Rade (Rhade; Rade: klei Êđê; Vietnamese: tiếng Ê-đê or tiếng Ê Đê) is an Austronesian language of southern Vietnam. There may be some speakers in Cambodia. It is a member of the Chamic subgroup, and is closely related to the Cham language of central Vietnam.
Classification
Đoàn Văn Phúc (1998:23) provides the following classification for the Rade dialects. Đoàn (1998) also provides a 1,000-word vocabulary list for all of the nine Rade dialects.
Area 1
Area 1.1: Krung, Kpă, Adham
Area 1.2: Drao. Êpan, Ktul
Blô (mixture of areas 1.1 and 1.2, as well as Mdhur)
Area 2
Mdhur
Bih
Đoàn Văn Phúc (1998:23) assigns the following cognacy percentages for comparisons between Kpă and the other eight dialects of Rade, with Bih as the most divergent dialect.
Kpă – Krung: 85.5%
Kpă – Adham: 82%
Kpă – Ktul: 82%
Kpă – Mdhur: 80%
Kpă – Blô: 82%
Kpă – Êpan: 85%
Kpă – Drao: 81%
Kpă – Bih: 73%
Dialects
Đoàn Văn Phúc (1998:24) lists nine dialects of Rade. They are spoken mostly in Đắk Lắk Province in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam.
Bih, which has about 1,000 speakers, may be a separate language. Tam Nguyen (2015) reported that there are only 10 speakers of Bih out of an ethnic population of about 400 people.
A patrilineal Rade subgroup known as the Hmok or Hmok Pai is found in the Buôn Ma Thuột area (Phạm 2005:212).
There is an optional schwa between the bilabial plosives /p,b,ɓ/ and /l,r,h/. Thus pra "scaffold" is pronounced [pᵊrä].
/m/ is weakened before most consonants, except before the liquids/l,r/ where there may be a schwa. Compare mčah "broken" [ᵐcäh] and mla "tusk" [mᵊlä].
When other consonants is followed by /l,r,h/, there may be a schwa or coarticulation. Compare trah "to fish" [tᵊräh], tlao "to laugh" [tläu̯~t͜läu̯], dlao "to scold" [dläu̯~d͜läu̯], dhan "branch" [dhän~dʱän], jhat "bad" [ˀɟhät̚~ˀɟʱät̚], ghang "to roast" [ɡhäŋ~ɡʱäŋ].
/w/ can also be heard as a more bilabial [β̞].
Glottalized final consonant sounds /wʔ,jʔ,jh/ are heard only in final position.
↑The author used the term "tiền thanh hầu hóa," which literally translates to "preglottalization." However, he also used "tiền tắc họng hóa," with the IPA glottalization symbol [ˀ] in reference to the allophonic realizations of the plain stops /b,d,ɟ/. The phonetic description of /ɓ,d,ʄ/ includes a lowering of the glottis ("hạ thấp thanh hầu") prior to a stop closure, which is consistent with implosives. The author also listed a velar implosive transcribed with the letter g with a crossbar.
↑The author acknowledged the phonetic realization as an affricate ("tắc-xát"), but still treated it as a single phonological stop ("tắc").
References
↑Rade at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Bih at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
123Đoàn, Văn Phúc (1998). Từ vựng các phương ngữ Êđê / Lexique des dialectes Êđê[Vocabulary of Rade Dialects] (in Vietnamese). Hanoi: Đại học quốc gia Hà Nội and École française d'Extrême-Orient.
↑Nguyen, Tam (2013). A Grammar of Bih (PhD thesis). University of Oregon. hdl:1794/12996.
↑Nguyen, Tam (2015). Language Endangerment Factors: A Case Study with Bih. Paper presented at SoLE-4, Payap University.
↑Phâm, Côn Sơn (2005). Non nước Việt Nam: sắc nét trung bộ (in Vietnamese). Hanoi: Phương Đông Publishers.
Đoàn, Văn Phúc (1993). Ngữ âm tiếng Êđê[Rade Phonetics] (Thesis) (in Vietnamese). Hanoi.
Sở giáo dục và đào tạo tỉnh Đắk Lắk – Viện ngôn ngữ học Việt Nam (2012). Ngữ pháp tiếng Êđê[Ede Grammar] (in Vietnamese). Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản giáo dục Việt Nam.
Ủy ban nhân dân tỉnh Đăk Lăk – Sở giáo dục – Đào tạo – Viện ngôn ngữ học Việt Nam (1993). Từ điển Việt – Êđê[Vietnamese – Rade Dictionary] (in Vietnamese). Đăk Lăk: Nhà xuất bản giáo dục.
Linh, Nga Niê Kdam (2013). Nghệ thuật diễn xướng dân gian Ê Đê, Bih ở Dăk Lăk[Rade and Bih Folk Performing Arts in Dak Lak] (in Vietnamese). Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Thời Đại. ISBN978-604-930-599-3.
Tharp, James A.; Buon-ya, Y.-Bham (1980). A Rhade–English Dictionary with English-Rhade Finderlist. Pacific Linguistics Series C – No. 58. Canberra: The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-C58. hdl:1885/144435. ISBN978-0-85883-217-6.
