăm klơu Aràng hu Aràng sêi prong rơlau rêi?
In the godhead is there one person bigger than another?
'Bư
âu:
Klơu
pồ
Aràng
ring
gơu.
'Bưâu: Klơu pồ Aràng ring gơu.
No: The godhead is equal to each other. (Chru mass 40)