Cham language Information & Cham language Links at HealthHaven.com

Cham
Pronunciation	/cam/
Spoken in	Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, China (Hainan Island), various countries with recent immigrants
Region	Southeast Asia
Total speakers	323,100 (Ethnologue, 2002)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian Malayo-Sumbawan Aceh-Chamic Chamic South Chamic Coastal South Chamic Cham-Chru Cham; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Cham alphabet (Vietnam), Arabic alphabet (Cambodia)
Official status
Official language in	none, recognised as a minority language in Cambodia and Vietnam
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	–
ISO 639-3	variously:; cja – Western Cham; cjm – Eastern Cham; huq – Tsat
	Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Cham is the language of the Cham people of Southeast Asia, and formerly the language of the kingdom of Champa in central Vietnam. A member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family, it is spoken by 100,000 people in Vietnam and up to 220,000 people in Cambodia (1992 estimate). There are also small populations of speakers in Thailand and Malaysia. Other Chamic languages are spoken in Vietnam (Raglai, Rhade, Jarai, Chru, H'roi) and on the Chinese island of Hainan (Tsat). Cham is related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar, and the Philippines.

[edit] Further reading

Aymonier, Etienne and Antoine Cabaton (1906). Dictionnaire Cam-Français. Paris: Leroux.
Blood, D. L., & Blood, D. (1977). East Cham language. Vietnam data microfiche series, no. VD 51-72. Huntington Beach, Calif: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Blood, D. L. (1977). A romanization of the Cham language in relation to the Cham script. Vietnam data microfiche series, no. VD51-17. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Moussay, Gerard (1971). Dictionnaire Cam-Vietnamien-Français. Phan Rang: Centre Culturel Cam.
Thurgood, G. (1999). From ancient Cham to modern dialects: two thousand years of language contact and change. Oceanic linguistics special publication, no. 28. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 0824821319

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