Significant groups:
122-415: Ratanakiri ( Khmer : រតនគិរី , UNGEGN : Rôtânôkĭri , ALA-LC : Ratanagirī [rɔətanakiriː] ; lit. ' Gem Mountains ' ) is a province of northeast Cambodia . It borders the provinces of Mondulkiri to the south and Stung Treng to the west and the countries of Laos ( Attapeu ) and Vietnam ( Gia Lai and Kon Tum ) to the north and east, respectively. The province extends from
244-646: A minor (fully unstressed) syllable. Such words have been described as sesquisyllabic (i.e. as having one-and-a-half syllables). There are also some disyllabic words in which the first syllable does not behave as a minor syllable, but takes secondary stress . Most such words are compounds , but some are single morphemes (generally loanwords). An example is ភាសា ('language'), pronounced [ˌpʰiəˈsaː] . Words with three or more syllables, if they are not compounds, are mostly loanwords, usually derived from Pali, Sanskrit, or more recently, French. They are nonetheless adapted to Khmer stress patterns. Primary stress falls on
366-530: A minor syllable . The language has been written in the Khmer script , an abugida descended from the Brahmi script via the southern Indian Pallava script , since at least the 7th century. The script's form and use has evolved over the centuries; its modern features include subscripted versions of consonants used to write clusters and a division of consonants into two series with different inherent vowels . Khmer
488-760: A 1984 resolution of the PRK National Cadres Conference entitled "Policy Toward Ethnic Minorities," the minorities were considered an integral part of the Cambodian nation, and they were to be encouraged to participate in collectivization. Government policy aimed to transform minority groups into modern Cambodians. The same resolution called for the elimination of illiteracy, with the stipulations that minority languages be respected and that each tribe be allowed to write, speak, and teach in its own language. The major Khmer Loeu groups in Cambodia are
610-528: A 1998 census. They have a Mon–Khmer language, and practice a form of animism . They have matrilineal descent. The Tampuan live in the northeastern province of Cambodia, Ratanakiri . Many Tampuan live in villages close to Ratanakiri's provincial capital, Ban Lung , around a volcanic crater lake, Yeak Laom. Some live in scattered communities around the small town of Voeun Sai. A total of 23,000 Bunong were thought to be living in Cambodia and in Vietnam in
732-670: A broad civic action program—for which the army had responsibility—among the Khmer Loeu in Mondulkiri , Ratanakiri , Stung Treng , and Koh Kong provinces. The goals of this program were to educate the Khmer Loeu, to teach them Khmer , and eventually to assimilate them into the mainstream of Cambodian society. There was some effort at resettlement; in other cases, civil servants went out to live with individual Khmer Loeu groups to teach their members Khmer ways. Schools were provided for some Khmer Loeu communities, and in each large village
854-755: A circular manner, with houses facing inwards toward a central meeting house. In Jarai villages, vast longhouses are inhabited by all extended families, with the inner house divided into smaller compartments. Tampuan villages may follow either pattern. Nearly all Khmer Loeu are animist , and their cosmologies are intertwined with the natural world. Some forests are believed to be inhabited by local spirits, and local taboos forbid cutting in those areas. Within spirit forests, certain natural features such as rock formations, waterfalls, pools, and vegetation are sacred. Major sacrificial festivals in Ratanakiri occur during March and April, when fields are selected and prepared for
976-635: A council of elders who judge infractions of traditional law. Two chief sorcerers, whose main function is to control the weather, play a major role in Pearic religion . Among the Saoch , a corpse is buried instead of being burned as among the Khmer . The Austronesian groups of Jarai and E De (also known as Rhade, or Rade) form two of the largest ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Both groups spill over into northeastern Cambodia, and they share many cultural similarities. The total Jarai population stands at about 200,000;
1098-421: A council of local elders or by a village headman. The Khmer Loeu cultivate a wide variety of plants, but the main crop is dry or upland rice grown by the slash-and-burn method . Hunting, fishing, and gathering supplement the cultivated vegetable foods in the Khmer Loeu diet. Houses vary from huge multifamily longhouses to small single-family structures. They may be built close to the ground or on stilts. During
1220-474: A dialect. Western Khmer , also called Cardamom Khmer or Chanthaburi Khmer, is spoken by a very small, isolated population in the Cardamom mountain range extending from western Cambodia into eastern Central Thailand . Although little studied, this variety is unique in that it maintains a definite system of vocal register that has all but disappeared in other dialects of modern Khmer. Phnom Penh Khmer
1342-661: A final consonant. All consonant sounds except /b/, /d/, /r/, /s/ and the aspirates can appear as the coda (although final /r/ is heard in some dialects, most notably in Northern Khmer ). A minor syllable (unstressed syllable preceding the main syllable of a word) has a structure of CV-, CrV-, CVN- or CrVN- (where C is a consonant, V a vowel, and N a nasal consonant). The vowels in such syllables are usually short; in conversation they may be reduced to [ə] , although in careful or formal speech, including on television and radio, they are clearly articulated. An example of such
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#17327729826101464-462: A forest territory whose boundaries are known though not marked. Within this land, each family is allocated, on average, 1–2 hectares (2.5–5 acres ) of actively cultivated land and 5–6 hectares (12.5–15 acres) of fallow land. The ecologically sustainable cultivation cycle practiced by the Khmer Loeu generally lasts 10 to 15 years. Villagers supplement their agricultural livelihood with low-intensity hunting, fishing, and gathering over
1586-541: A large area. Khmer Loeu diets in Ratanakiri are largely dictated by the food that is available for harvesting or gathering. Numerous food taboos also limit food choice, particularly among pregnant women, children, and the sick. The primary staple grain is rice , though most families experience rice shortages during the six months before harvest time. Some families have begun to plant maize to alleviate this problem; other sources of grain include potatoes , cassava , and taro . Most Khmer Loeu diets are low in protein , which
1708-403: A loss of respect for elders and a growing divide between the young and the old. Young people have begun to refuse to abide by traditional rules and have stopped believing in spirits. Khmer language Khmer ( / k ə ˈ m ɛər / kə- MAIR ; ខ្មែរ , UNGEGN : Khmêr [kʰmae] ) is an Austroasiatic language spoken natively by the Khmer people . This language
1830-533: A major problem. Despite a 2001 law allowing indigenous communities to obtain collective title to traditional lands, some villages have been left nearly landless. The national government has granted concessions over land traditionally possessed by Ratanakiri's indigenous peoples, and even land "sales" have often involved bribes to officials, coercion, threats, or misinformation. Following the involvement of several international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), land alienation had decreased in frequency as of 2006. In
