cja ISO 639

Chăm Autonyms

Cham, Western

  • Geography

    KH 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 Cloud

A language of Cambodia

cja
Cambodian Cham, Cham, New Cham, Tjam
Chăm
249,000 in Cambodia (2019 J. Leclerc). No monolinguals. Total users in all countries: 312,500.
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.
Cambodia, Southern Viet Nam
5 (Developing).
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Malayo-Chamic, Chamic, Coastal, Cham
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.
All domains. Used by all. Positive attitudes. All also use Khmer [khm].
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.
Arabic script, Naskh variant [Arab]. Cham script [Cham]. Latin script [Latn].
Small ethnic groups from Cambodia settled in Thailand but no longer speak Cham (Bradley 2007a). Muslim.
OLAC resources in and about Cham, Western
Cham
Ethnic population: 340 (Schliesinger 2003a).
Viengchan Capital City: Chanthaburi district, Ban Pounsavath Tai; Savannahkhet province.
8a (Moribund)
Older adults only. Shifted to Lao [lao].
Non-indigenous. Muslim.
View other languages of Laos
Cham, Western
1,000 in France.
Unestablished
Non-indigenous.
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Cham, Western
12,000 in Malaysia (2011).
Scattered in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.
Unestablished
Non-indigenous.
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Cham, Western
4,000 in Thailand.
Krung Thep province: Ban Khrue section of city (Bangkok), otherwise scattered.
6b (Threatened)
Conflicting reports about whether those in Thailand still speak Cham or have shifted to Central Thai [tha].
Non-indigenous. Austro-Asiatic influences. Thought to be remnants of Cham who fought in the Thai army about 200 years ago. Muslim.
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Cham, Western
46,500 in Vietnam (2019 census), based on ethnicity. All Cham: 178,948 (2019 census) but as many as 250,000 ({Bradley 2007a}).
An Giang and Tay Ninh provinces; Ho Chi Minh city.
6b (Threatened)
Being replaced by Vietnamese [vie] (Bradley 2007a). Also use Vietnamese [vie].
Official Cham ethnic group includes Eastern Cham [cjm] and Haroi [hro]. Differs a bit from Eastern Cham [cjm] of central Vietnam. Muslim.
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