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55-593: The Khmu can also be found in southwest China (in Xishuangbanna in Yunnan province), and in recent centuries have migrated to areas of Burma , Thailand and Vietnam (where they are an officially recognized ethnic group). In the People's Republic of China , however, they are not given official recognition as a separate "national" group, but are rather classified as a subgroup of Bulang . The endonym "Khmu"

110-561: A lexicostatistical comparison of 36 languages which are well known enough to exclude loanwords, finds little evidence for internal branching, though he did find an area of increased contact between the Bahnaric and Katuic languages, such that languages of all branches apart from the geographically distant Munda and Nicobarese show greater similarity to Bahnaric and Katuic the closer they are to those branches, without any noticeable innovations common to Bahnaric and Katuic. He therefore takes

165-536: A lingua franca by both groups. The Khmu of Thailand are more assimilated, often living in villages among the Thai and preferring to speak Kham Meuang even at home in households with two Khmu parents. Khmuic peoples refers to a group of ethnicities of mainland Southeast Asia that speak closely related languages and follow similar customs and traditions. It is believed, based on linguistic, cultural and historical evidence, that these now-disparate groups are descended from

220-444: A door in the east and another one facing to the north or south. This depends on the situation of the area where the house was built and never build a door in the west side of the house. A house with straight leans must have a large outside balcony (attached with a 5 or 7 step stair) connected from the east door and a lean room with east or north door (attached with a 5 or 7 step stair). A house with bent leans (half moon shape) must have

275-588: A few specialized exceptions in other Austroasiatic branches. The Austroasiatic languages are further characterized as having unusually large vowel inventories and employing some sort of register contrast, either between modal (normal) voice and breathy (lax) voice or between modal voice and creaky voice . Languages in the Pearic branch and some in the Vietic branch can have a three- or even four-way voicing contrast. However, some Austroasiatic languages have lost

330-495: A homogeneous ethnicity that may have been among the first populations to settle northern Indochina . This historical Khmuic people inhabited areas far larger than at present, including northern lowland areas of at least present day Thailand and Laos, until absorbed or pushed into mountainous refuges by successive Mon and Khmer empires and the later arrival of various Tai peoples . The Khmu are an agricultural society, although gathering, hunting, trapping and fishing are parts of

385-535: A large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia , South Asia and East Asia . These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia , and by minority populations scattered throughout parts of Thailand , Laos , India , Myanmar , Malaysia , Bangladesh , Nepal , and southern China . Approximately 117 million people speak an Austroasiatic language, of which more than two-thirds are Vietnamese speakers. Of

440-399: A large outside balcony (attached with a large 5 or 7 step stair) connected from a small and short lean room connected from the north or south site of the house, and an inside balcony (attached with a 5- or 7-step stair) connected from the east door. Ancient Khmuic people believed and worshiped the sun spirit for safety and health. In the early morning whichever day the sky is clear, when the sun

495-558: A little while. This is why in the 'Moun Greh ceremony, Khmuic people hit the yan (bronze drum) to thank the sun for shining well during the rice harvesting; and that is why Khmuic people also call bronze drum as “heurbang greh” (harvest gong); in the present day this kind of practice is rare. Khmu cemeteries are traditionally divided into four sections; one for natural deaths, one for accidental deaths, one for children, and one for those who died away from home. The Khmu do not generally believe in rebirth. Traditional Khmu animism puts emphasis on

550-440: A reorientation to the southwest as its lagging development became increasingly seen as an impediment to growth. China's southwest development initiatives reflect an awareness that economic engagement is the most cost-effective way to decrease political unrest and remedy underdevelopment along this frontier. The diverse areas of Southwestern China carry strong regional identities and have been historically considered more rural than

605-479: A stressed, full syllable. This reduction of presyllables has led to a variety of phonological shapes of the same original Proto-Austroasiatic prefixes, such as the causative prefix, ranging from CVC syllables to consonant clusters to single consonants among the modern languages. As for word formation, most Austroasiatic languages have a variety of derivational prefixes, many have infixes , but suffixes are almost completely non-existent in most branches except Munda, and

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660-769: A taxon altogether, making it synonymous with the larger family. Scholars generally date the ancestral language to c.  3000 BCE  – c.  2000 BCE with a homeland in southern China or the Mekong River valley. Sidwell (2022) proposes that the locus of Proto-Austroasiatic was in the Red River Delta area around c.  2500 BCE  – c.  2000 BCE . Genetic and linguistic research in 2015 about ancient people in East Asia suggest an origin and homeland of Austroasiatic in today southern China or even further north. The name Austroasiatic

