Tampuan language

Tampuan
Tumpoon
ទំពួន
Native toCambodia
EthnicityTampuan people
Native speakers
31,000 (2008 census)[1]
to 57,000 (2013 survey)[2]
Khmer
Language codes
ISO 639-3tpu
Glottologtamp1251

Tampuan is the language of Tampuan people indigenous to the mountainous regions of Ratanakiri Province in Cambodia. As of the 2008 census there were 31,000 speakers, which amounts to 21% of the province's population.[3] It is closely related to Bahnar and Alak, the three of which form the Central Bahnaric language grouping within the Mon-Khmer language family according to traditional classification.[4] Sidwell's more recent classification groups Tampuan on an equal level with Bahnar and the South Bahnaric languages in a larger Central Bahnar group.[5] The Tampuan language has no native writing. EMU International began linguistic research in 1995 and produced an alphabet using Khmer letters. The alphabet was further refined by linguists from International Cooperation for Cambodia (ICC) and the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (MOEYS).[6] The modified Khmer script was approved by MOEYS in 2003 for use in bilingual education programs for Tampuan implemented by ICC, UNESCO, and CARE .[7]

  1. ^ Tampuan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Cambodia Inter-Censal Population Survey 2013 Archived 2014-02-02 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Total population of 149,990 for Ratanakiri Province. "General Population Census of Cambodia 2008 - Provisional population totals" (PDF). National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning. 3 September 2008.
  4. ^ Thomas, D. 1979, "The place of Alak, Tampuan, and West Bahnaric", in The Mon-Khmer Studies Journal, vol. 8, pp. 171-186.
  5. ^ Sidwell, Paul (2002). "Genetic classification of the Bahnaric languages: a comprehensive review." Mon-Khmer Studies: A Journal of Southeast Asian Linguistics and Languages 32: 1-24.
  6. ^ Crowley, James Dale; Vay, Tieng; Wain, Churk (2007). Tampuan Khmer English Dictionary. Phnom Penh: National Language Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia and EMU International. p. 7. ISBN 0-9727182-4-9.
  7. ^ Anne Thomas, Education Advisor, Ratanakiri, Cambodia; HE Chey Chap, Under-Secretary of State for Education, Cambodia; Mr. In The, Director, National NFE Department, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Cambodia. "Bilingual education in Cambodia".