Maleng language

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title: "Maleng language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-laos", "languages-of-vietnam", "vietic-languages"] description: "Austroasiatic language spoken in Laos and Vietnam" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maleng_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Austroasiatic language spoken in Laos and Vietnam ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Maleng
altname	Pakatan
nativename	Bo
states	Laos, Vietnam
speakers	3,700
date	2000–2007
ref	e18
familycolor	Austro-Asiatic
fam2	Vietic
fam3	Chutic
dia1	Atel
dia2	Thémarou
dia3	Arao
dia4	Makang
dia5	Malang
dia6	Maleng
dia7	Tơe
lc1	pkt
lc2	bgl
glotto	male1282
glottoname	Maleng
glotto2	bola1249
glottoname2	Bo-Maleng
glottorefname2	Bo-Maleng
::

|name=Maleng |altname=Pakatan |nativename=Bo |states=Laos, Vietnam |speakers=3,700 |date=2000–2007 |ref=e18 |familycolor=Austro-Asiatic |fam2=Vietic |fam3=Chutic |dia1=Atel |dia2=Thémarou |dia3=Arao |dia4=Makang |dia5=Malang |dia6=Maleng |dia7=Tơe |lc1=pkt|ld1=Pakatan |lc2=bgl|ld2=Bo |glotto=male1282 |glottoname=Maleng |glotto2=bola1249 |glottoname2=Bo-Maleng |glottorefname2=Bo-Maleng

Maleng (autonym: /malɛ̤ŋ²/), also known as Pakatan and Bo, is a Vietic language of Laos and Vietnam.

Maleng has the four-way register system of Thavung augmented with pitch.

Malieng, despite having the same name as Maleng, is a dialect of Chut (Chamberlain 2003, Sidwell 2009).

Varieties

Maleng consists of three dialect clusters:

• Maleng (Mã Liềng); Kha Pakatan; Malang; Arem/Harème (Rivière 1902). Sub-varieties include Kha Muong Ben and Kha Bo (Fraisse 1950).
• Ma Lieng, also known as Pa Leng (Đặng Nghiêm Vạn et al. 1986)
• Kha Phong (formerly an exonym, but now also used as an autonym); Maleng Kari; Maleng Bro. Also known as Kha Nam Om (Fraisse 1949). The Kha Phong live in 2 to 3 villages in Laos, and in one village in Hà Tĩnh province, Vietnam. Strongly influenced by Lao. Maleng Bro was documented by Michel Ferlus in 1992 (see Ferlus 1997), and also by the 2012-2013 Russian-Vietnamese Linguistic Expedition.

Distribution

Maleng is spoken in the following villages of Laos and Vietnam.

• Khammouane province, Laos
  • Nậm Huay
  • Pung Kợt
  • Song Khon
  • Upper Nrong River
  • Xang Huay E An
• Quảng Bình province (500+ people) and Hà Tĩnh province (in Hương Khê district; 133 people in 2012), Vietnam
  • Hương Lâm
  • Hương Liên
  • Lâm Hóa

References

References

1. Sidwell, Paul. [http://sealang.net/mk/vietic.htm Vietic languages]. Mon-Khmer Languages Project.
2. (2021). "A Grammar of May: An Austroasiatic Language of Vietnam". Brill.
3. Rivière, Capitaine M. 1902. Vocabulaires Hang-Tcheh, Khas Xos, Harème. ''Mission Pavie, Géographie et voyages. IV''. Paris: Ernest Leroux.
4. Fraisse, André. 1950. Les tribus Sèk et Kha de la province de Cammon (Laos). ''Bulletin de la Société des études indochinoises'' 25.3:333–348.
5. Đặng Nghiêm Vạn, Chu Thái Sơn, Lưu Hùng. 1986. ''Les ethnies minoritaires du Vietnam''. Hanoi: Editions en langues étrangères.
6. Fraisse, André. 1949. Une civilisation de clairière au Laos: le Cammon. ''Annales de Géographie'' 58.310:158–161.
7. Ferlus, Michel. 1997. Le maleng brô et le vietnamien. ''[[Mon-Khmer Studies]]'' 27:55–66.
8. Babaev, Kirill Vladimirovich [Бабаев, Кирилл Владимирович]; Samarina, Irina Vladimirovna [Самарина, Ирина Владимировна]. 2019. Язык май. Материалы Российско-вьетнамской лингвистической экспедиции / ''Jazyk maj. Materialy Rossijsko-vetnamskoj lingvisticheskoj ekspeditsii''. Moscow: [http://www.lrc-press.ru/ Издательский Дом ЯСК]. {{isbn. 978-5-907117-34-1. {{in lang. ru. p.16.

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