I. Studies On Current Languages In Lam Dong

According to statistics made in 1999 and some recent survey data, there are 40 ethnic groups live in Lam Dong. The natives include the Co Ho, the Ma, the M'Nong, The Xtieng, the Chu Ru, and the Rac Lay, in which three peoples  have the highest population are the Co ho, the Ma and the Chu Ru. Most residents live on this land speak different languages, but in terms of origin, there are some main strain as follows: The Mon - Khmer, the Tay - Thai, Tibetan (Tang) - Mien and Han.

Many researches on these languages over the past hundred years has gradually sketched the overall picture of languages of the region.

During the years of 1960 and 1970, the study on languages in Vietnam got some changes in quality: the number of languages studies rose dramatically, for example, in the Central Highlands, languages like M'Nong language, Co Ho language, Xtieng language, Ede language, Hre language, Ro Ngao language, Xo Dang language, Co language, and Co Tu language, etc were studied and improved the handwriting by Linguists from the Summer Institute of  Linguistics in  America. Meanwhile, in the north, Linguistics was established on a large scale with research and training facilities, such as the Institute of Linguistics, Institute of Han-Nom, Institute of Southeast Asia, Institute of Ethnology and the Department of B.A in Applied Linguistics at Hanoi General University which increases the number of researchers and reference resources. This was not the source of additional facilities Oriental Studies from the socialist countries and the West. Many of the works of Vietnamese linguists as Mr. Nguyen Tai Can, Mr. Cao Xuan Hao, etc. have contributed greatly to General Linguistics studies in general and Oriental Studies in particular.

After winning in the war in 1975, the research activities tended to apply interdisciplinary research method: Linguistics - social studies, Linguistics - psychology, Linguistics - ethnology,  Applied linguistics; therefore, the results were timely served to development of the country such as for teaching bilingual courses, compiling dictionaries,  and following the language policies of the Party for  ethnic minority groups. The collaborative research projects on ten languages and ethnic minority groups between Vietnam and the Soviet Union Academy of Sciences, including the Ma language, Khmer - Soc Trang language, the Cham language and M'Nong language with research works such as Vietnamese - Koho Dictionary, Koho Grammar. Many scientific research on languages and literature of ethnic groups in Lam Dong have contributed to the study more and more accurately.

Based on overall assessment on  linguistic researches related to languages in  Lam Dong from the past up to now, we may include that:

The description of the languages has not  been detailed enough, but it helps us initially have enough sufficient evidence to classify and analyze. On the other hand, these above-mentioned studies only stop at general research on a few local languages; therefore, we have not be allowed to make general and detailed comments on theoretical  and practical issues . Thus, there should be more investment to deeper studies about ways to overcome the language barrier among ethnic groups, to preserve the precious cultural heritages, especially culture and traditional values, and to improve the living standards for each ethnic group. This requires appropriate language policies of the Party which can promote the function as the most effective.  tool of cultural exchange.

The above documents with the proposal of Maspero on the relationships among Vietnamese - Tay - Thai, of Haudricourt and Ferlus on the relationships of Vietnamese - Mon - Khmer, of Henri F. Blood about pre-M'Nong language, and of Ephimop pre-Nam Ba Na language help us easily to agree with the idea of a common ancient Southeast Asian linguistic system (as remarked by Pham Duc Duong and the Vietnamese researchers on Southeast Asian Studies) or Asian linguistic system (as mentioned by James A. Matisoff), with the most ancient traces found from Central Highlands ethnic minorities. Along with the archaeological - historical - ethnographic, linguistic residents Lam Dong also preserved many remnants of the mixed solution culture with Chinese culture, India, Funan, Champa, Vietnam University and later with Western culture.

The more and more accurate perception on the important role of language in the exchange of national culture  and in the development of thinking  is clearly reflected through the language policies of the Party and State in Lam Dong province.

II. Classification Of Language In Lam Dong

Although language is considered as an important criterion to identify ethnic groups, but the relationship among these concepts have not been uniform. One of the main reasons is  the linguistics itself has not been uniform into a system of criteria on purely linguistic in order to identify between language and dialect, which still relies on other criteria besides the linguistic criteria. For this reason, we may find a person of this ethnic group but be classified into another group of different language: for example, the Chil in Lac Duong are classified in the Co Ho, but they did not complain if they are also classified in the M'Nong. Both names do not make them anxious, because Co ho (originated from Cham) and M'Nong (originated from Khmer) are two words that the Cham and the Khmer use to call " Thuong people" which means "mountain people". Although "Thuong" people agree such the two names,  they do not confuse  their ethnic group's names with others, so they often distinguish each other internally  by calling châu/kon (people) + Sre, Lach, Chil, Nop, Ma, Yuon (Kinh), Prum (Cham), Kur (Khmer ),etc.

