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Languages and Literatures of Indochina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Paul K. Benedict
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Extract

French Indochina presents a veritable mosaic of languages, among which are representatives of all the major language families of Southeast Asia. This country has long served as a geographical cul-desac for the continental mass of Asia and thus has received a variety of cultural and linguistic influences, producing one of the most complex ethnological pictures to be found anywhere in the world. Within its confines may be found languages belonging to the Mon-Khmer, Malayo-Polynesian, Annamese-Müöng, Thai, Kadai, Miao-Yao, Tibeto-Burman, and Chinese stocks. Generally the centers of distribution for these language stocks lie outside Indochina, which has received only a trickle of speakers from linguistic spillage across its borders; only one of these stocks (Annamese-Müöng) is an exclusively native product of Indochina. Little is known of most of these languages, and even the more important among them (Annamese, Khmer, Lao) have not yet received adequate modern linguistic treatment. The main outlines are sufficiently clear, however, and afford us data on the cultural history of the country.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 6 , Special Issue 4: French Indochina , August 1947 , pp. 379 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1947

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References

1 The Annamese apply the generic term “Moi” to these nonliterate Mon-Khmer tribes, as well as to similar Cham-speaking tribes. The Lao employ the term “Kha” in the same sense, while the Khmer make use of the term “Pnong.” In view of the nonspecific nature of these terms it is wise to avoid their use altogether in describing these peoples.

2 Benedict, P. K., “A Cham colony on the island of Hainan,” Harvard journal of Asiatic studies, 6 (1941), 129–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See the discussion in Benedict, P. K., “Thai, Kadai, and Indonesian: a new alignment in Southeastern Asia,” American anthropologist, 44 (1942), 576–601CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 A number of works describing the various Annamese dialects are mentioned in Benedict, Paul K., Selected list of materials jor the study of the Annamese language (New York: Southeast Asia Institute, Language series no. 3, 1947)Google Scholar, 7 pp. mimeographed.—Editors.

5 Most Chinese characters have been formed on a similar basis; the Annamese innovation consists in the development of new combinations, often of unusual type. The same principle has been applied by other sinicized groups, including the Tho (Thai-speaking) of Cao Bang i n Tonkin.

6 The present Vietnam government is engaged in an intensive campaign to “liquidate” the prewar illiteracy of approximately 80 per cent, and accordingly the quôc-ngu' romantization i s rapidly becoming entrenched, despite its imperfections. The beginnings of the present program can be traced to the Association for the Diffusion of Quoc-ngu, organized shortly before the war; see Sheldon, George, “Status of the Viet Nam,” Far Eastern survey, 15 (Dec. 18, 1946), 377CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Robert Trumbull in the New York times, Feb. 23, 1947.