Pearic | |
---|---|
Geographic distribution |
Indo-China |
Linguistic classification |
Austroasiatic
|
Subdivisions |
|
Glottolog | pear1246 |
The Pearic languages are a group of endangered languages of the Eastern Mon–Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by Pear people (the Por, the Samré, the Samray, the Suoy, and the Chong) living in western Cambodia and southeastern Thailand.
Pearic languages are remnants of the aboriginal languages of much of Cambodia, but have dwindled in numbers due to assimilation. "Pear" is a pejorative term meaning slave or caste.
Paul Sidwell proposed the following classification of the Pearic languages in (Sidwell 2009:137), synthesizing analyses from Headley (1985), Choosri (2002), Martin (1974), and Peiros (2004) He divides Pearic into two primary branches (Pear and Chong), with Chong being further divided into four groups.