Loven (Jruq) consolidated lexicon

Introduction

Loven ( Jruq) is a West Bahnaric language spoken by plantation farmers on the
Boloven Plateau in the south of the Lao PDR. There were 40,519^ Loven in
1995 {Lao Census) making them one of the larger ethnic groups of the region.

Bahnaric languages constitute a branch of Austroasiatic, a major Southeast
Asian language family which includes Cambodian* Vietnamese and many lesser
known languages. There are approximately 700,000 Bahnaric speakers
distributed over a region roughly centred on the area where the borders of
Vietnam, Cambodia and the Lao FDR meet. Bahnaric is commonly recognised
as having three main branches: North Bahnaric, South Bahnaric and West
Bahnaric. Thomas & Srichampa offered the following tentative classification
of the West Bahnaric family based upon "A comparison of the distinctive
vocabulary or distinctive forms of words" (1995:306) (note: spellings
according to original)

West Bahnaric

Northwestern

Nyaheun (Yaheun, Nhahon)

Loven (Boriwen, Boloven)
West Central

Sork (Sawk)

Sapuan

*Ta-oy"

Su' (?)
Southern

Laveh (Rawe)

Brao Krung

Palau

Su' (?)
Central

Cheng (Jeng)

Oi
Northeastern (North Bahnaric?)

Kraseng

Trieng

^Interestingly, Parkin (1991) states the Loven numbered about 10,000 in the 1930's and
according to Kunstadter, in the 1960*s they increased in number to about 18.000. Therefore
the current figure indicates the population has more than doubled in the last thirty years.

ii LovEN (JRUQ) Consolidated Lexicon

However, the above groupings could be attributed to undetected lexical
borrovv^ings, hence the classification may be simply geographical rather than
genetic, so we decided to investigate the problem ourselves. Unfortunately the
historical phonology is not very helpful for determining the classification,
except that Laveh and Brao appear to be close phonologically. This being the
case, we decided to use lexicostatistics. The results of our investigation are
presented below in the lexicostatistical matrix. This is based on the Swadesh
100 list for all WB languages for which we have sufficient data, plus other
Bahnaric languages which have been linked to WB at various times. Special
attention was given to identifying and removing loans, and only cognates
which could be justified by historical phonology were counted (see Jacq &
Sidwell forthcoming).

The matrix reveals some interesting results. The most important is that a clear
sub-grouping is established of WB languages sharing between 68% and 78% of
basic lexicon. The languages are Brao, Loveh, Cheng, Oi, Loven, Nhaheun and
Sapuan— these can be considered West- Bahnaric Proper (WBP). It is also
possible to relate Trieng to WBP, as it shares at least 51% basic lexicon with
these languages. However, the Trieng data is problematic because we have only
one wordlist— it was collected by Miller (1988) from a refugee in a camp in
Thailand who came from the Saravane area. According to this list Trieng
shares rather high cognate percentages with Loven and Nhaheun, which may
best be explained as reflecting contact loans. However the possibility exists that
Trieng is not especially related to WBP, and the figures above reflect the
speech of one man which has been affected by special circumstances. The other
languages treated above (Kasseng, Talieng, Alak, Tampuon) show no more
affinity to WBP than they do to North Bahnaric or South Bahnaric.

The 76% figure for Loven and Nhaheun may be best explained as resulting
from the history of contact between those two languages on the Boloven
plateau. Our knowledge of Loven and Nhaheun oral history suggests that each
group settled separately on the plateau— the Nhaheun coming up the valley of
the Se Nam Noi on the eastern side, and the Loven coming around the north
and ascending in the area of Thateng (Saravane Province). Nhaheun has
subsequently innovated many sound changes which give it a distinctive
character from all other WB languages (see Ferlus 1971, 1998).

LOVEN (JRUQ) CONSOLIDATED LEXICON

111

Lexicostatistical matrix of West Bahnaric and some other languages:

Bra Lvh Che Q Lvn Nha Sap Tri Tal Kas Alak Tarn

Brao

75

74

70

71

70

71

56

49

51

48

48

Loveh

75

72

71

68

70

74

59

49

51

48

46

Cheng

74

72

74

68

73

73

51

47

49

48

41

a

70

71

74

71

72

69

51

43

45

43

42

Loven

71
70

68

70

68

73

71
72

76

76

72

66
61

53
52

57
52

51
51

48

Nhaheun

78

48

Sapuan

71

74

73

69

72

78

55

47
51

51
48

48

42
45

43

Trieng

56

59

51

51

66

61

55

37

Talieng

49

49

47

43

S3

52

47

51

76

39

Kasseng

51
48

51
48

49
48

45
43

57
51

52
51

51
48

48
42

76

43

40

Alak

45

43

52

Tampuon

48

46

41

42

48

48

43

37

39

40

52

The spread of percentages between West Bahnaric languages is rather close,
and we must assume that some undetected borrowings have also affected the
figures. Therefore it is difficult to determine any clear sub-groupings. We
tentatively suggest the following Stammbaum:

Brao

— ^ —

~i

WBP

1

Cheng

a

I i^VPtl

Nhaheun
Sapuan

Trieng

^" — ^

West Bahnaric

Kasseng
Talieng

Alak

non- West Bahnaric

_j

?

