cja ISO 639
Chăm Autonyms
Cham, Western
Visualizations
A language of Cambodia
- ISO 639
- cja
- Alternate Names
- Cambodian Cham, Cham, New Cham, Tjam
- Autonym
- Chăm
- Population
- 249,000 in Cambodia (2019 J. Leclerc). No monolinguals. Total users in all countries: 312,500.
- Location
- Scattered, nearly half of the Cham in Cambodia live in Kampong Cham and Tbong Khmum provinces, where they are about 6% of the total population. Cham also live dispersed through all other provinces especially Kampong Chhnang and Kratié provinces.
- Language Maps
- Cambodia, Southern Viet Nam
- Language Status
- 5 (Developing).
- Classification
- Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Malayo-Chamic, Chamic, Coastal, Cham
- Dialects
- None known. Cannot communicate with Eastern Cham [cjm] of central Vietnam. Lexical similarity: 84% with Eastern Cham [cjm] of Vietnam (Pawley and Pawley 2010), 69% with Jarai [jra] of northeast Cambodia.
- Language Use
- All domains. Used by all. Positive attitudes. All also use Khmer [khm].
- Language Development
- Literacy rate in L1: 30%. Literacy rate in L2: 50% in Khmer [khm]. Many children learn to read Cham using Arabic-based script in madrassah schools. In one sect, most people over age 50 can read using the ancient Cham script called Kakha. Literature. Radio. Dictionary. Texts.
- Writing
- Arabic script, Naskh variant [Arab]. Cham script [Cham]. Latin script [Latn].
- Other Comments
- Small ethnic groups from Cambodia settled in Thailand but no longer speak Cham (Bradley 2007a). Muslim.
- Language Resources
- OLAC resources in and about Cham, Western
Also Spoken in
- Location
- Viengchan Capital City: Chanthaburi district, Ban Pounsavath Tai; Savannahkhet province.
- Language Status
- 8a (Moribund)
- Language Use
- Older adults only. Shifted to Lao [lao].
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. Muslim. View other languages of Laos
Language Name
Cham
User Population
Ethnic population: 340 (Schliesinger 2003a).
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of France
Language Name
Cham, Western
User Population
1,000 in France.
- Location
- Scattered in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Malaysia
Language Name
Cham, Western
User Population
12,000 in Malaysia (2011).
- Location
- Krung Thep province: Ban Khrue section of city (Bangkok), otherwise scattered.
- Language Status
- 6b (Threatened)
- Language Use
- Conflicting reports about whether those in Thailand still speak Cham or have shifted to Central Thai [tha].
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. Austro-Asiatic influences. Thought to be remnants of Cham who fought in the Thai army about 200 years ago. Muslim. View other languages of Thailand
Language Name
Cham, Western
User Population
4,000 in Thailand.
- Location
- An Giang and Tay Ninh provinces; Ho Chi Minh city.
- Language Status
- 6b (Threatened)
- Language Use
- Being replaced by Vietnamese [vie] (Bradley 2007a). Also use Vietnamese [vie].
- Other Comments
- Official Cham ethnic group includes Eastern Cham [cjm] and Haroi [hro]. Differs a bit from Eastern Cham [cjm] of central Vietnam. Muslim. View other languages of Vietnam
Language Name
Cham, Western
User Population
46,500 in Vietnam (2019 census), based on ethnicity. All Cham: 178,948 (2019 census) but as many as 250,000 ({Bradley 2007a}).