1952-754: A member of the CPP, represents Ratanakiri in the National Assembly of Cambodia . Village government in Ratanakiri has both traditional and administrative components. Traditional forms of government, namely village elders and other indigenous institutions, are dominant. Members of each village designate one or more community elders to manage village affairs, mediate conflicts, and ensure that villagers follow customary laws, particularly about land and resource use. Elders do not play an autocratic role, and are instead primarily respected advisors and consensus builders. Village elders are generally male, but women also play
2074-451: A millennium, lowland peoples have migrated to the province in the last 200 years. As of 2013, various highland groups collectively called Khmer Loeu made up approximately half of Ratanakiri's population, ethnic Khmers made up 36%, and ethnic Lao made up 10%. Within the Khmer Loeu population, 35% were Tampuan as of 1996, 24% were Jarai , 23% were Kreung , 11% were Brou , 3% were Kachok , and 3% were Kavet , with other groups making up
2196-516: A population of approximately 25,000. Other significant towns include Veun Sai in the north and Lomphat in the south, with populations of 2,000 and 3,000 respectively. In 2013, 37% of Ratanakiri residents were under age 15, 52% were age 15 to 49, 7% were age 50 to 64, and 3% were aged 65 or older; 49.7% of residents were male, and 50.3% were female. Each household had an average of 4.9 members, and most households (85.6%) were headed by men. While highland peoples have inhabited Ratanakiri for well over
2318-505: A problem both for environmental reasons and because of land alienation. In 1997, an estimated 300,000 cubic meters of logs were exported illegally from Ratanakiri to Vietnam, compared to a legal limit of 36,000 cubic meters. John Dennis, a researcher for the Asian Development Bank, described the logging in Ratanakiri as a "human rights emergency". Ratanakiri's tourist industry has rapidly expanded in recent years: visits to
2440-404: A provincial tourism steering committee aims to ensure that tourism is non-destructive, and some programs provide English and tourism skills to indigenous people. Ox-cart and motorcycle are common means of transportation in Ratanakiri. The provincial road system is better than in some parts of the country, but remains in somewhat bad condition. National Road 78 between Banlung and the Vietnam border
2562-602: A researcher that they were "very unclear exactly what the work of the village chief entailed." The province is divided into eight districts and one municipality, further divided into 50 communes, as follows: The vast majority of workers in Ratanakiri are employed in agriculture. Most of the indigenous residents of Ratanakiri are subsistence farmers , practicing slash and burn shifting cultivation . (See Culture below for more information on traditional subsistence practices.) Many families are beginning to shift production to cash crops such as cashews , mangoes , and tobacco ,
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#17327729826102684-453: A resident government representative disseminated information and encouraged the Khmer Loeu to learn the lowland Khmer way of life. Civil servants sent to work among the Khmer Loeu often viewed the assignment as a kind of punishment. In the late 1960s, an estimated 5,000 Khmer Loeu in eastern Cambodia rose in rebellion against the government and demanded self-determination and independence. The government press reported that local leaders loyal to
2806-423: A role in the management of the community and its resources. A village may also have a village chief, i.e., a local government person who is appointed by a higher governmental official. The village chief serves as a liaison between the village and outside government officials, but lacks traditional authority. The role of the village chief in village governance may be poorly defined; in one Kreung village, residents told
2928-405: A traditional bond of common descent in the maternal line and within which they do not marry). Women initiate marriage negotiations and residence is matrilocal. Each village has its own political hierarchy and is governed by an oligarchy of the leading families. In the past, sorcerers known as the "kings of fire and water" exerted political power that extended beyond an individual village. The Rade and
3050-542: A trend that has accelerated in recent years. Ratanakiri villagers have traditionally had little contact with the cash economy. Barter exchange remains widespread, and Khmer Loeu villagers tended to visit markets only once per year until quite recently. As of 2005, monetary income in the province averaged US$ 5 per month per person; purchased possessions such as motorcycles, televisions, and karaoke sets have become extremely desirable. Larger-scale agriculture occurs on rubber and cashew plantations. Other economic activities in
3172-497: A typical Khmer declarative phrase is a steady rise throughout followed by an abrupt drop on the last syllable. Other intonation contours signify a different type of phrase such as the "full doubt" interrogative, similar to yes–no questions in English. Full doubt interrogatives remain fairly even in tone throughout, but rise sharply towards the end. Exclamatory phrases follow the typical steadily rising pattern, but rise sharply on
3294-452: A word is មនុស្ស mɔnuh, mɔnɨh, mĕəʾnuh ('person'), pronounced [mɔˈnuh] , or more casually [məˈnuh] . Stress in Khmer falls on the final syllable of a word. Because of this predictable pattern, stress is non- phonemic in Khmer (it does not distinguish different meanings). Most Khmer words consist of either one or two syllables. In most native disyllabic words, the first syllable is
3416-648: Is 39 years, and women's is 43 years. Education levels are also low, with just under half of the population illiterate. Ratanakiri has been occupied since at least the Stone or Bronze Age , and trade between the region's highlanders and towns along the Gulf of Thailand dates to at least the 4th century A.D. The region was invaded by Annamites , the Cham , the Khmer , and the Thai during its early history, but no empire ever brought
3538-429: Is a zero copula language, instead preferring predicative adjectives (and even predicative nouns) unless using a copula for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity in more complex sentences. Basic word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), although subjects are often dropped ; prepositions are used rather than postpositions. Topic-Comment constructions are common and the language is generally head-initial (modifiers follow
3660-591: Is a classification scheme showing the development of the modern Khmer dialects. Standard Khmer , or Central Khmer , the language as taught in Cambodian schools and used by the media, is based on the dialect spoken throughout the Central Plain , a region encompassed by the northwest and central provinces. Northern Khmer (called Khmer Surin in Khmer) refers to the dialects spoken by many in several border provinces of present-day northeast Thailand. After