According to the comparable survey (100 words) with during field research in 1988 among the groups: Sre, Chil, Lach, Ma, Xtieng, M'Nong, the first four groups can be classified into the same language called Co ho which was agreed by the Institute of Language Studies and  Lam Dong People's Committee in their scientific studies. On the other hand, in fact, more than 90% of the words has the same phonics, except for some natural deviation (Table 1).

Table 1 The words with the same phonics

In terms of grammar, it seems that there is no big difference in conversational language, except for some ethnic groups who are Catholics and Protestants and are also influenced by sentences translated from Bible, so there are a few differences in their written language. In particular, when collecting fairy tales and recording stories told by folk artists, by young people and intellectuals who are influenced by Western culture and speak Vietnamese fluently, we find this difference clearly in their words. this will be an interesting research topic for science and for practice.

When comparing the languages of two groups: the M'Nong and the Xtieng, the number of words has different phonetic has increased, but we still can find out common denominator between these languages. This confirms the opinion of linguists that a system of script for peoples in Central Highlands, at least for about twenty peoples in Central Highlands can be made.

Currently, Lam Dong has four main families of language which are rich and diversed with nearly 40 different languages, like a miniature Southeast Asia, namely:

Sino - Tibetan family

The Sino includes Chinese, San Chi, and San Diu.

The Tibetan - Mien includes Hmong (Meo), Sila and Dao, Pa Then.

Austro - Thai family

Only the Tay - Thai family with the following languages:

The Thai includes only Thai, Lao, and Caolan.

The Tay Nung includes Tay - Nung, Lu.

The Kadai includes La Chi group

Autronesian/ Austropolynesian family

Only the Cham family with the following languages: Cham, Chu Ru, Rac Lay, Ede, Gia Rai.

Austro - Asiatic family

Lam Dong has only Mon - Khmer family with many groups of languages such as:

Vietnamese - Muong includes Vietnamese, Muong, Khomu, Pupeo, Khang.

The Co Tu family includes the Tu Tu, the Bru (Van Kieu), and the Ta Oi.

The Ba Na family includes the Co, the Brau, the Gie - Trieng, the Ba Na, the Xo Dang, the Hre, the Coho, the M'Nong, and the Xtieng.

Khmer family includes the Khmer and the Ro Mam.

However, the Giáy (Giấy and Nhắng...) as agreed by the native can be classified in Tay-Thai family; howerver, there has been no published study or document used as a basic for accurate classification.

These above-mentioned languages can also be classified based on other criteria. For example, based on the function and  social levels, they may be classified:

Vietnamese is the national language which is used widely and everywhere in Lam Dong

The Coho is the second important language, and in the past, it was a regional language and was used by many other ethnic groups, especially when the number of Vietnamese people at Central Highlands was small. Currently, it is also used in Lam Dong Radio - Television in radio and television programming  and a number of documents written in this language has been published.

The M'Nong, Chu Ru, Rac Lay, Xtieng language of local people who have lived together for a long time, so among them should be an interact (language interference) in the system of language structure; therefore, they are known by many local ethnic groups.

Other languages have been different with less population  and migration in recent decades, therefore, they only play a small communication role in the family and ethnic community if these groups live together. When communicating in the broader scope, the residents who speak this language often use Vietnamese.

The Ba Na family

The Ba Na family includes the Coho (of the Ma, the Coho), Xtieng,  native M'Nong, and some languages of groups who have close relationship with them from Northern Highlands such as Ba Na, Xo Dang , Gie - Trieng, Hre, Brau, and Co.