715-605: Is a region in the People's Republic of China . It consists of five provincial administrative regions, namely Chongqing , Sichuan , Guizhou , Yunnan , and Xizang . Southwestern China is a rugged and mountainous region, transitioning between the Tibetan Plateau to the west and the Chinese coastal hills (东南丘陵) and plains to the east. Key geographic features in the region include the Hengduan Mountains in

770-530: Is also used by more assimilated Khmu as an appellation for "backwood" Khmu regardless of their tmowy . The Khmu language belongs to the Austro-Asiatic language family, in which several closely related languages including Puoc , O’du and Kniang , among others, are grouped together forming the Khmuic branch. The many dialects of Khmu differ primarily in consonant inventory, existence of register , and

825-641: Is better preserved in the Katuic languages , which Sidwell has specialized in. Linguists traditionally recognize two primary divisions of Austroasiatic: the Mon–Khmer languages of Southeast Asia , Northeast India and the Nicobar Islands , and the Munda languages of East and Central India and parts of Bangladesh and Nepal . However, no evidence for this classification has ever been published. Each of

880-466: Is currently fairly vigorous, most, if not all, Khmu are also fluent in the language of the culturally dominant group of the area and many regularly use three or even four different languages. The Khmu of Laos, for example, speak Lao when dealing with government officials, engaging in commerce with the lowland Lao, or if attending school. Trade with other highland groups may necessitate knowledge of additional languages, such as Hmong , unless Lao can be used

935-477: Is evident as the register contrast has developed into a system of two phonemic tones with six phonetic realizations. Eastern Khmu dialects show the opposite tendency. Completely lacking either register or tone distinction, these dialects utilize a three-way distinction of stops (voiced, voiceless and aspirated voiceless) and nasals (voiced, voiceless, and pre-glottalized) in the syllable-initial position for phonemic contrast. Although Khmu language use among peers

990-464: Is starting to rise, Khmuic people opened the east doors of their houses to let the sun shine into their houses. There are three explanations for this directionality of house construction: 1. to expel devils, ghosts and bad spirits out of the houses (ancient Khmuic people believed that devils, ghosts or bad spirits fear sunlight); 2. to expel and wash out bacteria and any kinds of small insects dangerous to body and health; 3. Khmuic people also believe that

1045-423: Is stored outside the village to protect from fire, and in elevated structures to protect from mice and rats. Khmu elders are traditionally the most important people of the village, and are responsible for resolving all village disputes. Village leaders included the shaman (knowledgeable in spiritual medicine), the medicine man (knowledgeable in herbal medicine), the priest (based on family lineage of priesthood), and

1100-470: Is suspected to stem from their word kymhmuʔ meaning "people". Khmu also often refer to their ethnicity as pruʔ . The Khmu were the indigenous inhabitants of northern Laos. It is generally believed the Khmu once inhabited a much larger area. After the influx of Thai/Lao peoples into the lowlands of Southeast Asia, the Khmu were forced to higher ground ( Lao Theung ), above the rice-growing lowland Lao and below

1155-859: The Chamic languages of Vietnam, and the Land Dayak languages of Borneo (Adelaar 1995). Diffloth 's widely cited original classification, now abandoned by Diffloth himself, is used in Encyclopædia Britannica and—except for the breakup of Southern Mon–Khmer—in Ethnologue . Peiros is a lexicostatistic classification, based on percentages of shared vocabulary. This means that languages can appear to be more distantly related than they actually are due to language contact . Indeed, when Sidwell (2009) replicated Peiros's study with languages known well enough to account for loans, he did not find

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1210-798: The Chinese Civil War , parts of the Nationalist army retreated south and crossed the border into Burma as the People's Liberation Army entered Yunnan. The United States supported these Nationalist forces because the United States hoped they would harass the People's Republic of China from the southwest, thereby diverting Chinese resources from the Korean War . The Burmese government protested and international pressure increased. Beginning in 1953, several rounds of withdrawals of

1265-548: The Sino-Soviet split when Soviet soldiers on the border of Mongolia and China threatened to close the Gansu corridor , which would have left Tibet as the only reliable Chinese route to Xinjiang . During the reform and opening up era, China began to look more seriously towards integrating its southwest regions. China's increased focus on trade-led development and its transition to a socialist market economy helped trigger