3782-531: Is a member of the Austroasiatic language family, the autochthonous family in an area that stretches from the Malay Peninsula through Southeast Asia to East India. Austroasiatic, which also includes Mon , Vietnamese and Munda , has been studied since 1856 and was first proposed as a language family in 1907. Despite the amount of research, there is still doubt about the internal relationship of
Ratanakiri province - Misplaced Pages Continue
3904-529: Is an official language and national language of Cambodia . The language is also widely spoken by Khmer people in Eastern Thailand and Isan , Thailand , also in Southeast and Mekong Delta of Vietnam . Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pali especially in the royal and religious registers , through Hinduism and Buddhism , due to Old Khmer being the language of
4026-535: Is an important site for the conservation of endangered birds, including the giant ibis and the greater adjutant . The province's forests contain a wide variety of flora; one half-hectare forest inventory identified 189 species of trees and 320 species of ground flora and saplings. Nearly half of Ratanakiri has been set aside in protected areas, which include Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary and Virachey National Park. Even these protected areas, however, are subject to illegal logging , poaching, and mineral extraction. Though
4148-416: Is common, and the perceived social relation between participants determines which sets of vocabulary, such as pronouns and honorifics, are proper. Khmer differs from neighboring languages such as Burmese , Thai , Lao , and Vietnamese in that it is not a tonal language . Words are stressed on the final syllable, hence many words conform to the typical Mon–Khmer pattern of a stressed syllable preceded by
4270-423: Is contrastive before a vowel. However, the aspirated sounds in that position may be analyzed as sequences of two phonemes : /ph/, /th/, /ch/, /kh/ . This analysis is supported by the fact that infixes can be inserted between the stop and the aspiration; for example [tʰom] ('big') becomes [tumhum] ('size') with a nominalizing infix. When one of these plosives occurs initially before another consonant, aspiration
4392-484: Is increasing, and microclimates are being altered. Habitat loss and unsustainable hunting have contributed to the province's decreasing biodiversity. Government in Ratanakiri is weak, largely due to the province's remoteness, ethnic diversity, and recent history of Khmer Rouge dominance. The provincial legal framework is poor, and the rule of law is even weaker in Ratanakiri than elsewhere in Cambodia. Furthermore, government services are ineffective and insufficient to meet
4514-764: Is limited because of the expense of books, distance to schools, children's need to contribute to their families' livelihood, frequent absence of teachers, and instruction that is culturally inappropriate and in a language foreign to most students. Only 55% of Ratanakiri adults were literate as of 2013 (compared to 80% in Cambodia overall). Bilingual education initiatives, in which students begin instruction in native languages and gradually transition to instruction in Khmer, began in Ratanakiri in 2002 and appear to have been successful. The programs aim to make education more accessible to speakers of indigenous languages, as well as to give Khmer Loeu access to national political and economic affairs by providing Khmer language skills. Ratanakiri
4636-745: Is limited in availability. Wild game and fish are major protein sources, and smaller animals such as rats, wild chickens, and insects are also sometimes eaten. Domestic animals such as pigs, cows, and buffaloes are only eaten when sacrifices are made. In the rainy season, many varieties of vegetables and leaves are gathered from the forest. (Vegetables are generally not cultivated.) Commonly eaten fruits include bananas, jackfruit , papayas , and mangoes . Houses in rural Ratanakiri are made from bamboo , rattan , wood, saek , and kanma leaves, all of which are collected from nearby forests; they typically last for around three years. Village spatial organization varies by ethnic group. Kreung villages are constructed in
4758-586: Is no longer contrastive and can be regarded as mere phonetic detail: slight aspiration is expected when the following consonant is not one of /ʔ/, /b/, /d/, /r/, /s/, /h/ (or /ŋ/ if the initial plosive is /k/ ). The voiced plosives are pronounced as implosives [ɓ, ɗ] by most speakers, but this feature is weak in educated speech, where they become [b, d] . In syllable-final position, /h/ and /ʋ/ approach [ç] and [w] respectively. The stops /p/, /t/, /c/, /k/ are unaspirated and have no audible release when occurring as syllable finals. In addition,
4880-739: Is now coastal Vietnam ; they established the Champa kingdoms, and after their decline migrated west over the Annamite Range , dispersing between the Mon–Khmer groups. The disparate groups that make up the Khmer Loeu are estimated to comprise 17-21 different ethnic groups speaking at least 17 different languages. Unlike the Cham, Vietnamese and Chinese minorities of the lowlands, the Khmer Loeu groups haven't integrated into Khmer society or culture and remain politically unorganized and underrepresented in
5002-606: Is one of the least developed provinces in Cambodia. As of 2013, the average home had 1.9 rooms, and only 14.9% of buildings in the province had permanent roofs, walls, and flooring. Relatively few households (27.8%) had toilet facilities. The largest share of households (38.0%) obtained water from springs, streams, ponds, or rain; much of the remainder obtained water from protected (23.9%) or unprotected (15.1%) dug wells . Only 21.6% of Ratanakiri residents obtained water from sources that are considered safe (purchased water, piped water, or tube/piped wells). Household water sources were within
Ratanakiri province - Misplaced Pages Continue
5124-460: Is primarily an analytic , isolating language . There are no inflections , conjugations or case endings. Instead, particles and auxiliary words are used to indicate grammatical relationships. General word order is subject–verb–object , and modifiers follow the word they modify. Classifiers appear after numbers when used to count nouns, though not always so consistently as in languages like Chinese . In spoken Khmer, topic-comment structure
5246-582: Is spoken in the Se San , Srepok and Sekong river valleys of Sesan and Siem Pang districts in Stung Treng Province . Following the decline of Angkor, the Khmer abandoned their northern territories, which the Lao then settled. In the 17th century, Chey Chetha XI led a Khmer force into Stung Treng to retake the area. The Khmer Khe living in this area of Stung Treng in modern times are presumed to be
5368-421: Is spoken in the capital and surrounding areas. This dialect is characterized by merging or complete elision of syllables, which speakers from other regions consider a "relaxed" pronunciation. For instance, "Phnom Penh" is sometimes shortened to "m'Penh". Another characteristic of Phnom Penh speech is observed in words with an "r" either as an initial consonant or as the second member of a consonant cluster (as in
5490-403: Is the collective name given to the various indigenous ethnic groups residing in the highlands of Cambodia . The Khmer Loeu are found mainly in the northeastern provinces of Ratanakiri , Stung Treng , and Mondulkiri . Most of the highland groups are Mon-Khmer peoples and are distantly related, to one degree or another, to the Khmer. Two of the Khmer Loeu groups are Chamic peoples , a branch of
