Not to be confused with Cham language (Nigeria) or Cham Albanian dialect.
Cham
ꨌꩌ چام
'Cham' in Cham script
Pronunciation
[cam]
Native to
Cambodia and Vietnam
Region
Mainland Southeast Asia
Ethnicity
Cham
Native speakers
490,000 (2019)[1]
Language family
Austronesian
Malayo-Polynesian
Chamic
Coastal
Cham
Early forms
Proto-Chamic
Old Cham
Dialects
Western Cham (245,000)[2]
Eastern Cham (180,000)[3]
Writing system
Cham, Jawi (Arabic), Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in
Vietnam Cambodia
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Either: cja – Western Cham cjm – Eastern Cham
Glottolog
cham1328
ELP
Eastern Cham
Cham (Cham: ꨌꩌ, Jawi: چام) is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian family, spoken by the Chams of Southeast Asia. It is spoken primarily in the territory of the former Kingdom of Champa, which spanned modern Southern Vietnam, as well as in Cambodia by a significant population which descends from refugees that fled during the decline and fall of Champa. The Western variety is spoken by 220,000 people in Cambodia and 25,000 people in Vietnam. As for the Eastern variety, there are about 73,000 speakers in Vietnam,[2] for a total of approximately 491,448 speakers.[1]
Cham belongs to the Chamic languages, which are spoken in parts of mainland Southeast Asia, Indonesia's Aceh Province, and on the island of Hainan. Cham is the oldest-attested Austronesian language, with the Đông Yên Châu inscription being verifiably dated to the late 4th century AD. It has several dialects, with Eastern Cham (Phan Rang Cham) and Western Cham being the main ones. The Cham script, derived from the ancient Indic script, is still used for ceremonial and religious purposes.
^ abWestern Cham at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Eastern Cham at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
^ ab"Cham". The Unicode Standard, Version 11.0. Mountain View, CA: Unicode Consortium. p. 661.
^"Eastern Cham". Ethnologue. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
Cham (Cham: ꨌꩌ, Jawi: چام) is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian family, spoken by the Chams of Southeast Asia. It is spoken primarily in...
The Chams (Cham: ꨌꩌ, Čaṃ), or Champa people (Cham: ꨂꨣꩃ ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, Urang Campa; Vietnamese: Người Chăm or Người Chàm; Khmer: ជនជាតិចាម, Chônchéatĕ Cham), are...
up Cham, cham, Châm, châm, or chấm in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Cham or CHAM may refer to: Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia Chamlanguage, the...
article correctly. The Cham script is a Brahmic abugida used to write Cham, an Austronesian language spoken by some 245,000 Chams in Vietnam and Cambodia...
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Champa (Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ; Khmer: ចាម្ប៉ា; Vietnamese: Chiêm Thành 占城 or Chăm Pa 占婆) was a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast...
Chamic languages. Individual languages are marked by italics. Chamic Acehnese Coastal Chamic Haroi Chamlanguage (Vietnamese: Chăm) Western Cham Eastern...
the Chamlanguage, the Đông Yên Châu inscription dated to c. 350 AD, is the first attestation of any Austronesian language. The Austronesian languages overall...
Cham has the oldest literary history of any Austronesian language. The Dong Yen Chau inscription, written in Old Cham, dates from the late 4th century...
Islam in Vietnam is primarily the religion of the Cham people, an Austronesian minority ethnic group; however, roughly one-third of Muslims in Vietnam...
Albanian culture in the 19th century. The Chams speak their own dialect of the Albanian language, the Cham Albanian dialect, which is a Southern Tosk...
Dikaka or Cham, is one of the Savanna languages of Middle Belt, Nigeria. It is also known as Dijim–Bwilim, after its two dialects, Dijim and Bwilim. A...
the larger Waja to the north; the Cham intermarried with the Jalabe, and the Jalabe began to adopt the Dikaka language. The phonology of Jalaa is as follows...
nominally, Khmer culture and language. The three groups most often included are the Chinese Cambodians, Vietnamese and Cham peoples. The Chinese have immigrated...
The Cham Albanian dialect (Albanian: Çamërisht, Dialekti çam), also called Cham Tosk or Arvanitika, is the dialect of the Albanian language spoken by...
they refused to eat it. Whole Cham villages were exterminated. Chams were not permitted to speak their language. Cham children were separated from their...
Austronesian language of southern Vietnam. There may be some speakers in Cambodia. It is a member of the Chamic subgroup, and is closely related to the Cham language...
(for Malay and a number of other languages) Cham script (for Chamlanguage) Eskayan script (for Eskayan language) Kawi script (used across Maritime Southeast...
dominant. The Chamlanguage is part of the Austronesian family. According to one study, Cham is related most closely to modern Acehnese. Cham tradition says...
Technological University Morrison, George Ernest (1975), "The Early ChamLanguage and Its Relation to Malay", Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal...
of Ratanakiri. The language is in the Chamic subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, and is thus related to the Chamlanguage of central Vietnam...
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The similarity of the Cambodian Chamlanguage and the Malay language can be found in names of places such as Kampong Cham, Kambujadesa, Kampong Chhnang...
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