 In the past, residents of this region had occupied Central Highlands - Truong Son area, Northern Cambodia and Southern Laos until Cham groups move to the mountains. They were divided into two parts in Vietnam; Nam Ba Na language groups (M'Nong, Xtieng, Co Ho, Cho Ro) live from South Dak Lak to Binh Phuoc, Binh Duong, Lam Dong, Dong Nai; and Bac Ba Na language group with 11 languages (Ba Na, Brau, Co, Gie - Trieng, Ro Ngao, Ha Lang, Hre, etc) live from the North of Gia Lai to Kon Tum and the mountainous area in Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh. Connecting the two language groups are Trung Ba Na group in Cambodia and nine other languages. Because of the mutual contact with residents around them, the above-mentioned language groups have gradually had different features. Following are some examples about comparison on phonetics (Table 2):

Table 2 COMPARISION ON PHONETICS

Việt (vietnamese)	Chân (leg)	Tám (eight)	nước (water)	Ruộng (field)
The Ba Na	jơng/jêng	pham	dak	ruêq
The Xơ Đăng	chêang	pham	dâk	klêa
Brâu	yênh	kual	đak
The Rơ Ngho	yênh	pham	dak
The Kháng	yênh		dik/tưk	proach
The Hre	Yơng			ruak
The Co Ho	jơng	pham	đa	ptoêch
The Xtieng	yưng	p’haan	dak	proech
The M'Nong	jưng	p’ham	dak	proich

The classification of the Ma and the Coho (except for the Chil) on the Coho family because they have the high rates of similarity on phonetic  as well as vocabulary. In fact, it is acceptable to classify the Chil into the Coho family.

However, it may be far different from the M'Nong with its own scripts. In the Co Ho family, there are 4 dialects:

Table 3 FOUR DIALECTS IN THE CO HO FAMILY

(1) It is easy to make comparision when classifying the Chi into this table.

Grammatically, there are some remarkable differences between the two groups. For example, the subfixes in the Bac Ba Na is more various, and the system of grammatical tools (Adjunct) is simpler. In general, Bac Ba Na languages still keep many of ancient features. Meanwhile, the results for restoring ancient the Nam Ba Na language of Ephimop shows that: 43 of 197 words (21.8%) has South Asian roots, 53 words  (27%) has a Indochina root, and the overall rate (48.8%) is not too low, however, this proves that these language are on the way to separate and has gone further than other languages in the same family.

Languages in Cham family

The Cham groups (including Cham, Rac Lay, Chu Ru, Ede, Gia Rai) are currently settling down in Lam Dong; in fact, the oldest as well as native groups are Chu Ru and Rac Lay groups. In terms of the origin, these languages are from Nam Dao family, a branch of  "Mã Lai đa đảo"(Malayo-Polynexia) which is multi-syllabic, rich in sub-fixes and toneless. Because these groups have communicated with the Mon - Khmer and Vietnamese people for 200 years,  the Cham family has gradually tended to be monosyllabic and toned, while other languages near the "Thuong area" still maintain its ancient features (toneless and more ancient) These languages also preserved many traces of Indian culture, especially, the ancient Sanskrit language system has been used in the Cham for a long time.

III. Some Problems About Languages In Lam Dong

1. The origin and Southeast Asian features in  the Central Highlands' languages

Unlike the assumption of some Western scientists who classify Malayo-Polynexia language groups, Meo - Dao language groups and Tay - Thai language groups into Nam Thai language system, the linguists from Vietnam Institute of Southeast Asian Languages believe that there was an ancient Southeast Asian language in the region of the same name, beside the Sino - Tibetan family and Oceanian language family . During the separation period, a group of residents moved to the North, and had an opportunity to contact to the Sino-Tibetan family so early; based on this, the current Tay - Thai family like today was created (from the Nam - Thai family). Other groups moved to the coastal region and had an opportunity to contact to the Oceanian languages; therefore, they have been classified into the "Mã Lai đa đảo"(Malayo-Polynexia) family  (from the Nam Dao family). The groups settled down in the mainland have still retained their ancient features which can be found in  the Mon - Khmer family in Southeast Asia, especially the the M'Nong, the Xtieng, and the Coho in Lam Dong. By comparing some basic words, we can immediately recognize that both Vietnamese language and other Vietnamese ethnic groups' languages have the same origin (Table 4)

Table 4 Comparing Vietnamese language with

THE CO HO, THE M’NONG, AND THE BA NA

If comparing 193 words with the Swadesh language, it is easy to find out that Vietnamese language has 120 out of 193 words (68.8%) has the same root with three languages of the Mon-Khmer family. If we continue to compare them with the other languages, such as Malaysian language, Indonesian language, Tay language, and Laotian language, etc, we can find the rate reduces to 34% (66 out of 193 words), but it is also a remarkable rate.