5612-529: The Austronesian peoples , and have a very different linguistic and cultural background. The Mon–Khmer-speaking tribes are the aboriginal inhabitants of mainland Southeast Asia, their ancestors having trickled into the area from the northwest during the prehistoric metal ages. The Austronesian -speaking groups, Rade and Jarai , are descendants of the Malayo-Polynesian peoples who came to what
5734-549: The Khmer Empire . The Northern Khmer dialect is spoken by over a million Khmers in the southern regions of Northeast Thailand and is treated by some linguists as a separate language. Khmer Krom, or Southern Khmer, is the first language of the Khmer of Vietnam , while the Khmer living in the remote Cardamom Mountains speak a very conservative dialect that still displays features of the Middle Khmer language. Khmer
5856-509: The Kuy , Pnong , Stieng , Brao , Tampuan , Pear , Jarai , and Rade . All but the last two speak Mon–Khmer languages . In the late 1980s, about 160,000 Kuy lived in the northern Cambodian provinces of Kampong Thom , Preah Vihear , and Stung Treng as well as in adjacent Thailand. (Approximately 70,000 Kuy had been reported in Cambodia itself in 1978.) Most of the Kuy have been assimilated into
5978-857: The Pearic group. The main members are the Pear in Battambang , Pursat , and Kampong Thom provinces; the Chong in Thailand and Battambang Province; the Saoch in Kampot Province ; the Samre in what was formerly Siem Reap Province ; and the Suoi in Kampong Chhnang Province . Some believe that this group constitutes the remnant of the pre-Khmer population of Cambodia. Many members of
6100-476: The [r] is dropped and the vowel begins by dipping much lower in tone than standard speech and then rises, effectively doubling its length. Another example is the word រៀន [riən] ('study'), which is pronounced [ʀiən] , with the uvular "r" and the same intonation described above. Khmer Krom or Southern Khmer is spoken by the indigenous Khmer population of the Mekong Delta , formerly controlled by
6222-421: The elision of /r/ . Intonation often conveys semantic context in Khmer, as in distinguishing declarative statements , questions and exclamations. The available grammatical means of making such distinctions are not always used, or may be ambiguous; for example, the final interrogative particle ទេ /teː/ can also serve as an emphasizing (or in some cases negating) particle. The intonation pattern of
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#17327729826106344-472: The 1940s; at a June 1969 press conference, Sihanouk said that Ratanakiri was "practically North Vietnamese territory". Between March 1969 and May 1970, the United States undertook a massive covert bombing campaign in the region, aiming to disrupt sanctuaries for communist Vietnamese troops. Villagers were forced outside of main towns to escape the bombings, foraging for food and living on the run with
6466-420: The 1960s, the ascendant Khmer Rouge forged an alliance with ethnic minorities in Ratanakiri, exploiting Khmer Loeu resentment of the central government. The Communist Party of Kampuchea headquarters was moved to Ratanakiri in 1966, and hundreds of Khmer Loeu joined CPK units. During this period, there was also extensive Vietnamese activity in Ratanakiri. Vietnamese communists had operated in Ratanakiri since
6588-426: The 2000s, Ratanakiri also received hundreds of Degar (Montagnard) refugees fleeing unrest in neighboring Vietnam; the Cambodian government was criticized for its forcible repatriation of many refugees. The geography of Ratanakiri Province is diverse, encompassing rolling hills, mountains, plateaus, lowland watersheds , and crater lakes . Two major rivers, Tonle San and Tonle Srepok , flow from east to west across
6710-451: The 9th century until the 13th century. The following centuries saw changes in morphology , phonology and lexicon . The language of this transition period, from about the 14th to 18th centuries, is referred to as Middle Khmer and saw borrowings from Thai in the literary register. Modern Khmer is dated from the 19th century to today. The following table shows the conventionally accepted historical stages of Khmer. Just as modern Khmer
6832-525: The Brao population in Laos was estimated at about 9,000. In 1984 it was reported that the total Brao population was between 10,000 and 15,000. About 3,000 Brao reportedly moved into Cambodia from Laos in the 1920s. The Brao live in large villages centered on a communal house. They cultivate dry-rice and produce some pottery. They appear to have a bilateral kinship system. The Tampuan number about 25,000, according to
6954-511: The Bunong subgroups have matrilineal descent. Monogamy is the predominant form of marriage, and residence is usually matrilocal. Wealth distinctions are measured by the number of buffalo that a notable person sacrifices on a funereal or ceremonial occasion as a mark of status and as a means of eliciting social approval. Slavery is known to have existed in the past, but the system allowed a slave to gain freedom. The Stieng are closely related to
7076-686: The Bunong. Both groups straddle the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, and their languages belong to the same subfamily of Mon–Khmer. In 1978 the Cambodian Stieng numbered about 20,000 in all. The Stieng cultivate dry-field rice. Their society is apparently patriarchal, and residence after marriage is patrilocal if a bride-price was paid. The groups have a very loose political organization; each village has its own leaders and tribunals. Several small groups, perhaps totalling no more than 10,000 people in Cambodia and eastern Thailand, make up
7198-426: The CPP's overwhelming dominance in rural areas such as Ratanakiri stems from the central government's ability to suppress collective action, which in urban areas is offset by international donors and NGOs that provide support for opposition parties. Fifty-one commune council members in Ratanakiri (20%) were women as of the 2012 communal elections , and 98% of Ratanakiri's government staff was Khmer as of 2006. Bou Lam ,
7320-531: The Cambodian government. There have never been any treaties between a Khmer Loeu group and the government nor is Cambodia a signatory to the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention . Cambodia's landmark 2001 land law guarantees indigenous peoples communal rights to their traditional lands, but the government is accused of routinely violating those provisions, confiscating land for purposes ranging from commercial logging to foreign development. Traditionally,
7442-479: The E De number about 120,000. According to 1978 population figures, there were 10,000 Jarai and 15,000 E De in Cambodia in the late 1970s. They live in longhouses containing several compartments occupied by matrilineally linked nuclear families. There may be twenty to sixty longhouses in one village. The Rade and Jarai cultivate dry-field rice and secondary crops such as maize. Both groups have exogamous matrilineal descent groups (consanguineous kin groups that acknowledge
