Nyah Kur language

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The Nyah Kur language is an Austroasiatic language spoken by a remnant of the Mon people of Dvaravati, the Nyah Kur people, who live in present-day Thailand. Known as Chao-bon (Thai:ชาวบน) in Thai, it is spoken by a few thousand people in the central and northeastern provinces. Being the only languages of the Monic branch of the Mon-Khmer language family, Mon and Nyah Kur are very closely related. The speakers of Nyah Kur are the descendants of those Mon who did not flee west when the Khmer overran their empire in the 9th and 11th centuries. Consequently, modern Mon and Nyah Kur have both developed directly from Old Mon independently for almost a millennium.

Nyah Kur was discovered by linguists early in the 20th century but was not recognized as being related (in fact a "sister" language) to Mon for nearly 70 years.

Due to integration into Thai society, the number of speakers of Nyah Kur as a first language is rapidly decreasing and some predict the language to become extinct within the next century unless the current course is reversed.

[edit] External links

• Development of Modern Mon and Nyah Kur Paul Sidwell, Australian National University (accessed May 11, 2006)
• SEALANG Brief discussion outlining development of Mon and Nyah Kur from Old Mon (accessed May 11, 2006)

[edit] References

• Huffman, F.E. 1990. "Burmese Mon, Thai Mon and Nyah Kur: a synchronic comparison" Mon-Khmer studies 16-17, pp. 31-64
• Diffloth, G. 1984. The Dvaravati Old-Mon language and Nyah Kur. Chulalongkorn University Printing House, Bangkok.