Chong language
Encyclopedia
Chong, or more specifically Western Chong (also spelled Chawng, Shong, Xong), is an endangered language
spoken in Cambodia
and southeastern Thailand
. It is a Western Pearic
language in the Eastern Mon–Khmer language family branch. Chong is currently the focus of a language revitalization
project in Thailand.
The Chong language is marked by its unusual 4-way contrast in register
. Its grammar has not been extensively studied, but it is unrelated to the Thai language
which is in the Tai–Kadai language family. Chong had no written form until 2000, when researchers at Mahidol University
used a simplified version of standard Thai characters to create a Chong writing system
, after which the first teaching materials in the language appeared. Chong is currently considered to be at stage 7 in Joshua Fishman
's Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS), where stage 8 is the closest to extinction.
The language only has about 5500 speakers remaining, 5000 in Cambodia and 500 in Thailand. The Chong community in Thailand is primarily located in and around Chanthaburi
. While the language spoken in Thailand has been studied recently, the Chong language in Cambodia has not been investigated yet.
are called "Chong", and they do not constitute a single language. The majority of varieties are what Sidwell (2009) labeled "Western Chong". This includes the main dialect around Chantaburi on the Thai–Cambodian border. However, the variety called "Chong" in Trat Province
of western Thailand, as well as "Kasong" Chong, were classified as "Central Chong" along with Samre
, and so should perhaps be considered dialects of Samre rather than of Chong. Similarly, varieties called "Chung" in neighboring Kanchanaburi
, but also in Cambodia, were classified as "Southern Chong" along with Suoi
and Saoch
. The Western Chong dialects are as follows:
Chong is one of the Ethnic groups called Tai who now live in Eastern part of Thailand. Losing the battle with Burma in AD 1767, King Taksin mobilized 5, 000 Chong warriors and 100 warships to fight against Burma. Eventually, then Siam (today’s Thailand) won the war. Without help from Chong, Siam might not have won that battle. Queen Kavi was known as Chong’s legend.
Chong language is still being used verbally for basic communication in their villages. However, some of them cannot speak the language. In the conversation, Chong people always finish their sentence with “ Hi “ for which contemporary Thai people make fun of Chong. The best poet of Thailand is known as Sun-Ton-Poo who is famous for his poem called “ Poem of Klang City “ in AD 1807, describing his Chong relatives.
Chong people believe in “Animism“, where they culturally and traditionally worship spirits and perform various rituals according to their belief to get rid of devils and to protect people and villages from those bad spirits.
Chong people make their living from planting spices called “Ka-Van” on the Soy-Daw hill. They also export Ka-Van and other spices like “Rell-Hom” and “Look-Sum-Rong” from Paneit City.
Since they live in the forests, Chong has tremendous experience in traditional physical healing by combining the use of herbs and massage skills. The blending of these skills are still seen being practiced in Thailand. This invaluable local knowledge has been passed down from one generation to another of Chong ethnic groups. Chong Massage has conducted numerous researches to collect and preserve Chong’s treatment knowledge and skills and has successfully applied them in basic body treatment.
Chong Sculpture Massage mainly focuses on what is called “Massage Points and Lines” which is believed to be the cause of body problems like musculoskeletal injuries, stress, tension, anxiety, depression, and pain. Chong Massage has indentified 6 basic causes of these problems as follows:
1. Moving Massage Line : It is the feeling of pain that will move to other parts of your body as you treat it.
2. Sunk Massage Line: It is the feeling of deep extreme pain in a part of the body like in the Shoulders.
3. Adjoined Massage Line (Trigger Point): The tissue is tensely stuck to the bones, which causes severe pain.
4. Fallen Massage Line: The feeling of severe pain in the Joints.
5. Twisted Massage Line: The feel of pain caused by the twisted collagen fibers and tendons.
6. Stuck Air Flow: The feeling of pain caused by swollen tissues.
After identifying the causes of pain, Chong Sculpture Massage apply various techniques to manipulate the body with structured, unstructured, stationary, or moving pressures, tension, motion, and vibration with hands, fingers, elbows, forearms, knees, feet and other mechanical aids. The target tissues include muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, joints, lymphatic vessels, organs of the gastrointestinal system and other connective tissues and collagen fibers.
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
spoken in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
and southeastern Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
. It is a Western Pearic
Pearic languages
The Pearic languages are a group of endangered languages of the Eastern Mon–Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by Pear people living in western Cambodia and southeastern Thailand....
language in the Eastern Mon–Khmer language family branch. Chong is currently the focus of a language revitalization
Language revival
Language revitalization, language revival or reversing language shift is the attempt by interested parties, including individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities, to reverse the decline of a language. If the decline is severe, the language may be endangered,...
project in Thailand.
The Chong language is marked by its unusual 4-way contrast in register
Register (phonology)
In linguistics, a register language, also known as a pitch-register language, is a language which combines tone and vowel phonation into a single phonological system. Burmese and the Chinese dialect Shanghainese are examples...
. Its grammar has not been extensively studied, but it is unrelated to the Thai language
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
which is in the Tai–Kadai language family. Chong had no written form until 2000, when researchers at Mahidol University
Mahidol University
Mahidol University is a public research university in Bangkok, Thailand. Established back in 1888 as School of Medical Practitioners, Siriraj Hospital and reorganized in 1943 as University of Medical Sciences . The university originally focused on Health Sciences but also expanded to other...
used a simplified version of standard Thai characters to create a Chong writing system
Writing system
A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...
