LEXICAL CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MALAY AND VIETNAMESE (Asian Journal of Environment, History and Heritage June 2019, Vol.3, Issue. 1, p. 189-209)
Position of Malay in Regional Language System In their own points of view, Malaysian linguists posit that most Asian languages belong to Austric phylum which is divided into three major families deriving from the same ancient root, namely:
a) Austro-Asiatic family consisting of Nicobarese, Mon-Khmer, Munda, Vietnamese, etc;
b) Sino-Tibetan family consisting of Chinese, Tibeto, Burman, etc;
c) Austronesian family consisting of languages from Southeast Asia islands and peninsulas.
Austronesian family itself is divided into four major branches:
a) Nusantara branch (aka Western Indonesia) consisting of 200-300 languages in which the most widely-spoken languages are Melayu, Jawa, Aceh, Bali, Taglog, Brugi, Timor, Malgah, Palau. Languages belonging to this branch in Indochina are Cham, Jarai, Ede, Raglai, and Churu in Vietnam.
b) Melanesian branch consisting of Fiji, Sa’a, etc. used in Solomon, Guinea, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga.
c) Micronesian branch consisting of Chamorro, Truk, Marshall, etc. used in Caroline Islands.
d) Polynesian branch consisting of Samoa and Maori used in New Zealand.
Malay is included in Nusantara branch (Western Indonesia) and is among the most important languages of this branch (Mukhtarudin Mohd. Dain 1992). According to Vietnamese linguists, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic and Austronesian are three distinctive language phyla, not three families in Austric phylum. However, whether they are believed to be 3 phyla or 3 groups, Austronesian phylum/family remains the one (phylum/group) with the highest number of languages. Austronesian languages are widely spoken not only in Southeast Asian islands but also mainland Southeast Asia.
Within Vietnamese border particularly and Indochina generally, Austronesian languages distribute patchily along with Mon-Khmer languages. The ethnic groups of Austronesian phylum scatter along areas of South Truong Son – Central Highlands and a narrow strip of coastal area in Central Vietnam. Austronesian languages in these areas are combined into one single group called languages of Cham family, aka Austronesian-mainland Southeast Asian family.
There are five languages in this family:
a) Cham language distributing in South Central Vietnam, Southwest Vietnam (with the population of around 100,000) and Cambodia. 191 Tran Thuy Anh et. al.
b) Jarai language of Jarai people in Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Dak Lak provinces: “Jarai” means “waterfall”. It is possible that these people used to reside in areas abundant with rivers and streams (such as Ia Yun, Ia Ly, Ia Pa, etc.). Jarai language is a major language in Vietnam’s Cham family with about 419,000 current users. Jarai language is divided into smaller languages in accordance with residing areas such as Jarai Chor, Jarai Hdrung, Jarai Arap, Jarai Mthur, Jarai Pleiku and Jarai Tbuan.
c) Raglai language of Raglai people with four residential areas namely North Raglai, South Raglai, Raglai Cakja and Rai scattering along Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan provinces or Central Highlands with around 122,200 speakers. Raglai people claim themselves to be “orang glai” which means “people living in forest”, differentiating themselves from Austronesian people living in coastal areas which are called “orang laut”.
d) Ede language of Ede people (aka Rade) distributing mainly in Dak Lak, Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen and Gia Lai provinces with approximately 331,100 speakers. Ede’s residential area is abundant with streams and bamboo forests; hence, they claim themselves to be “orang Ede” with “ede” meaning “bamboo”.
e) Churu language of Churu people distributing mainly in Lam Dong province with about 19,300 speakers. They claim themselves to be “orang Cru” with “cru” meaning “occupying new land”.
Although those above five languages have their own writing systems (either ancient scripts or Latinized ones), they are vastly different in terms of range of use and social functions, depending on the position and significance of the language itself within the community. Particularly Ede language has a certain social importance as it is considered a local common language (after Vietnamese) in Dak Lak province.
Though belonging to the same phylum, Austronesian languages in Vietnam and those in other Southeast Asian island countries have evolved in two distinctive directions. Austronesian languages in Vietnam, having been surrounded by and contacting with isolating-monosyllabic languages, have been evolving towards these isolating-monosyllabic ones; while Austronesian languages in island countries, Malay for instance, have developed affixes and become agglunating, polysyllabic languages. Pham Duc Duong (1983) have proposed a hypothesis on this issue: prehistoric Southeast Asian languages had undergone a period of changes in their morphological systems, which resulted in their division into various streams.
One of the most significant changes regarding morphology is the change in affixes towards two opposite directions: either eliminating affixes or developing them. Island Southeast Asian languages, due to their contact with Oceanic languages, developed affixes towards a new direction and became non-inflectional agglutinating polysyllabic languages under the name Austronesian family. On the contrary, the elimination of affixes to become isolating, monosyllabic languages occurred in Austro-Asiatic and Kam Tai families (Phạm Đức Dương 1983).
The classification of origin of Southeast Asian languages is a long-established practice; and it has still been debated until now. In 1906, Wilhelm Schimidt proposed a theory of an Austric language family which included Austro-Asiatic and Austronesia languages based on a comparison of 215 words between some languages of the two language groups (the concept of language group used by W. Schimidt is similar to the current concept of language family). According to Schimidt, Austro-Asiatic language family includes Mon-Khmer, Vietnamese and some other languages. Austronesia or Malayo-Polynesian language family includes Kadai, Indonesian. Schmidt claims that Austro-Asiatic language family and Austronesian language family share one morphological similarity that is affixation which includes prefixes and infixes.
The relationship between Malay and Vietnamese is nothing other than the relationship between Austronesian and Austro-Asiatic. According to Schmidt, Austronesian and Austro-Asiatic belong to the same Austric phylum, i.e. the same root. Until now it has not yet been agreed on the relationship between Austronesian and Austro-Asiatic languages in general, between Vietnamese and Malay in particular. Nevertheless, Vietnamese and Malay have had some relationships for long.
UNQUOTE
The article lists many cognates between Malay and Vietnamese, such as:
bunga (M) - bông (V) flower
sungai (M) - sông (V) river
sudah (M) - đã (V) already
sedang (M) while - đang (V) continuous action particle
Other likely M-V cognates and calques not included in the above are (my list):
kuala - estuary cửa entrance, door
manggis - măng cục mangosteen
muntah - mửa to vomit
susu milk, breast - sữa milk
bunga jam sepuluh (10 o’clock flower) - bông mười giờ (10 o’clock flower) portulaca floribunda
mata air (eye of water) - mặt nước (face of water) spring water from ground
mata bulan (lit: eye of month) - mặt trăng (prev. mặt blăng) (lit: face of month) moon
mata hari (eye of the day) - mặt trời (face of the day) sun
mata kaki ankle - mắt cá ankle bone
tanah air (land water) - đất nước (land water) fatherland
Copy and paste: 3 October 2022 : 7 Rabiulawal 1444H: 7.33 pm
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