Abstract:
This thesis describes syntactic structure of Chong language, a language
member of Pearic branch of Mon-Khmer subfamily in Austroasiatic Language Family.
Chong is found speakers in Chanthaburi province. At the moment, only elderly people
who are over 45 years old still speak Chong fluently. Due to the decreasing number of
speakers, this language is in the serious situation as endangered language. This
situation inspired to study on a description of Chong syntax. The purpose of this study
was to describe Chong syntax. The David Thomass Tagmemic model (1993) is used
to analyze the grammatical hierarchy, which includes clauses, phrases, morphemes,
words, and sentences, respectively. Includling, the sociolinguistic context is also
discussed language situation and its impact on language endangerment. The data were
collected from elder informants in Ta-Khian Thong and Khlong Phluu subdistricts,
Khaokhitchakut district of Chanthaburi province between the field works in 2007 -
2008. Main text materials consist of folktales, songs, self-experienced stories,
procedural explanations and conversations .
The finding proposes that Chong syntactic structure is quite similar to Thai,
in S-V-O word order. The negation form of Chong is usually occurred in the final
position of clauses or sentences, which differs from other Pearic and Thai languages.
Moreover, there are some Mon-Khmer features remaining in this language such as an
affixation, a noun phrase, a classifier and including a negation. An affixation is not
productive now. Since Thai language heavily influences Chong, some original noun
phrases are reversed their sequence patterns but an original negation is rarely
dominated. The data shows more than half of the vocabularies are borrowed from
Thai, especially the grammatical words.
Furthermore, Chong syntax indicates the crucial situation of language
endangerment. The speakers prefer Thai speaking more than their ethnic language.
Chong people living in Chanthaburi province today have a diminishing number of
speakers. However, the elders had joined together, with the linguistic staffs from
Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development (ILCRD) of Mahidol
University, to conduct the language revitalization program to preserve their ethnic
knowledge and wisdom. This study fulfills a gap for further study of Pearic languages
and endangered languages. It also provides a guideline of grammatical Chong for
basic learning which will benefit for Chong speakers in preserving their own language