The Khmuic Branch

The Khmuic branch is dominated by Khmu (sometimes ~Kmhmu, Kmhmu' or Kamu), a huge dialect chain with more than 500,000 speakers spread across northern Laos and adjacent areas of Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan, Khmu speakers are the second largest minority group in the Lao PDR.

Khmuic languages are usually very conservative. Their morphology preserves complicated, apparently ancient, initial clusters.  These are sometimes formed by copying the word final consonant into the coda of the minor syllable, a process also found in the Aslian languages of Malaysia.  Many dialects of Khmu have developed the breathy register associated with historically voiced initials.

Many excellent dictionaries and descriptions of Khmuic languages are available, most notably Suwilai Premsrirat's 2002 multi-dialectal thesaurus of Khmu.  Yet despite the wealth of language data available, as well as Khmuic's apparent morphological and phonological conservatism. no proto-Khmuic reconstruction has yet been attempted.  References and further reading Delcros, Henri. 1966. Petit dictionnaire du langage des Khmu' de la région de Xieng-Khouang. Vientiane, Laos: Mission Catholique. Egerod, Søren and Jørgen Rischel. 1987. A Mlabri-English vocabulary. Acta Orientalia 48.35-88. Ferlus, Michel. 1977. L'infixe instrumental rn en Khamou et sa trace en vietnamien. Cahiers de Linguistique, Asie Orientale, 2:51-5. Filbeck, David. 1978. T'in: a historical study. Pacific Linguistics Series B-49. Canberra: Australian National University. Lindell, Kristina, Jan-Olaf Svantesson and Damrong Tayanin. 1978. Phonology of the Kammu dialects. Cahiers de Linguistique, Asie Oriental 9:45-71. Lindell, Kirsten, Tayanin Damrong, Thongphet Kingsada & Soumsang Sainyawong. 1994. Khamu-Lao Dictionary. Vientiane, Ministry of Information and Culture. Maspéro, Henri. 1955. Matériaux pour l'étude de la langue t'èng. Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient, 47:457-507. Pogibenko, T. G. and Bùi Khánh-Thê. 1990. Iazyk Ksingmul. Materialy sovetsko-v'etnamskoj lingvisticheskoj ekspeditsii 1979 goda. Moscow, Nauka. Preisig, Elisabeth, Somseng Sayavong & Suksavang Simana'. 1994. Kmhmu'-Lao-French-English Dictionary. Vientiane, Ministry of Information and Culture. Proschan, Frank. 1996. A Survey of Khmuic and Palaungic Languages in Laos and Vietnam. Pan-Asiatic Linguistics, 3: 895-919. Rischel, Jørgen. 1995. Minor Mlabri: A Hunter-Gatherer Language of Northern Indochina. Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen. Smalley, William A. 1961. Outline of Khmu? Structure. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Essay 2. New Haven, American Oriental Society. Srisakorn, Preedaporn. 1987. The Sound System of Khmu at Nampon in Nan. MA. Thesis. Mahidol University. Suwilai Premsirat. 1993. Thai-Khmu-English Dictionary. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University, Salaya. Suwilai Premsirat. 2002. Thesaurus of Khmu Dialects in Southeast Asia . Mon-Khmer Studies-Mahidol University Special Publications No.1. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University, Salaya. Svantesson, Jan-Olof, Damrong Thayanin & Kristina Lindell. 1994. Kammu-Lao Dictionary (In Lao). Vientian, Ministry of Information and Culture. Svantesson, Jan-Olof. 1983. Kammu Phonology and Morphology. Travaux de l'institut de Linguistique de Lund 18.