Graham Thurgood gives the following classification for the Chamic languages. Individual languages are marked by
italics. •
Chamic •
Acehnese • Coastal Chamic •
Haroi () •
Cham () •
Western Cham •
Eastern Cham (Panduranga Cham) • Highlands Chamic • Rade–Jarai •
Bih •
Rade () •
Jarai () • Chru–Northern •
Chru () • Northern Cham •
Roglai () •
Northern Roglai •
Southern Roglai •
Tsat The Proto-Chamic numerals from 7 to 9 are shared with those of the
Malayic languages, providing partial evidence for a Malayo-Chamic subgrouping.
Roger Blench also proposes that there may have been at least one other
Austroasiatic branch in coastal Vietnam that is now extinct, based on various Austroasiatic loanwords in modern-day Chamic languages that cannot be clearly traced to existing Austroasiatic branches. ==Reconstruction== The Proto-Chamic reconstructed below is from
Graham Thurgood's 1999 publication
From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects.
Consonants The following table of Proto-Chamic presyllabic consonants are from Thurgood. There are a total of 13–14 presyllabic consonants depending on whether or not * is counted. Non-presyllabic consonants include *ʔ, *ɓ, *ɗ, *ŋ, *y, *w. Aspirated consonants are also reconstructable for Proto-Chamic. The following consonant clusters are reconstructed for Proto-Chamic: *pl-, *bl-, *kl-, *gl-, *pr-, *tr-, *kr-, *br-, *dr-. Initial
*n did not exist, it was replaced by
*l instead (
*nanaq →
*lanah "pus").
Vowels There are four vowels (*-a, *-i, *-u, and *-e, or alternatively *-ə) and three
diphthongs (*-ay, *-uy, *-aw).
Morphology Reconstructed Proto-Chamic morphological components are: • *tə-: the "inadvertent" prefix • *mə-: common verb prefix • *pə-: causative prefix • *bɛʔ-: negative imperative prefix (borrowed from Austroasiatic languages) • *-əm-: nominalizing infix • *-ən-: instrumental infix (borrowed from Austroasiatic languages)
Pronouns Proto-Chamic has the following personal pronouns:
Singular • – 'I' (familiar) • – 'I' (polite); 'slave' • – 'I' (polite) • – 'you; thou' • – 'he, she; they'
Plural • – 'we' (exclusive) • – 'we' (inclusive) • – 'we' (inclusive); reflexive • – other; group (borrowed from Austroasiatic languages)
Proto-Chamic and Chamic lexical correspondences Proto-Chamic, Mainland Chamic, Acehnese and Malay comparative table: ==Notes==