Koho language
Kơho is a South Bahnaric language spoken by the Kơho people, mainly in the Lâm Đồng Province of Vietnam.
The autonym of the Kơho people is kon cau while Kơho is a Cham exonym.
Subgroups and dialects
There are at least twelve Kơho dialect groups for the area: Chil ; Kalop ; Kơyon ; Làc ; Mà ; Nồp ; Pru; Ryông Tô ; Sop, Sre ; Talà ; and Tring. Although Mạ/Maa is a Koho dialect group, the Mạ people identify as a separate ethnic group.Phonology
Data below are from Olsen.Consonants
Initial consonants
- The phoneme /r/ is commonly a voiced alveolar trill but also often reduces to a flap when it occurs as the second segment in a consonant cluster.
Final consonants
- Before the palatal finals /c/ and /ɲ/, there is an audible palatal offglide after the vowel , so that /pwac/ ‘flesh’ is pronounced as and /ʔaɲ/ ‘I ’ as .
Vowels
- Vowels contrast in length.
Morphology
Compounding
Compounding is a common way of coining new words in Koho. Some examples:- muh mat ‘face’ < muh ‘nose’ + mat ‘eye’
- phe mbar ‘sticky rice’ < phe ‘husked rice’ + mbar ‘sticky’
- ôi ao ‘clothes’ < ôi ‘blanket’ + ao ‘shirt’
Affixing
verbs to causative verbs. If the prefixed verbs have a nasal initial, then the nasal cluster avoidance rule applied.
| Word | Meaning | Prefixed form | Meaning |
| duh | to be hot | tơnduh | to make hot |
| chơt | to die | tơnchơt | to kill |
| ring | to be flat, level, equal | tơnring | to equalize, make right |
| mut | to enter | tơmut | to make enter |
| muu | to descend, go down | tơmuu | to make descend, to lower |