All farmers in wetland, forest, or plains often use the word "water" to mention their land, such as the Coho - Ma with the word "đa/đà/đạ" (water), and soon it becomes the origin of  some place names: Đà Lạt (Lạch land), Đạ Tẻh, Đạ Huoai, Đa M'rong, Đại Lang (Đạ Kon Klang), etc and the M’Nông with đắc (water): Đắc Lắc, Đắc Nông, Đắc Min,…

The way to name their children which is not the same with the elders in the village, or does not contain the same first consonant with parents' name, or use children's name to call their parents, the presence of families (created from marriage) has broken the closed primitive communism are the popular laws in all residential areas under fore-said South Asian language family. Sharing the same agricultural culture with high value on nature and human, the Southeast Asian residents put high respect on women (the goddess of agriculture) Yang Me Kòi (goddess of rice), Yang Me The (goddess of land), Yang Me Dak (goddess of  water),etc. the judicial system Vietnam, the system of agricultural festivals that the broker called “cô đồng”, “bà cốt” used"mẹ" (cái) which means “important”: gùng me (main road), ching me (main Gong),etc.  All of them reflect a long period of matriarchy, and in the history of fighting against the foreign invasion, Vietnamese ethnic groups also had many talented female martials.

2. Language exchanges

Lam Dong is a multi-cultural area, because this land is located in the junction of Dong Nai river which was considered an exchange point of many ancient cultures, such as  Phu Nam, Chan Lap, Cham Pa. Is Phu Nam archaeological site discovered in Cat Tien related to the legendary "Ma kingdom"? The conflict between Champa culture with "the Thuong" , many literature works of the Ma and the Co Ho became valuable in our folklore treasure. Time gone by,  "village relationships"  (nrí) has still been maintained in their later generations as the Ma confirmed: "Cham and Ma are brothers." Together with the Vietnamese and other ethnic minorities, when they lived together and more united when fighting against the foreign invasions.

Second, when French colony tried to invade the second time,  Lam Dong become one of the attractions of  both domestic and foreign residents who came here to settle down; therefore, it became a multi-cultural and multilingual area.

As stated above, the cultural exchange between the two ethnic groups, the borrowing and harmonization between the two languages have been shown clearly  in the language of each ethnic group.

Like other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam in general and Lam Dong  in particular is the home of many different ethnic groups. It is the living process that formed a multi-cultural Lam Dong. The process of cultural change has not happened once but many times on this land; for example,  the farming populations (fire farming) in Lam Dong, Sre and Lach  have known the way to plant rice by learning from the Chu Ru,  Rac Lay from the Cham family. Comparing some terms related to rice farming among these languages, we can find out that (Table 5):

Table  5 Comparing some terms related to rice farming

If continuing to compare the agricultural rituals based on  in development cycle of the rice, we can find more similarities between the Sre, the Cham and the Rac Lay, while the Ma and the Chil (farming residents) do not have the ceremony to welcome the rice into the warehouses and to open the rice warehouses. These two ceremonies can be found in the Ba Na group (Kon Tum) who cultivate rice.

 First, the vocabulary system, a series of words from this language was borrowed from other languages, such as words family related to rice farming of the agricultural residents: The Sre, The Lach (Co ho). Second, we can find many words about material and spiritual culture of the Cham Pa which were borrowed quite a lot: alak (alcohol), cih (write), pô gru (teacher),…

Therefore, it is necessary to conduct many studies about  the history of languages to clarify this concept. In contrast, the Cham languages only borrowed many words from the Mon - Khmer in the natual field: the names of plant and animal in Highlands. A considerable amount of vocabulary is incompletely classsified in the Nam Dao family or the Mon - Khmer:laqui (basket), amraq/mraq (peacock), pù (soup),etc which was classified as Southern Asian family by Haudricourt and other scientists. The Cham also borrowed many Vietnamese words poq (peel ), tap (backfill), krum (thunder), blo (appear, akoh (head/skull), klek (clay pot), vanhwa (culture), yay hok (teach), sikwang (officer)…

The important thing is that through communication,  the Cham language is strongly influenced by language structures of the Mon - Khmer. The Cham family were polysyllabic and has strong subfixes, etc. Today it tends to change its strutures, which is based on the rules of the Mon - Khmer, monosyllabic, without suffixes, and with more tone (especially the Cham.)

