Bahnar Dictionary

Bahnar is a language of the Mon-Khmer family
spoken by 50,000-70,000 people living in the provinces
of Gia Lai- Cong Turn and Nghia Binh in Viet Nam.
Within the Mon-Khmer family lexicostatistics have sug-
gested that Bahnar belongs to the North Bahnaric sub-
group (Thomas, 1966), whereas phonological studies have
suggested a South Bahnaric orientation (Smith, 1972).
Attempting to reconcile these differences a Central
Bahnaric relation has been suggested (Gregerson, Smith
and Thomas, 1976). This dictionary is based primarily
on the dialect of Bahnar spoken in the Plei Bong Mor-
Mang Yang area of Gia Lai-Cong Turn (formerly Pleiku)

Two other dialects are also included in this diction-
ary: the Bahnar Gdlar dialect which is spoken in an area
10-20 kilometers east of Pleiku city and the Kontum dia-
lect spoken around the city of Kontum. Each of these
dialects has around 10,000 native speakers. Entries for
the Kontum dialect are few but there are other dictionar-
ies of the Kontum dialect (Dourisboure, 1889: Guilleminet
and Alberty, 1959. 1963). Entries for the Gdlar dialect
are much more numerous and this dialect is closer
lexically to the Plei Bong-Mang Yang dialect (of.
Pham Xuin Tin. 1952).

This dictionary includes over 3600 main entries and
is followed by an English Index referring the user back
to the main dictionary by page number. For Vietnamese
users there is both a Bahnar- -Vietnamese Glossary and
a Vietnamese --Bahnar Glossary of about 900 basic vocab-
ulary items.

Our study of the Bahnar language in Viet Nam began
in 1959 and continued through the early part of 1975 as
members of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Most
of the dictionary entries were made in the earlier years
of our investigation, the final revision being made in 1977.

The main Bahnar contributor to the project was Mc5,
a young n-ian from the village of Plei Bong Mor. Various

others helped i
other dialects.

DSn-T9C Thiiu-So Vift-Nam

Cuon 20

Phan 1

BAHNAR DICTIONARY
Plei Bong - Mang Yang Dialect

NgU-ViAig Bahnar

by
John and Elizabeth Banker and Md

Summer Institute of Linguistics

Vi|n Chuyen-Khao Ngii-HQC

Huntington Beach, California

1979