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#17327729826107564-513: The English word "bread"). The "r", trilled or flapped in other dialects, is either pronounced as a uvular trill or not pronounced at all. This alters the quality of any preceding consonant, causing a harder, more emphasized pronunciation. Another unique result is that the syllable is spoken with a low-rising or "dipping" tone much like the "hỏi" tone in Vietnamese . For example, some people pronounce ត្រី [trəj] ('fish') as [tʰəj] :
7686-603: The Khmer Empire but part of Vietnam since 1698. Khmers are persecuted by the Vietnamese government for using their native language and, since the 1950s, have been forced to take Vietnamese names. Consequently, very little research has been published regarding this dialect. It has been generally influenced by Vietnamese for three centuries and accordingly displays a pronounced accent, tendency toward monosyllabic words and lexical differences from Standard Khmer. Khmer Khe
7808-508: The Khmer Rouge. In June 1970, the central government withdrew its troops from Ratanakiri, abandoning the area to Khmer Rouge control. The Khmer Rouge regime, which had not initially been harsh in Ratanakiri, became increasingly oppressive. The Khmer Loeu were forbidden from speaking their native languages or practicing their traditional customs and religion, which were seen as incompatible with communism. Communal living became compulsory, and
7930-478: The Pearic group grow dry-field rice, which they supplement by hunting and by gathering. They have totemic clans, each headed by a chief who inherited his office patrilineally. Marriage occurs at an early age; there is a small bride-price. Residence may be matrilocal until the birth of the first child, or it may be patrilocal as it is among the Saoch . The village headman is the highest political leader. The Saoch have
8052-627: The Standard Khmer system and that of the Battambang dialect on which the standard is based. In addition, some diphthongs and triphthongs are analyzed as a vowel nucleus plus a semivowel ( /j/ or /w/ ) coda because they cannot be followed by a final consonant. These include: (with short monophthongs) /ɨw/ , /əw/ , /aj/ , /aw/ , /uj/ ; (with long monophthongs) /əːj/ , /aːj/ ; (with long diphthongs) /iəj/ , /iəw/ , /ɨəj/ , /aoj/ , /aəj/ and /uəj/ . The independent vowels are
8174-679: The area under centralized control. From the 13th century or earlier until the 19th century, highland villages were often raided by Khmer, Lao, and Thai slave traders . The region was conquered by local Laotian rulers in the 18th century and then by the Thai in the 19th century. The area was incorporated into French Indochina in 1893, and colonial rule replaced slave trading. The French built huge rubber plantations, especially in Labansiek (present-day Banlung ); indigenous workers were used for construction and rubber harvesting. While under French control,
8296-414: The clusters consisting of a plosive followed by /ʔ/, /b/, /d/ , in those beginning /ʔ/, /m/, /l/ , and in the cluster /kŋ-/ . After the initial consonant or consonant cluster comes the syllabic nucleus , which is one of the vowels listed above. This vowel may end the syllable or may be followed by a coda , which is a single consonant. If the syllable is stressed and the vowel is short, there must be
8418-412: The colloquial and most common designation for these groups. In the Khmer language , an alternative, though unrelated, use of the term "Khmer Loeu" is in reference to the Northern Khmer people . Ethnic Khmers sometimes use a tripartite division to differentiate Khmers native to Thailand , Cambodia or Vietnam . Those native to Thailand are sometimes referred to as "Khmer Loeu" due to their location on
8540-527: The consonants /ɡ/ , /f/ , /ʃ/ and /z/ occur occasionally in recent loan words in the speech of Cambodians familiar with French and other languages. Various authors have proposed slightly different analyses of the Khmer vowel system. This may be in part because of the wide degree of variation in pronunciation between individual speakers, even within a dialectal region. The description below follows Huffman (1970). The number of vowel nuclei and their values vary between dialects; differences exist even between
8662-468: The descendants of this group. Their dialect is thought to resemble that of pre-modern Siem Reap. Linguistic study of the Khmer language divides its history into four periods one of which, the Old Khmer period, is subdivided into pre-Angkorian and Angkorian. Pre-Angkorian Khmer is the Old Khmer language from 600 CE through 800. Angkorian Khmer is the language as it was spoken in the Khmer Empire from
8784-414: The early 1980s. In Cambodia the Bunong are found in Mondulkiri , Kratié , and Kampong Cham provinces in villages consisting of several longhouses each of which is divided into compartments that can house nuclear families. The Bunong practice dry-rice farming, and some also cultivate a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, and other useful plants as secondary crops. Some subgroups weave cloth. At least two of
8906-583: The fall of the Khmer Empire in the early 15th century, the Dongrek Mountains served as a natural border leaving the Khmer north of the mountains under the sphere of influence of the Kingdom of Lan Xang . The conquests of Cambodia by Naresuan the Great for Ayutthaya furthered their political and economic isolation from Cambodia proper, leading to a dialect that developed relatively independently from
9028-566: The family. Khmer is spoken by some 13 million people in Cambodia , where it is the official language. It is also a second language for most of the minority groups and indigenous hill tribes there. Additionally there are a million speakers of Khmer native to southern Vietnam (1999 census) and 1.4 million in northeast Thailand (2006). Khmer dialects , although mutually intelligible, are sometimes quite marked. Notable variations are found in speakers from Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital city),
9150-400: The final syllable, with secondary stress on every second syllable from the end. Thus in a three-syllable word, the first syllable has secondary stress; in a four-syllable word, the second syllable has secondary stress; in a five-syllable word, the first and third syllables have secondary stress, and so on. Long polysyllables are not often used in conversation. Compounds, however, preserve
9272-481: The government had been assassinated. Following the rebellion, the hill people's widespread resentment of ethnic Khmer settlers caused them to refuse to cooperate with the Cambodian army in its suppression of rural unrest. Both the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese communists took advantage of this disaffection, and they actively recruited Khmer Loeu into their ranks. In 1968, Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge fled to Khmer Loeu lands, who were seen as hostile to lowland Khmer and to
9394-780: The government provided little infrastructure in the province. Under the Vietnamese, there was little contact between the provincial government and many local communities. Long after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, however, Khmer Rouge rebels remained in the forests of Ratanakiri. Rebels largely surrendered their arms in the 1990s, though attacks along provincial roads continued until 2002. Ratanakiri's recent history has been characterized by development and attendant challenges to traditional ways of life. The national government has built roads, encouraged tourism and agriculture, and facilitated rapid immigration of lowland Khmers into Ratanakiri. Road improvements and political stability have increased land prices, and land alienation in Ratanakiri has been
