| Nguon | |
|---|---|
| Năm Nguyên Thiếng Nguồn | |
| Pronunciation | /tʰjəŋ ŋwən/ |
| Native to | Vietnam,Laos |
| Region | Quảng Bình Province |
| Ethnicity | 2,000 (2007)[1] to 40,000[2] |
Native speakers | 2,000 (2007–2010)[1] |
| Latin (Chữ Quốc ngữ) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nuo |
| Glottolog | nguo1239 |
| ELP | Nguôn |
 Location of Quảng Bình Province | |
Nguồn (alsoNăm Nguyên) is aVietic language spoken by theNguồn people in theTrường Sơn mountains inVietnam'sNorth Central Coast region as well as in nearby regions ofLaos.
Most Nguồn speakers in Vietnam live in the secludedMinh Hóa district ofQuảng Bình Province, with others in the area aroundĐồng Lê, the seat ofTuyên Hoá District, approximately 50 km (31 mi) from theNational Highway 1.
The Nguồn language has been variously described as a dialect ofVietnamese or as the southernmost dialect ofMường. Some researchers who consider it more closely related to Mường find that those who connect it more closely with Vietnamese are more influenced byethnographic and/or political concerns than linguistic evidence. Chamberlain (2003) and Sidwell (2009) count it as a third Viet–Muong language.
Most Nguồn live inTuyên Hóa District (alongside the neighboringSách people, a subgroup of theChứt people who also speak a Vietic language) and inMinh Hoá District (living with the neighboringViệt peoples).[3]
There are also Nguồn living inLaos, but with conflicting reports as to their exact location.[4] According to Chamberlain (1998), there is a Nguồn village in central Laos known as Ban Pak Phanang in Boualapha District,Khammouane Province.[5]
Chéon (1907), Maspéro (1912), and Cuisinier (1948) considered Nguồn to be more closely related to Mường while Mạc (1964), Nguyễn Đ. B. (1975), and Phạm (1975) connected it with Vietnamese.
Later linguistic comparison by Nguyễn V. T. (1975) and Nguyễn Ph. Ph. (1996) suggest a closer link with the Mường dialects, and this is echoed by Barker (1993) (and others).
Jerold A. Edmondson, Kenneth J. Gregerson, andNguyen Van Loi mention that this language is of "great interest to those studying the history of Vietic languages" due to its distinct historical developments.[6]
Nguyễn V. T. (1975) notes that Nguồn speakers can communicate with Mường speakers with each speaking their own language, but Vietnamese speakers who do not know Mường cannot understand Nguồn.
Although closer to Mường generally (especially concerning sound system similarities), in some aspects Nguồn is more similar to Vietnamese. For example, the negative marker in Vietnamese is the particlekhông, which is ultimately a loanword from Chinese that becamegrammaticalized. The native negative markerchẳng, which is attested in earlier stages of Vietnamese, was largely replaced by the Chinese borrowing.[7] Mường, in contrast, has preserved the originalchẳng. Nguồn has, like Vietnamese, lostchẳng tokhông. In this feature of the loss of the native negative marker, Nguồn is like Vietnamese rather than Mường.
Nguyễn Ph. Ph. (1996) notes that there are twovarieties of Nguồn:
Cổ Liêm is named after the village of the same name; Yên Thọ is the name of a cooperative in Tân Hoá village.
The Yên Thọ variety is closer to Vietnamese than Cổ Liêm with respect to certainphonological developments.
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In 1905, Cadière[8] reported that the Nguồn (as well as theSách people) were to be found in valleys of theNguồn Năn river in eleven villages.[9] Originally there were two groups of five villages. The northern group was in Cơ Sacanton (along with some Việt villages) and consisted of the following villages:
Tân Kiều was later split into two villages resulting in a sixth village in the northern group:
The more southerly village group consisted of
Mạc (1964) and Nguyễn Đ. B. (1975) assert that Nguồn is an original Việt group from the area of theHà Tĩnh andNghệ An provinces who moved into their present territory by the 17th century. Evidence for this opinion is based on family records. Mạc (1964) also reports that most Nguồn declared themselves to be Việt on the 1960 census.
Nguyễn V. T. (1975) suggests that the Mường could have migrated further south than Nghệ An to as far as Quảng Bình. Although some Việt families may have migrated to this region, they may have done so after Mường groups had already been established in the area. These Việt migrants could, then, have assimilated in language to the Mường. This Mường variety also would have been in contact withChứt languages, like Sách. Thus, Nguyễn V. T. (1975) suggests that Nguồn is a variety of Mường spoken by Mường (possibly Hà Tĩnh Mường) and assimilated Việt people with influences from Chứt languages.[10]
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