Tampuon

IV

LOVEN (JRUQ) CONSOLIDATED LEXICON

The Loven (Jruq)

The name of the *Boloven* plateau literally means 'place of the Loven*. The
word 'Loven* is a Lao designation— the Loven people refer to themselves as
'Jruq* in their own language. The locals have a legend that a Lao chief bought
the right of suzerainty from a Jruq chief with a ring. The Laotian later stole
back the ring, hence the Jruq ethnonym 'he who lost the ring* cf. Lao ascctnau
/la? veen/ 'abandon ring* (Lavall^e 1901: 291).

^>0 V t

w/

^'i

CHAMPASAK ,

%

^^^"%^J> ^^ ^^'

.9^

'AKSON^

^1

"L

'^^m^c,^'

c$c

f ^

^^^^

c.'fc

=,*

C/MA/Pi45i4A' PROVINCE

^ATTAPEU PROVINCE

Map of Boloven Plateau & Se Kong river valley.
Bahnaric languages are indicated.

LovEN (jR LJQ) Consolidated Lexicon

The Boloven plateau is a fel§tively GOQl place to live and it offers farmers
excellent volcanic soil. It is about 80 kms across, with a highest peak of 1716
meters (in the far north eastern side). Much of it lies between 900 and 1300
meters above sea level. Most of the western side is crop and grazing land while
the eastern side is now locked up as the Se Ran Conservation Area.

In the past ten years the Lao Government has prohibited the traditional
practices of slash and bum cultivation, and restricted hunting, aiming to
eradicate traditional economy by the year 2000. The plateau nowadays is
largely cleared of forest (regrowth remains in more inaccessible regions) and
tea, pine, cardamon and coffee plantations spread for miles along the roads.

Paksong is the main market centre and district capital. It sits at 1320 metres
elevation, along the road which cuts the plateau in half, beginning from the far
west (Pakse city— Champasak province) lying on the Mekong River, and
ending at Attapeu provincial capital ( 'Meuang Mai') in the southeastern corner
of the country. The other main towns on the Boloven Plateau are Houei Kong
which lies 45 kms east of Paksong (and since 1998 includes the forced
relocation settlement of the Nhaheun people), and Thateng on the northern
approach. Presently the main roads are being upgraded and electric power is
being made available.

The Loven are relatively well-off, having cash income from coffee and
foreign receipts from relatives living abroad, some of whom worked for the
Americans or the Royal Lao Regime during the 1960s and 1970s. They are
rapidly assimilating to Lao society, and fewer children are learning to speak
their parents language each year. Dr. Harmand, a French medical doctor cum
botanist who explored the Boloven region in 1877, reveals that Lao influence
on the Loven culture and language was strong more than a century ago:

These Boloven are not real Kha. They have partly adopted Laotian dress
and almost all of the men have adopted the hairdos of their neighbors
(1997: 91)

30 March - ...I passed the night in a village surrounded by swamps and
jungle... It is inhabited by Kha Boloven who only speak Lao and who are
indignant for being taken as tribesmen. (1997:106)

Vi LOVEN (JRUQ) CONSOLIDATED LEXICON

There was considerable research interest into Bahnaric languages in the 1960s
and early 1970s, particularly by SIL linguists in Vietnam. However, the West
Bahnaric languages have received less attention, and much material remains
impublished or has appeared only in fragments. Recently there has been an
increase in interest in Bahnaric, reflected in part in the work of the present
compilers, Jacq and SidwelL In 1997 Jacq began collecting materials for a
Masters dissertation on Loven, and made contact with Sidwell, who had been
working on Bahnaric languages since 1992. They decided to collaborate in
their research, focusing on the languages in the southern provinces of the Lao
PDR, with one of their major aims being to collect and publish as much lexical
material as possible. The collaboration immediately set to work translating,
editing and annotating Michel Ferlus' Nhaheun fieldnotes, which were
published that year by LINCOM as the Nhaheun— French— English Lexicon,

Loven Sources

In addition to our own Loven fieldnotes, the present Loven lexicon is
consolidated from various sowces of other scholars. These sources are marked
with the following abbreviations throughout the lexicon:

(J&S) Pascale Jacq and Paul Sidwell (1997-8 ms.)

(H) Franklin E. Huffman (1971 ms.)

(F) Michel Ferlus (1969-70 ms.)

(T&A) Dorothy Thomas and David Andrianoff (1978)

(B) Bondet de la Bemadie (1949)

(P) Phraya Prachakij-karacak (1919, translated by David Thomas and

Sophana Srichampa 1995)

(C) Andi^ Uvall6e (1901 ms, in Cabaton 1905)

The sources range from the period between 1901 to 1998, and also from a
variety of locations on the Boloven Plateau.