9516-404: The government sponsored Cultural Committee to define and standardize the modern language, they championed Khmerization, purging of foreign elements, reviving affixation, and the use of Old Khmer roots and historical Pali and Sanskrit to coin new words for modern ideas. Opponents, led by Keng Vannsak , who embraced "total Khmerization" by denouncing the reversion to classical languages and favoring
9638-628: The government. In late 1970, the government forces withdrew from Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces and abandoned the area to the rapidly growing Khmer Rouge communist insurgent force, the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea , and to its Vietnamese mentors. There is some evidence that in the 1960s and in the 1970s the Front Uni pour la Libération des Races Opprimés (FULRO—United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races) united tribes in
9760-757: The historical empires of Chenla and Angkor . The vast majority of Khmer speakers speak Central Khmer , the dialect of the central plain where the Khmer are most heavily concentrated. Within Cambodia, regional accents exist in remote areas but these are regarded as varieties of Central Khmer. Two exceptions are the speech of the capital, Phnom Penh , and that of the Khmer Khe in Stung Treng province , both of which differ sufficiently enough from Central Khmer to be considered separate dialects of Khmer. Outside of Cambodia, three distinct dialects are spoken by ethnic Khmers native to areas that were historically part of
9882-601: The home for 28.0% of households, near the home for 39.1%, and away from the home for 32.9%. The most common source of light was battery power (39.5%), followed by government-provided power (25.5%), and kerosene (16.5%). Most households (85%) used firewood as the main fuel for cooking. A variety of NGOs , including Oxfam and Health Unlimited , work to improve health and living conditions in the province. Khmer Loeu typically practice subsistence slash and burn shifting cultivation in small villages of between 20 and 60 nuclear families . Each village collectively owns and governs
10004-570: The home of the vast majority of Ratanakiri's population, a hilly basalt plateau provides fertile red soils. Secondary forests dominate this region. South of the Srepok River is a flat area of tropical deciduous forests . Like other areas of Cambodia , Ratanakiri has a monsoonal climate with a rainy season from June to October, a cool season from November to January, and a hot season from March to May. Ratanakiri tends to be cooler than elsewhere in Cambodia. The average daily high temperature in
10126-546: The land comprising present-day Ratanakiri was transferred from Siam ( Thailand ) to Laos and then to Cambodia. Although highland groups initially resisted their colonial rulers, by the end of the colonial era in 1953 they had been subdued. Ratanakiri Province was created in 1959 from land that had been the eastern area of Stung Treng Province . The name Ratanakiri (រតនគិរី) is formed from the Khmer words រតនៈ ( rôtânô "gem" from Sanskrit ratna ) and គិរី ( kĭri "mountain" from Sanskrit giri ), describing two features for which
10248-469: The language of higher education and the intellectual class. By 1907, the French had wrested over half of modern-day Cambodia, including the north and northwest where Thai had been the prestige language, back from Thai control and reintegrated it into the country. Many native scholars in the early 20th century, led by a monk named Chuon Nath , resisted the French and Thai influences on their language. Forming
10370-569: The languages of Austroasiatic. Diffloth places Khmer in an eastern branch of the Mon-Khmer languages . In these classification schemes Khmer's closest genetic relatives are the Bahnaric and Pearic languages . More recent classifications doubt the validity of the Mon-Khmer sub-grouping and place the Khmer language as its own branch of Austroasiatic equidistant from the other 12 branches of
10492-517: The last syllable instead of falling. Khmer is primarily an analytic language with no inflection . Syntactic relations are mainly determined by word order. Old and Middle Khmer used particles to mark grammatical categories and many of these have survived in Modern Khmer but are used sparingly, mostly in literary or formal language. Khmer makes extensive use of auxiliary verbs , "directionals" and serial verb construction . Colloquial Khmer
10614-571: The midpoint of the Middle Khmer period. This has resulted in a distinct accent influenced by the surrounding tonal languages Lao and Thai , lexical differences, and phonemic differences in both vowels and distribution of consonants. Syllable-final /r/ , which has become silent in other dialects of Khmer, is still pronounced in Northern Khmer. Some linguists classify Northern Khmer as a separate but closely related language rather than
10736-504: The modern Khmer language dictionary that is still in use today, helping preserve Khmer during the French colonial period. The phonological system described here is the inventory of sounds of the standard spoken language, represented using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The voiceless plosives /p/, /t/, /c/, /k/ may occur with or without aspiration (as [p] vs. [pʰ] , etc.); this difference
10858-917: The most recent survey), over 10% of children die before the age of five. Ratanakiri also has the country's highest rates of severe malnutrition . Ratanakiri residents' poor health can be attributed to a variety of factors, including poverty, remoteness of villages, poor quality medical services, and language and cultural barriers that prevent Khmer Loeu from obtaining medical care. The province has one referral hospital, 10 health centers, and 17 health posts. Medical equipment and supplies are minimal, and most health facilities are staffed by nurses or midwives, who are often poorly trained and irregularly paid. As of 1998, Ratanakiri had 76 primary schools, one junior high school, and one high school. Education levels, particularly among Khmer Loeu, are very low. A 2002 survey of residents in six villages found that fewer than 10% of respondents had attended any primary school. Access to education
10980-541: The mountainous areas of southern Vietnam and had members from Khmer Loeu groups as well as from the Cham in Cambodia. In the early 1980s, Khmer Rouge propaganda teams infiltrated the northeastern provinces and encouraged rebellion against the central government. In 1981 the government structure included four Khmer Loeu province chiefs, all reportedly from the Brao group, in the northeastern provinces of Mondulkiri , Ratanakiri , Stung Treng , and Preah Vihear . According to
11102-469: The mountains of the Annamite Range in the north, across a hilly plateau between the Tonlé San and Tonlé Srepok rivers, to tropical deciduous forests in the south. In recent years, logging and mining have scarred Ratanakiri's environment, long known for its beauty. For over a millennium, Ratanakiri has been occupied by the highland Khmer Loeu people, who are a minority elsewhere in Cambodia. During
