CHAMIC LANGUAGES

group of languages spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia, classified as West Indonesian languages in the Hesperonesian group of the Austronesian language family. Of the nine Chamic languages, Jarai and Cham (including Western and Eastern) are the largest, with about 230,000 and 280,000 speakers respectively. Cham borrows heavily from Vietnamese and resembles both the Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian languages. The Chamic languages with fewer numbers of speakers than either Jarai or Cham are Rade, Bih, Cac Gia Roglai, Curu, Haroy, Northern Roglai, and Southern Roglai.