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Jahai (Jehai) is an aboriginal Mon–Khmer language spoken by the Jahai people living in the montane rainforests of northern Peninsular Malaysia and southernmost Thailand. It is the largest Northern Aslian language. Though spoken by only a little more than 1,000 people, Jahai does not appear to be in immediate danger of extinction due to the prevalence of Jahai parents passing on the language to their children as their mother tongue.

Jahai has a unique vocabulary for describing odors.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Syllable structure

On the surface level, the maximal syllable in Jahai is represented as CV(C). The onset consonant is obligatorily required.

Stress and tone

The position of stress always falls on the last syllable. Burenhult states there is no tonal distinction in Jahai language.

Olfactory categories

Odor terms in Jahai are based on abstract qualities rather than specific sources (which is more common cross-linguistically, particularly in European languages).

See also

• Kensiu language

References

1. ^ Jahai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. ^ Burenhult, Niclas (2005). A Grammar of Jahai (PDF). Pacific Linguistics 566. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/pl-566. hdl:1885/146729. ISBN 0-85883-554-1.
3. ^ Majid, Asifa; Burenhult, Niclas (2014). "Odors are expressible in language, as long as you speak the right language". Cognition. 130 (2): 266–270. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2013.11.004. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0014-9D63-D. ISSN 0010-0277. PMID 24355816. S2CID 16257849.
4. Majid, Asifa; Burenhult, Niclas; Stensmyr, Marcus; de Valk, Josje; Hansson, Bill S. (2018). "Olfactory language and abstraction across cultures". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 373 (1752): 20170139. doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0139. ISSN 0962-8436. PMC 6015838. PMID 29915007.

External links

• http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)
• http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-6701-4@view Jahai in RWAAI Digital Archive
• Jahai DoReCo corpus compiled by Niclas Burenhult. Audio recordings of narrative texts with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level, translations, and - for some texts - time-aligned morphological annotations.

v t e Languages of Thailand
Official language	Thai
Other Thais	Lao–Phutai Isan Phu Thai Chiang Saen Northern Thai Tai Lü Phuan Thai Song Sukhothai Southern Thai Northwestern Khün Shan Tai Nüa
Minority by languages groups	Austroasiatic Bru Chong Chung Jahai Kensiu Khmer Northern Western Kintaq Kuy Mlabri Mon Nyah Kur Palaung Ten'edn Thavung Vietnamese Austronesian Cham Malay Bangkok Malay Pattani Malay Satun Malay Moken Moklen Urak Lawoi’ Hmong-Mien Hmong Iu Mien Sino-Tibetan Akha Eastern Pwo Lisu Sinitic Cantonese Teochew Hakka Hokkien Hainanese Hokchew Nuosu Mpi Northern Pwo Phrae Pwo Red Karen (Eastern Kayah) S'gaw Karen Ugong
Non-Indigenous	Immigrant language Burmese Hindi Punjabi Russian Southwestern Mandarin Working language English Japanese Korean
Sign languages	Thai Sign Language Ban Khor Sign

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• Languages of Malaysia
• Languages of Thailand
• Aslian languages