11224-639: The needs of the province. The Cambodian government has traditionally accepted substantial support from NGOs in the region . Thon Saron is the provincial governor. As of the 2017 communal elections , commune councils in Ratanakiri are composed of 207 members representing the CPP, 51 members representing the Cambodia National Rescue Party , and two members representing the Grassroots Democracy Party . Political scientist Caroline Hughes has suggested that
11346-461: The new planting season. Christian missionaries are present in the province, and some Khmer Loeu have converted to Christianity. Indigenous community representatives have described the missionaries as a major threat to their society. The region's ethnic Khmer are Buddhist . There is also a small Muslim community, consisting mainly of ethnic Cham. Because of the province's high prevalence of malaria and its distance from regional centers, Ratanakiri
11468-543: The period of the French Protectorate , the French did not interfere in the affairs of the Khmer Loeu. Reportedly, French army commanders considered the Khmer Loeu as an excellent source of personnel for army outposts, and they recruited large numbers to serve with the French forces. Many Khmer Loeu continued this tradition by enlisting in the Cambodian army . In the 1960s, the Cambodian government carried out
11590-455: The predominant culture of the country in which they live. Many are Buddhists, and the majority practice wet-rice cultivation. They have the reputation of being skilled blacksmiths. The Brao , Kreung , and Kavet inhabit the northeastern Cambodian province of Ratanakiri and adjacent Laos . All three speak different, though mutually intelligible, dialects of the same language. They share a very similar culture, with matrilineal descent. In 1962
11712-486: The province has been known for its relatively pristine environment, recent development has spawned environmental problems. The unspoiled image of the province often conflicts with the reality on the ground: visitors "expecting to find pristine forests teeming with wildlife are increasingly disappointed to find lifeless patches of freshly cut tree stumps". Land use patterns are changing as population growth has accelerated and agriculture and logging have intensified. Soil erosion
11834-449: The province include gem mining and commercial logging. The most abundant gem in Ratanakiri is blue zircon . Small quantities of amethyst , blue sapphire and Peridot are also produced. Gems are generally mined using traditional methods, with individuals digging holes and tunnels and manually removing the gems; recently, however, commercial mining operations have been moving into the province. Logging, particularly illegal logging, has been
11956-454: The province increased from 6,000 in 2002 to 105,000 in 2008 and 118,000 in 2011. The region's tourism development strategy focuses on encouraging ecotourism. Increasing tourism in Ratanakiri has been problematic because local communities receive very little income from tourism and because guides sometimes bring tourists to villages without residents' consent, disrupting traditional ways of life. A few initiatives have sought to address these issues:
12078-921: The province is 34.0 °C (93.2 °F), and the average daily low temperature is 22.1 °C (71.8 °F). Annual precipitation is approximately 2,200 millimetres (87 in). Flooding often occurs during the rainy season and has been exacerbated by the recently built Yali Falls Dam . Ratanakiri has some of the most biologically diverse lowland tropical rainforest and montane forest ecosystems in mainland Southeast Asia. One 1996 survey of two sites in Ratanakiri and one site in neighboring Mondulkiri recorded 44 mammal species, 76 bird species, and 9 reptile species. A 2007 survey of Ratanakiri's Virachey National Park recorded 30 ant species, 19 katydid species, 37 fish species, 35 reptile species, 26 amphibian species, and 15 mammal species, including several species never before observed. Wildlife in Ratanakiri includes Asian elephants , gaur , and monkeys. Ratanakiri
12200-471: The province is altering traditional ways of life. Ratanakiri is sparsely populated; its 184,000 residents make up just over 1% of the country's total population. Residents generally live in villages of 20 to 60 families and engage in subsistence shifting agriculture . Ratanakiri is among the least developed provinces of Cambodia. Its infrastructure is poor, and the local government is weak. Health indicators in Ratanakiri are extremely poor; men's life expectancy
12322-449: The province is known. During the 1950s and 1960s, Norodom Sihanouk instituted a development and Khmerization campaign in northeast Cambodia that was designed to bring villages under government control, limit the influence of insurgents in the area, and "modernize" indigenous communities. Some Khmer Loeu were forcibly moved to the lowlands to be educated in Khmer language and culture, ethnic Khmer from elsewhere in Cambodia were moved into
12444-531: The province's few schools were closed. Purges of ethnic minorities increased in frequency, and thousands of refugees fled to Vietnam and Laos. Preliminary studies indicate that bodies accounting for approximately 5% of Ratanakiri's residents were deposited in mass graves, a significantly lower rate than elsewhere in Cambodia. After the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge in 1979, government policy toward Ratanakiri became one of benign neglect. The Khmer Loeu were permitted to return to their traditional livelihoods, but
12566-429: The province, and roads and large rubber plantations were built. After facing harsh working conditions and sometimes involuntary labor on the plantations, many Khmer Loeu left their traditional homes and moved farther from provincial towns. In 1968, tensions led to an uprising by the Brao people in which several Khmer were killed. The government responded harshly, torching settlements and killing hundreds of villagers. In
12688-439: The province. The province is known for its lush forests; as of 1997, 70–80% of the province was forested, either with old-growth forest or with secondary forest regrown after shifting cultivation . In the far north of the province are mountains of the Annamite Range ; the area is characterized by dense broadleaf evergreen forests , relatively poor soil, and abundant wildlife. In the highlands between Tonle San and Tonle Srepok,
12810-546: The region's early history, its Khmer Loeu inhabitants were exploited as slaves by neighboring empires. The slave trade economy ended during the French colonial era , but a harsh Khmerization campaign after Cambodia's independence again threatened Khmer Loeu ways of life. The Khmer Rouge built its headquarters in the province in the 1960s, and bombing during the Vietnam War devastated the region. Today, rapid development in
12932-689: The remaining one percent. There are also very small Vietnamese , Cham , and Chinese minorities. Though the official language of Ratanakiri (like all of Cambodia) is Khmer , each indigenous group speaks its own language. Less than 10% of Ratanakiri's indigenous population can speak Khmer fluently. Health indicators in Ratanakiri are the worst in Cambodia. Life expectancy is 39 years for men and 43 years for women. Malaria , tuberculosis , intestinal parasites , cholera , diarrhea , and vaccine -preventable diseases are endemic . Ratanakiri has very high rates of maternal and child mortality ; in Ratanakiri and neighboring Mondulkiri (whose figures were combined in
