The Stieng Chhnaeng village

other even further back than the founding of Chhok, and did not have much further contact with each other. 24

4.2.3 The Stieng Chhnaeng village

Chhnaeng village V17 is about one-half Stieng people and one-half Bunong people. Both languages seem to be strong as, according to the chief, the Stieng people speak Stieng among themselves and Bunong to Bunong people, but the Bunong also learn Stieng. The Stieng in Ou Rona speak differently 25 but can be understood; the people in Chhnaeng village still consider those in Ou Rona to be Stieng people who speak the Stieng language. Srae Ampil, Khu, and Srae Khtum in Kauv Seima are places that speak the same. The people of Chhnaeng travel to and receive people from Ou Rona, Village 7, and Ou Am. They visit and receive visits from relatives in these places, using Stieng, Khmer, and Ra’ong. 26 Chrap village In Chrap village V20 in Snuol, Kratie, the young people understand Stieng but do not speak it. The very old speak Stieng; others can speak Khmer to them, but they will answer in Stieng. Those between the ages of about 50 to 60 years, such as the village chief, speak Stieng with each other, but will speak Khmer to younger people. Children usually speak Khmer only, although some are able to speak Stieng, if their mothers always use it to speak to them. The Stieng in Chrap want their children to learn Khmer so that they are able to understand it clearly at school. When asked how older people perceive the language situation in their village, the chief said they do not really have any feelings one way or the other, because they still use their language and the younger people still at least understand it. However, in his opinion, the Stieng in Chrap are losing their language. The village chief did not know of any Stieng villages where all or most of the children are still speaking Stieng. He said they are all speaking Khmer now. No nearby “Stieng” villages are purely Stieng, all are mixed a little with Khmer and Cham, such as Thma Hal Viel BCI H . However, the Stieng in those places still consider themselves to be Stieng people. Instead of inquiring who speaks Stieng poorly, we asked the village chief who speaks Khmer poorly in his village. He answered that, although everyone in the village can speak Khmer, the Stieng in general do not speak Khmer “well” or “clearly,” because they are Stieng. As an example, he pointed out a young woman, perhaps 25 years old, who was sitting in on the interview. “She does not speak Stieng at all,” he told us, “only Khmer, but she does not speak Khmer clearly.” In other words, she and other Stieng people, although fluent in Khmer, have an accent or a different way of speaking Khmer that distinguishes them from Khmer people who are speaking Khmer. 27 Regarding which Stieng people speak the Stieng language differently, the village chief could only single out the Stieng from Vietnam. He went on to say that no village in Cambodia has a 24 This is just one hypothesis attempting to account for the strong lexical similarity between Ou Krieng and the Khaonh villages. Thanks to Ramzi Nahhas of SIL’s Mainland Southeast Asia survey department for suggesting it. 25 This could be because there are only two Stieng families in Ou Rona, living with 89 Bunong families and 40 Khmer families. 26 This Stieng leader listed Ou Am as a nearby village containing people from other ethnic groups; specifically mentioning the Ra’ong as being the other ethnic group. 27 We noticed this while testing our questionnaire a few months earlier in the nearby village of Thma Hal Viel. When speaking Khmer, the women especially had a noticeable lilt and distinctive intonation to their speech. large community of these Stieng. 28 According to the village chief, they do speak Stieng, but they do not speak clearly. For an example, they might have a different pronunciation of the same or a similar word; their accents or vowels are different. Villages he specifically mentioned that speak the same are: Thma Hal Viel BCI H ; Kbal Ampoe J K ; Bravaeng Lemut CL ; Trapeang Srae LM ; Cheng Khle N 6O ; and Cheng Khla N 6O . They go to visit siblings and other relatives in these Stieng villages. According to the Chrap village chief, the Stieng people come from Kratie, but only the Stieng Leu :F N —the ‘upper’ Stieng. Interestingly, he differentiates between these upper Stieng and the Stieng-Bunong :F 9 . In answering other questions, the village chief specifically called the Bunong a separate ethnic group and did not closely associate them with the Stieng. Quite possibly, Stieng-Bunong refers to the Ra’ong. Mil village According to the village chief, all the Stieng in Mil village V21 speak Stieng. It is the language of the home, the language used most often in the village, and everyone speaks it the same way. Another village that reportedly speaks Stieng in the same way is Chhnaeng village. Villagers from Mil travel to Chhnaeng village and they, in turn, visit Mil village. They have no problems understanding each other’s Stieng. According to the chief, people from Phum Kbal, Snuol, Krung Tonle, Provaeng, Peng Sra, and Chengkley 29 speak Stieng a little differently. Mil village seems to have more interaction with Khmer people than it does with any other ethnic group as more than half the village is Khmer. They consider themselves to be Stieng and do not see any ethnic difference in Stieng people they meet from other places, even those they report as speaking a little differently.

4.2.4 The Ra’ong