1320-577: The Tmowy Mea [tmɔi mɛ], Tmowy Ksak [tmɔi ksăk], Tmowy Rok [tmɔi rɔk] (Lao: kha hok ). The Khmu north of the Tha River ( nam tha ), who often live in close contact with the lowland Tai Lü and Thai Yuan peoples, distinguish groups including the Tmowy Lü [tmɔi lɯʔ], Tmowy Yuan and Tmowy Khuen ( Khuen is often a synonym for "Khmu" in general). Aside from their geographical separation,

1375-411: The teak industry began as much as 200 years ago. In their mountain refuges, the various Khmu settlements became isolated, surrounded and partially influenced by the dominant groups of their respective areas. Accordingly, the Khmu now recognize subdivisions among themselves which are differentiated primarily by dialect. These subgroups are called tmowy ( [tmɔi] ) in Khmu. Some of the larger tmowy are

1430-758: The 8th and 9th centuries CE and the Dali Kingdom in 10th and 11th centuries CE. The region was largely pacified and incorporated into the Ming domain. In the 13th century CE, the Yuan dynasty expanded its frontiers to include the Tibet plateau , which now defines China's current southwest frontier. In the 18th century CE, control of the Tibet Plateau area was important in the Great Game confrontations between

1485-679: The Austroasiatic languages, only Vietnamese , Khmer , and Mon have lengthy, established presences in the historical record. Only two are presently considered to be the national languages of sovereign states: Vietnamese in Vietnam, and Khmer in Cambodia. The Mon language is a recognized indigenous language in Myanmar and Thailand, while the Wa language is a "recognized national language" in

1540-765: The Hmong/Mien groups ( Lao Sung ) that inhabit the highest regions, where they practiced swidden agriculture. There are more than 568,000 Khmu around the world, with populations of 500,000 in Laos, 73,000 in Central Highlands of Vietnam, 10,000 in Thailand, 10,000 in China, and an estimated 8,000-10,000 in the United States. The Khmu (Kobru) of Laos reside mainly in the North, ranging across 10 provinces. The Khmu form

1595-499: The Khmu from their granaries and barns. Altars are placed outside the perimeter to ward off fires and storms. In the past, each Khmu family was believed to be under the protection of a totem such as a boar or an eagle who had originally helped an ancestor and would continue to protect the family. In the past Khmuic people celebrated 4 festivals namely: rice planting, rice harvesting, new year, and wash or get rid of sin festivals. In ancient time Khmuic people celebrated new year festival on

1650-400: The Khmu lifestyle. Khmu crops include rice (especially white and black sticky rice), corn , bananas , sugar cane , cucumbers , beans , sesame and a variety of vegetables. Most of the agricultural work in Khmu villages is done communally, so as to combine the strength and finish the work quickly. Harvesting of rice from the swidden field is generally performed by the village women. Rice

1705-617: The Nationalist forces and their families were carried out. In 1960, joint military action by China and Burma expelled the remaining Nationalist forces from Burma, although some went on to settle in the Burma-Thailand borderlands . Western strategies to contain China in the 20th century CE included intervention in the Tibet plateau until almost the mid-1970s. Tibet became an increased area of concern in China's southwest after

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1760-594: The Tha River in particular, whose names reflect their partial identification with the Buddhist Tai cultures, have acculturated to the dominant ethnic groups of the region. They are often contrasted with the Khmu Roek who live higher up in the hills and retain some older customs that other groups have abandoned. While the Khmu Roek are often respected as the center of the Khmu "socio-economic ritual complex", "Roek"

1815-819: The United States originated as refugees from the Vietnam War . Most of these refugees settled in California , which is home to both the Khmu National Federation, Inc., and the Khmu Catholic National Center. Many of the Khmu in Thailand have arrived recently from Laos and Vietnam, also as refugees from the Vietnam War and subsequent communist governments, although cross-border migrations into Thailand's Nan, Phayao and Chiang Rai provinces for new farm land and work in

1870-431: The casting of spells and telling of fortunes. According to the animistic practices of the Khmu, reverence is offered to the house spirit Hroi gang . Villagers believe that a Khmu house, village, and its surroundings are integrated with the spirits of the land, and so houses and villages are considered holy or ritualized spaces. Typically, entire Khmu villages are enclosed in fences with three or four gates which separate

