The Language of Champa

The remnants of the Cham people of the Kingdom of Champa can be found near the delta provinces of Chau Doc and Tay Ninh in southwestern Vietnam near the Cambodian border. Surrounded by the Viet and Khmer ethnic groups, they usually live close to the provincial capitals.

The precise origin of the Cham is unknown, but they are the survivors of the Champa kingdom, which flourished from the first to the fifteenth century. When the Vietnamese conquered their Champa kingdom, most aristocrats fled to Cambodia while the poor peasants remained in Vietnam.

The Cham people in Vietnam are mostly a mixture of Cham and Malay, with whom they traded during the time of their powerful kingdom. Their language, Cham, belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian linguistic family. Many Cham also speak Vietnamese, Khmer, and/or Malayan.