Grandchildren Katatagan ng Wika gamit ang Nine Factors in Language Vitality
81 Occasionally, the survey team joined meals with some Kachok families during
the fieldwork. It was observed that the Kachok people use their own language when talking with their children, parents, grandparents, and siblings at home.
For marriage patterns and language choices as shown in Table 15, some respondents gave more than one response. As reported, intermarriage with other
ethnic groups is common among the Kachok people although the majority of them marry within their language group. Individual SLQ question 36 and Group interview
questions 32 and 33 provide answers about the language used by the Kachok speakers when they marry a non-Kachok speaker see Appendix 1. pp. 176-177, 184. In some
cases of intermarriages, Kachok is used at home but sometimes the language of the non-Kachok spouse is mixed with Kachok when they talk to each other and with their
children. In Table 15, only two respondents in two villages answered that they use both Kachok language and the language of the spouse at home. In the village of In, a
Kachok-and-Khmer couple uses both Kachok and Khmer when talking to their children and grandchildren. However, in Upper Kachut, a Kachok-and-Jarai couple
uses both Kachok and Jarai when talking to each other, but uses only Kachok with their children. For unmarried persons, some domains were not applicable to them
i.e., ‘with spouse’, ‘children’, and ‘grandchildren’. Mixed language is used when Kachok people intermarry with other ethnic
groups like the Jarai, Tampuan, Kreung, and Khmer. They speak Kachok and the language of the non-Kachok spouse with children and other members of the family at
home.
82 Results also show that Kachok and non-Kachok couples use the language of
the village where they live. For example, when a Jarai man marries a Kachok woman and they live in a Kachok village, the Jarai husband will learn the Kachok language of
the wife and will speak Kachok with her and with their children. Similarly, when a Kachok man marries a Jarai woman and they live in a Jarai village, Jarai will be the
language at home. In addition, the survey team stayed at the house of the Kachok leader during
the fieldwork. The Kachok leader, whose wife is a Vietnamese, presently lives in Andoung Meas district. During the team’s stay it was noted that their language at
home is a mix of Khmer, Kachok, and Vietnamese. The children spoke Vietnamese, Khmer and Kachok. They spoke Khmer with the team members, but used Kachok
when they talked to the Kachok interpreters. Various people who came to the Kachok leader’s house use their own language when talking with the Kachok leader. Khmer
language is spoken most of the time, but Kachok is used when talking with the Kachok people.