1925-513: The concept of taboo, as villagers believe that violations of taboo result in vengeance of spirits. Forbidden activities include touching the altars or the amulets representing the house's spirit, birth ceremonies for children born feet-first, and entering a house without permission. Dances to propitiate the rice goddess are common among the Khmu people; they are performed in order to ensure a good harvest. Southwest China Southwestern China ( Chinese : 西南 ; pinyin : Xīnán )

1980-535: The conservative view that the thirteen branches of Austroasiatic should be treated as equidistant on current evidence. Sidwell & Blench (2011) discuss this proposal in more detail, and note that there is good evidence for a Khasi–Palaungic node, which could also possibly be closely related to Khmuic. If this would the case, Sidwell & Blench suggest that Khasic may have been an early offshoot of Palaungic that had spread westward. Sidwell & Blench (2011) suggest Shompen as an additional branch, and believe that

2035-557: The core provinces of Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, and Guizhou, in addition to the Tibet Autonomous Region . Portions of Southwestern China, including the land that is modern day Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, were incorporated into China in 230 BCE by Qin dynasty emperor Shi Huangdi . Independent states would continue to exert influence within the region, with notable examples being the Nanzhao Kingdom in

2090-590: The de facto autonomous Wa State within Myanmar. Santali is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India . The remainder of the family's languages are spoken by minority groups and have no official status. Ethnologue identifies 168 Austroasiatic languages. These form thirteen established families (plus perhaps Shompen , which is poorly attested, as a fourteenth), which have traditionally been grouped into two, as Mon–Khmer, and Munda . However, one recent classification posits three groups (Munda, Mon-Khmer, and Khasi–Khmuic ), while another has abandoned Mon–Khmer as

2145-563: The degree to which the language has been influenced by the surrounding national language (s). Dialects are, for the most part, mutually intelligible; however communication can be difficult between speakers of geographically distant dialects. The dialects of Khmu can be broadly categorized into two groups, Western Khmu and Eastern Khmu. Western Khmu dialects have fewer consonant phonemes and instead use phonemic register contrast of "lax" breathy register and "tense" modal register. In at least one dialect of Western Khmu, Khmu Roek , tonogenesis

2200-417: The early morning sunlight is pure and fresh, so exposing one's own body to the early morning sunlight makes one's own mind fresh, good tempered, healthy and active at work. Nowadays, most Khmuic people ignore the beliefs and rules, and don't practice this way of building their houses. Roofs of houses are covered with wooden tiles or thatch. In cases relating to the harvesting season, Khmuic people also respect

2255-658: The families that is written in boldface type below is accepted as a valid clade. By contrast, the relationships between these families within Austroasiatic are debated. In addition to the traditional classification, two recent proposals are given, neither of which accepts traditional "Mon–Khmer" as a valid unit. However, little of the data used for competing classifications has ever been published, and therefore cannot be evaluated by peer review. In addition, there are suggestions that additional branches of Austroasiatic might be preserved in substrata of Acehnese in Sumatra (Diffloth),

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2310-411: The first waxing moon day of the first lunar month. At present day the new year festival is mostly not practiced or if it is, it is integrated with the harvesting festival. An ancient Khmuic house must be laid long along the direction from east to west and never intersected the direction of the sun. However, there are Khmuic who people built their houses intersecting the sun direction. Each house must have

2365-519: The imperial powers of Russia, Britain, and China. After the warlord governments of China's Republican era replaced the Qing dynasty , government policy towards the southwest largely became one of inaction. The Second Sino-Japanese War prompted the Nationalist government to focus increasingly on state-building tasks in the southwest. The city of Chongqing served as the capital of Chinese resistance to imperial Japanese expansion. After their defeat in

2420-505: The internal (branching) structure below. Diffloth compares reconstructions of various clades, and attempts to classify them based on shared innovations, though like other classifications the evidence has not been published. As a schematic, we have: Remo Savara Kharia – Juang Korku Kherwarian Khmuic Pakanic Palaungic Khasian Vietic Katuic Bahnaric Khmer Pearic Nicobarese Aslian Monic Or in more detail, Paul Sidwell (2009), in

2475-647: The largest ethnic group, outnumbering even the Lao , in five Northern provinces ( Luang Prabang , Phongsaly , Oudomxay , Bokeo and Luangnamtha Provinces). The Khmu of Thailand are clustered in Nan Province near the Thailand-Laos border. Most Khmu villages are isolated, and only slowly receiving electricity. In many areas the Khmu live alongside the Hmong and other regional minority ethnic groups. The Khmu in