Our own notes were taken during two field trips to the Boloven area in
December 1997 to February 1998 (Jacq) and between October to December
1998 (Sidwell and Jacq). They include over 1000 Loven vocabulary items and
some hundreds of sentences. The data was collected from more than 10

LovEN (JRUQ) Consolidated Lexicon vii

informants with varying competency in the language and from several
different villages within a 15 kilometer radius of Paksong. We used a broad
(almost phonemic) transcription based on standard IPA symbols. We often
provide mxiltiple forms for entries as this is an artifact of having several
informants from various places, ages and linguistic competence. Glosses and
translations are in English, although most elicitation was in Lao or Loven.

Huffman's (1971) manuscript includes around 900 vocabulary items for Loven
(actually covering around 1000 vocabulary items for a total of 30 Mon-Khmer
languages). This data is broadly transcribed in standard IPA symbols. Glosses
are given in English and some loan words are identified by Huffman. A
photocopy of Huffman's original manuscript is in Bangkok SIL library and
was partially copied manually by Paul Sidwell in 1995. There is actually no
date on the original manuscript, however Huffman refers to these notes as
'Huffman (1971)' in his (1986) Bibliography.

Michel Ferlus was kind enough to offer us his 1969-70 "Laven" ms. for
inclusion in this lexicon. These notes include over 1000 entries glossed in
French/Lao including * some comparisons to Nhaheun and a detailed
presentation of the phonemic sounds and his transcription methods (based on
IPA notations). The principal informant was a student in Attapeu College,
originating from a village near Houei Kong. This data was then verified with
another Loven speaker west of Paksong. We have found this soxu"ce most
valuable due to Ferlus' identification of a two levels of diphthongs, which
other sources have not so reliably distinguished.

Dorothy Thomas and David Andrianoffs (1978) list of "Lawen" basic
vocabulary is in very close IPA transcription. The 281 word standard SIL list
(an extension of the Swadesh list) is in manuscript form, copied from the SIL
Bangkok library. The informant originated from a village in Houei Kong
district. At first glance at this list, it seemed it might not be Loven as there
were some imusual sound changes. In some cases Thomas and Andrianoff
record initial b for words beginning with kl in the other sources
(corresponding entries from the present lexicon are in brackets):

bia 'tiger' (kli/d) ^bak 'abdomen' {klak)

bB'm 'liver' (kldm) bom 'blow' (klom)

vlii LovEN (JRUQ) Consolidated Lexicon

biayh Tair (klieh) bo 'husband' (klo)

In many words initial b has lenited to v or w eg.

vruk *dust' (bruk) vri Torest' (brey)

viyh 'snake* (bih) win Tuir (bin)

Bondet de la Bemadie's (1949) description of the "Boloven" grammar,
includes large lists of vocabulary and many sentences. This data is written in a
script derived from the Vietnamese quoc-ng^ orthography, with most non-
Vietnamese sounds described in the introduction. The incredibly large number
of diphthongs and accented vowels is suspicious, and we think that this is
partially a result of poor identification of final consonants. Glosses and
translations are given in French. In the initial footnote, it explains that A.
Fraisse finished de la Bemadie's manuscript for this publication as the latter
was assassinated by the Japanese in March 1945 when he was co-administrator
of Thakhek (Lao province north of Saravane)

Phraya Prachakij-karacak's (1919) original publication in Thai of lexicon and
sentences in Bahnaric languages includes a "Boloven" list of about 350
vocabulary items (some of which are repeated under different glosses) and 14
sentences. Thomas and Srichampa in 1995 republished the Author's original
notes with English translations and comments concerning loanwords, suspected
errors in transcription, and remarks concerning their interpretation of
Phraya's text. The Editors retranscribed the Boloven lexicon into standard IPA
based on their interpretation of Phraya's original Thai-based system. Also
included are translations of Phraya's discussion of each language including
sociolinguistic information. A tentative 'Proto-West Bahnaric' lexicon is added
by the Editors based on their analysis of Phraya's data.

Andre Lavall6e explored southern Laos at the turn of this century— collecting
ethnographic information and linguistic data on the ethnic groups encountered
on his travels. His 1901 manuscript apparently entails his linguistic data,
however this source could not be found. Instead, we use the Loven data
included in Cabaton (1905) which is sourced from Lavall6e's 1901 manuscript.
Whether these have been modified by Cabaton is not known at this stage.

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme

Jacq, Pascale:

Loven (Jruq) consolidated lexicon / Pascale Jacq and Paul SidwelL -
Munchen ; Newcastle : LINCOM Europa, 1999

(Languages of the world : Dictionaries ; 23)

ISBN 3-89586-623-7
Published by LINCOM EUROPA 1999.