When communicating with Western and Vietnamese languages, a leader language in this relationship, the system of sentences in Ba Na languages has changed a lot. It is an inevitable change  of scientific thinking

3. Bilinguism

This is an inevitable phenomenon in the multi-language area. For example, in Don Duong area, Duc Trong area, in the past the Co Ho and Chu Ru lived together and could speak the language of each other. When Vietnamese people appear, they all speak Vietnamese; so people who can speak two or three languages (diglosia) are very common in this area. Even though, among ethnic groups, there is a phenominon that  the Chu Ru speaks Chu Ru, Co Ho people still can respond in their own language without distorting the information. It is quite an interesting phenomenon which needs studying about scientific as well as practical values. Because it helps us with the proper planning on the language policies whether it is necessary to teach bilingual,  whether there should be any change in the contents as well as teaching methods of Vietnamese - common language here?

Through the multi-language contact, we can understand many cultural behaviors of each ethnic group, the hamony and flexibility of these residents which form a common character of Southeast Asian residents - that is flexible to all cultural phenomena. Currently, Lam Dong has over 40 ethnic groups living together, speaking the same type of language, so much the many linguistic and sociology phenomena have become interesting to many researchers.

4. Vietnamese - cultural bridge between the peoples

The Vietnamese (Kinh) started to set their foot in Lam Dong for over a hundred years. In fact, they have settled down in this area for decades. In addition to the language of the neighborhood ethnic groups, the second language - Vietnamese are considered as an official language for communication among ethnic groups. On the other hand, after Vietnamese became the national language, the number of ethnic people who know Vietnamese multiplied.

5. Vietnamese used in the Kinh community

Lam Dong is the land of residents from all parts of the country, therefore, Vietnamese is the gathering of many dialects. According to the language rules, the language the peripheral areas (of expatriates) is always more conservative than the central areas such as Hanoi and northern provinces. Therefore, we can find people who speak the most traditional Nghe-Tinh in Nghe-Tinh village, the traditional Hue in Anh Sang village (Dalat) etc. However, we all find that Dalat market is a place for public relations, Nghe-Tinh people and, the Hue people have softer voice ; the Quang have softer voice; the Northern voice is a little changed into the Southern voice. We all agree that Dalat - Lam Dong no longer keep their original voice  in social communication. But in order to confirm whether there is a dialect of Dalat City - Lam Dong, some serious work of linguists have to be conducted to come to accurate conclusions.

6. Vietnamese language used in ethnic minority areas

 Now, a lot of people in ethnic minority area, especially young people know and learn Vietnamese. These remote areas along  Da Dang river were the military base, therefore, the groups here soon had conditions to get familiar to Vietnamese through the Kinh officers who worked here. However, a very small number of minorities who are at least 50 years old in some remote villages, remote areas  do not speak Vietnamese well and fluently. Universalizing primary education and eliminating illiteracy in the education sector has helped to improve people's  intellectual a lot, but at present, in some minority area, the policies still need writing in their mother tongue. The role of Vietnamese have been increasingly strengthened, it is not only the language of administration and an official language of all ethnic groups, but also as a bridge for cultural exchange between Vietnamese peope and the ethnic groups in Vietnam in particular and for cultural exchange among human in the world in general. Therefore, increasing the quality of teaching Vietnamese for students from ethnic groups or increasing the language exchange will contribute to promoting the national culture.

7. Language policies of the Party and State and the implementation in Lam Dong

The equality of each ethnic language is an legal right which is acknowledged by the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. With this policy, in the years of 80, the modern Coho scripts were published  together with the compilation of a  Vietnamese - Koho Dictionary, Koho Grammar. This is a remarkable achievement of the province . However, the deployment of  compilating and  pilot training these bilingual books only limited in some places. In general, the ethnic minorities in Lam Dong are increasingly developing their relationship, so learning and understanding Vietnamese become an inneed and voluntary thing.

The strategy of translating all ethnic language with Latin system is really scientific and practical. It helps scientists, collectors have research facilities,  as well as they can reserve and promote the beauty of traditional ethnic culture. The compilation of a political document as well as cultural  programs in Co ho language on Lam Dong Radio - Television  station has made the implementation of guidelines and policies of the Party, State and the local authorities in Coho ethnic minority areas become the most effective.

Thus, Vietnamese is an essential tool of communication, in Lam Dong, there are also languages of local ethnic minorities, particularly Co Ho language, Ma language (of the Mon - Khmer family) and Chu Ru language (of the Ma Lai đa đảo family). Besides, a number of languages from four different families exists on this Southern Highlands. For that reason, we can conclude that the picture of languages in Lam Dong is quite rich. It is a  small Vietnam, or a small Southeast Asia.