13054-431: The ruling Khmer majority has referred to all the highland groups as phnong , a name of one of the groups that has come to mean "savage" in Khmer, or samre , the name of another group that has developed the meaning "bumpkin" or "hick". Both of these words are now considered pejorative. The colonial French administration designated the highland ethnicities of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam "Montagnards". The term "Khmer Loeu"
13176-522: The rural Battambang area, the areas of Northeast Thailand adjacent to Cambodia such as Surin province , the Cardamom Mountains , and southern Vietnam. The dialects form a continuum running roughly north to south. Standard Cambodian Khmer is mutually intelligible with the others but a Khmer Krom speaker from Vietnam, for instance, may have great difficulty communicating with a Khmer native of Sisaket Province in Thailand. The following
13298-482: The southern Khorat plateau relative to those native to Cambodia, "Khmer Kandal", while Khmer native to the lower Mekong Delta region of Vietnam are called " Khmer Krom " ("lower Khmer" or "southern Khmer"). Khmer Loeu form the majority population in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces, and they also are present in substantial numbers in Kratié Province and Stung Treng Province. Their total population in 1969
13420-417: The start of a syllable are /str/, /skr/ , and (with aspirated consonants analyzed as two-consonant sequences) /sth/, /lkh/ . There are 85 possible two-consonant clusters (including [pʰ] etc. analyzed as /ph/ etc.). All the clusters are shown in the following table, phonetically, i.e. superscript ʰ can mark either contrastive or non-contrastive aspiration (see above ). Slight vowel epenthesis occurs in
13542-628: The stress patterns of the constituent words. Thus សំបុកចាប , the name of a kind of cookie (literally 'bird's nest'), is pronounced [sɑmˌbok ˈcaːp] , with secondary stress on the second rather than the first syllable, because it is composed of the words [sɑmˈbok] ('nest') and [caːp] ('bird'). Khmer once had a phonation distinction in its vowels, but this now survives only in the most archaic dialect ( Western Khmer ). The distinction arose historically when vowels after Old Khmer voiced consonants became breathy voiced and diphthongized; for example *kaa, *ɡaa became *kaa, *ɡe̤a . When consonant voicing
13664-471: The use of contemporary colloquial Khmer for neologisms, and Ieu Koeus , who favored borrowing from Thai, were also influential. Koeus later joined the Cultural Committee and supported Nath. Nath's views and prolific work won out and he is credited with cultivating modern Khmer-language identity and culture, overseeing the translation of the entire Pali Buddhist canon into Khmer. He also created
13786-470: The vowels that can exist without a preceding or trailing consonant. The independent vowels may be used as monosyllabic words, or as the initial syllables in longer words. Khmer words never begin with regular vowels; they can, however, begin with independent vowels. Example: ឰដ៏, ឧទាហរណ៍, ឧត្តម, ឱកាស...។ A Khmer syllable begins with a single consonant, or else with a cluster of two, or rarely three, consonants. The only possible clusters of three consonants at
13908-491: The words they modify). Some grammatical processes are still not fully understood by western scholars. For example, it is not clear if certain features of Khmer grammar, such as actor nominalization , should be treated as a morphological process or a purely syntactic device, and some derivational morphology seems "purely decorative" and performs no known syntactic work. Khmer Loeu The Khmer Loeu ( Khmer : ជនជាតិខ្មែរលើ [cunciət kʰmae ləː] ; "upper Khmers")
14030-554: Was built between 2007 and 2010; the road was expected to increase trade between Cambodia and Vietnam. There is a small airport in Banlung, but commercial flights to Ratanakiri have long been discontinued. As of 2013, Ratanakiri Province had a population of approximately 184,000. Its population nearly doubled between 1998 and 2013, largely due to internal migration. In 2013, Ratanakiri made up 1.3% of Cambodia's total population; its population density of 17.0 residents per square kilometer
14152-508: Was crafted by the Sangkum Reastr Niyum government of Sihanouk 's Cambodia in the 1950s. To stress the unity, or "Cambodian-ness", of the various ethnic groups that inhabited its borders and promote a nationalist cohesiveness, the government classified citizens as one of three groups of "Khmer", Khmer Kandal , Khmer Islam and Khmer Loeu . Khmer Kandal ("Central Khmer") referred to the ethnic Khmer majority. Khmer Islam
14274-438: Was emerging from the transitional period represented by Middle Khmer, Cambodia fell under the influence of French colonialism . Thailand, which had for centuries claimed suzerainty over Cambodia and controlled succession to the Cambodian throne, began losing its influence on the language. In 1887 Cambodia was fully integrated into French Indochina , which brought in a French -speaking aristocracy. This led to French becoming
14396-532: Was estimated at 90,000 people. In 1971 the number of Khmer Loeu was estimated variously between 40,000 and 100,000 people. Population figures were unavailable in 1987, but the total probably was nearly 100,000 people. According to the General Population Census conducted in 2008, their total population was 179,193. Most Khmer Loeu live in scattered temporary villages that have only a few hundred inhabitants. These villages usually are governed by
14518-435: Was isolated from Western influences until the late 20th century. Major cultural shifts have occurred in recent years however, particularly in villages near roads and district towns; these changes have been attributed to contact with internal immigrants, government officials, and NGO workers. Clothing and diets are becoming more standardized, and traditional music is being displaced by Khmer music. Many villagers have also observed
14640-413: Was just over one fifth the national average. About 70% of the province's population lives in the highlands; of the other 30%, approximately half live in more urbanized towns, and half live along rivers and in the lowlands, where they practice wetland rice cultivation and engage in market activities. Banlung , the provincial capital located in the central highlands, is by far the province's largest town, with
14762-407: Was lost, the distinction was maintained by the vowel ( *kaa, *ke̤a ); later the phonation disappeared as well ( [kaː], [kiə] ). These processes explain the origin of what are now called a-series and o-series consonants in the Khmer script . Although most Cambodian dialects are not tonal , the colloquial Phnom Penh dialect has developed a tonal contrast (level versus peaking tone) as a by-product of
14884-549: Was the name given to the ethnic Cham inhabiting the central plains of Cambodia. Khmer Loeu was coined as a catch-all term to include all of the indigenous minority ethnic groups, most of which reside in the remote highlands of northeast Cambodia. The current government has used the term Choncheate Daeum Pheak Tech ( ជនជាតិដើមភាគតិច ; "Original Ethnic Minority") in official documents while referring to ethnic Khmer as Choncheate Daeum Pheak Chraeun ( ជនជាតិដើមភាគច្រើន ; "Original Ethnic Majority"). However "Khmer Loeu" still remains
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