2530-403: The more developed eastern regions of China. Rapid development since the late 1970s has helped transform many parts of the region with modern advancements. In the early 21st century, Southwestern China contained 50% of the country's ethnic minority population which, in turn, formed 37% of the region's population. Han Chinese migration has been largely concentrated in the urban centres, while

2585-494: The reconstruction of Proto-Mon–Khmer in Harry L. Shorto 's Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary . Little work has been done on the Munda languages , which are not well documented. With their demotion from a primary branch, Proto-Mon–Khmer becomes synonymous with Proto-Austroasiatic. Paul Sidwell (2005) reconstructs the consonant inventory of Proto-Mon–Khmer as follows: This is identical to earlier reconstructions except for *ʄ . *ʄ

2640-411: The register contrast by evolving more diphthongs or in a few cases, such as Vietnamese, tonogenesis . Vietnamese has been so heavily influenced by Chinese that its original Austroasiatic phonological quality is obscured and now resembles that of South Chinese languages, whereas Khmer, which had more influence from Sanskrit, has retained a more typically Austroasiatic structure. Much work has been done on

2695-428: The rituals of rice soul sacrifices they hit bronze drum, which Khmuic people call "yan" ( bronze drum ) or "heurbang greh" (harvest gong ) to beg the sun to shine well and prevent rain from falling down. In case it rains, they also hit yan and say some sayings to beg for the rain to stop. During the rainy season if it rains more than usual, Khmuic people also hit yan, and recite sayings to beg for rain to ease or stop for

2750-695: The rural areas are still predominantly made up of minority populations, including the Zhuang , Miao , Yi , and others. Inhabitants of Southwestern China primarily speak a dialect of Mandarin Chinese known as Southwestern Mandarin . This variant uses the same written language as Mandarin but is only approximately 50% mutually intelligible with Standard Chinese . As of 2012, there were approximately 260 million speakers of Southwestern Mandarin. Austro-Asiatic languages The Austroasiatic languages ( / ˌ ɒ s t r oʊ . eɪ ʒ i ˈ æ t ɪ k , ˌ ɔː -/ OSS -troh-ay-zhee- AT -ik, AWSS- ) are

2805-411: The subgroups' primary differences are in dialect. However, there are slight variations in customs and cultural practices among the various tmowy . The Khmu refer to others within their own tmowy as tay-haem ("older siblings-younger siblings"), expressing solidarity and shared ritual/common ancestral worship while referring to other Khmu by the name of their respective groups. The Khmu groups north of

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2860-493: The sun as a symbol of clear sky or rain-less weather. During the harvesting season, sometimes the weather was abnormal and it rained, which caused a lot of damage to rice. So, when the rice ripens and its color becomes yellow or orange, and about the time of harvesting, Khmuic people held small rituals to sacrifice rice souls or spirits on the rice fields, mostly are up land rice fields or swidden fields ( slash and burn technique which Khmuic people call “hre hngo” [hre̞ʔ hŋɒ̞ʔ]). In

2915-592: The village headman (in modern times chosen by the Laotian government). Laotian Khmu communities generally have localized justice systems administered by the village elders. Khmu culture is traditionally passed down by the recital of stories around evening fires. The story-telling sessions involve the sharing of silver pipes (originally opium, but now predominantly tobacco). Some Khmu are heavily tattooed for both decorative and religious reasons. In Laos, Khmu are reputed for practicing magic, and some families still engage in

2970-664: The west, the Sichuan Basin in the northeast, and the karstic Yungui Plateau in the east. The majority of the region is drained by the Yangtze River , which forms the Three Gorges in the northeast of the region. The narrowest concept of Southwestern China consists of Sichuan , Chongqing , Yunnan , and Guizhou , while wider definitions often include Guangxi and western portions of Hunan . The official government definition of Southwestern China includes

3025-679: Was coined by Wilhelm Schmidt ( German : austroasiatisch ) based on auster , the Latin word for "South" (but idiosyncratically used by Schmidt to refer to the southeast), and "Asia". Despite the literal meaning of its name, only three Austroasiatic branches are actually spoken in South Asia: Khasic , Munda , and Nicobarese . Regarding word structure, Austroasiatic languages are well known for having an iambic "sesquisyllabic" pattern, with basic nouns and verbs consisting of an initial, unstressed, reduced minor syllable followed by

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