, after which the first teaching materials in the language appeared. Chong is currently considered to be at stage 7 in Joshua Fishman
Joshua Fishman
Joshua Aaron Fishman, is an American linguist who specializes in the sociology of language, language planning, bilingual education, and language and ethnicity.-Life:...
's Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS), where stage 8 is the closest to extinction.
The language only has about 5500 speakers remaining, 5000 in Cambodia and 500 in Thailand. The Chong community in Thailand is primarily located in and around Chanthaburi
Chanthaburi
Chanthaburi ) is a town in the east of Thailand, at the banks of the Chanthaburi River. It is the capital of the Chanthaburi Province and the Mueang Chanthaburi district....
. While the language spoken in Thailand has been studied recently, the Chong language in Cambodia has not been investigated yet.
Classification
A number of varieties of PearicPearic languages
The Pearic languages are a group of endangered languages of the Eastern Mon–Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by Pear people living in western Cambodia and southeastern Thailand....
are called "Chong", and they do not constitute a single language. The majority of varieties are what Sidwell (2009) labeled "Western Chong". This includes the main dialect around Chantaburi on the Thai–Cambodian border. However, the variety called "Chong" in Trat Province
Trat Province
Trat is a province of Thailand. It is located in the east of Thailand, and has borders with Chanthaburi Province to the northwest, Cambodia to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the south.Trat is most famous for gemstone mining and trading....
of western Thailand, as well as "Kasong" Chong, were classified as "Central Chong" along with Samre
Samre language
Samre, or Central Chong, is a Pearic language of Cambodia. The dialects are as follows:*Samre of Pursat*Samre *Chong *Chong of Trat...
, and so should perhaps be considered dialects of Samre rather than of Chong. Similarly, varieties called "Chung" in neighboring Kanchanaburi
Kanchanaburi
Kanchanaburi ) is a town in the west of Thailand and the capital of Kanchanaburi province. In 2006 it had a population of 31,327...
, but also in Cambodia, were classified as "Southern Chong" along with Suoi
Suoy language
Suoy is an endangered Pearic language of Cambodia spoken by a decreasing number of people, mainly older adults....
and Saoch
Sa'och language
Sa'och is an endangered Pearic language of Cambodia spoken by a decreasing number of people, mainly older adults....
. The Western Chong dialects are as follows:
- Chong of Chantaburi (Baradat ms.)
- (Branch)
- Chong həəp (Martin 1974)
- Khlong Phlu Chong (Siripen Ungsitibonporn 2001)
- (Branch)
- Chong lɔɔ (Martin 1974)
- Wang Kraphrae Chong (Siripen Ungsitibonporn 2001)
- Chong (Huffman 1983)
Further reading
- Isarangura, N. N. (19XX.). Vocubulary of Chawng words collected in Krat Province. [S.l: s.n.].
Chong is one of the Ethnic groups called Tai who now live in Eastern part of Thailand. Losing the battle with Burma in AD 1767, King Taksin mobilized 5, 000 Chong warriors and 100 warships to fight against Burma. Eventually, then Siam (today’s Thailand) won the war. Without help from Chong, Siam might not have won that battle. Queen Kavi was known as Chong’s legend.
Chong language is still being used verbally for basic communication in their villages. However, some of them cannot speak the language. In the conversation, Chong people always finish their sentence with “ Hi “ for which contemporary Thai people make fun of Chong. The best poet of Thailand is known as Sun-Ton-Poo who is famous for his poem called “ Poem of Klang City “ in AD 1807, describing his Chong relatives.
Chong people believe in “Animism“, where they culturally and traditionally worship spirits and perform various rituals according to their belief to get rid of devils and to protect people and villages from those bad spirits.
Chong people make their living from planting spices called “Ka-Van” on the Soy-Daw hill. They also export Ka-Van and other spices like “Rell-Hom” and “Look-Sum-Rong” from Paneit City.
Since they live in the forests, Chong has tremendous experience in traditional physical healing by combining the use of herbs and massage skills. The blending of these skills are still seen being practiced in Thailand. This invaluable local knowledge has been passed down from one generation to another of Chong ethnic groups. Chong Massage has conducted numerous researches to collect and preserve Chong’s treatment knowledge and skills and has successfully applied them in basic body treatment.
Chong Sculpture Massage mainly focuses on what is called “Massage Points and Lines” which is believed to be the cause of body problems like musculoskeletal injuries, stress, tension, anxiety, depression, and pain. Chong Massage has indentified 6 basic causes of these problems as follows:
1. Moving Massage Line : It is the feeling of pain that will move to other parts of your body as you treat it.
2. Sunk Massage Line: It is the feeling of deep extreme pain in a part of the body like in the Shoulders.
3. Adjoined Massage Line (Trigger Point): The tissue is tensely stuck to the bones, which causes severe pain.
4. Fallen Massage Line: The feeling of severe pain in the Joints.
5. Twisted Massage Line: The feel of pain caused by the twisted collagen fibers and tendons.
6. Stuck Air Flow: The feeling of pain caused by swollen tissues.
After identifying the causes of pain, Chong Sculpture Massage apply various techniques to manipulate the body with structured, unstructured, stationary, or moving pressures, tension, motion, and vibration with hands, fingers, elbows, forearms, knees, feet and other mechanical aids. The target tissues include muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, joints, lymphatic vessels, organs of the gastrointestinal system and other connective tissues and collagen fibers.