Nguá»Ân (also NÃÂm Nguyên) is a Vietic language spoken by the Nguá»Ân people in the Trðá»Âng Sán mountains in Vietnam's North Central Coast region as well as in nearby regions of Laos.
Most Nguá»Ân speakers in Vietnam live in the secluded Minh Hóa district of Quảng Bình Province, with others in the area around ÃÂá»Âng Lê, the seat of Tuyên Hoá District, approximately from the National Highway 1.
The Nguá»Ân language has been variously described as a dialect of Vietnamese or as the southernmost dialect of Mðá»Âng. Some researchers who consider it more closely related to Mðá»Âng find that those who connect it more closely with Vietnamese are more influenced by ethnographic and/or political concerns than linguistic evidence. Chamberlain (2003) and Sidwell (2009) count it as a third VietâÂÂMuong language.
Most Nguá»Ân live in Tuyên Hóa District (alongside the neighboring Sách people, a subgroup of the Chứt people who also speak a Vietic language) and in Minh Hoá District (living with the neighboring Viá»Ât peoples).
There are also Nguá»Ân living in Laos, but with conflicting reports as to their exact location. According to Chamberlain (1998), there is a Nguá»Ân village in central Laos known as Ban Pak Phanang in Boualapha District, Khammouane Province.
Chéon (1907), Maspéro (1912), and Cuisinier (1948) considered Nguá»Ân to be more closely related to Mðá»Âng while Mạc (1964), Nguyá» n ÃÂ. B. (1975), and Phạm (1975) connected it with Vietnamese.
Later linguistic comparison by Nguyá» n V. T. (1975) and Nguyá» n Ph. Ph. (1996) suggest a closer link with the Mðá»Âng dialects, and this is echoed by Barker (1993) (and others).
Jerold A. Edmondson, Kenneth J. Gregerson, and Nguyen Van Loi mention that this language is of "great interest to those studying the history of Vietic languages" due to its distinct historical developments.
Nguyá» n V. T. (1975) notes that Nguá»Ân speakers can communicate with Mðá»Âng speakers with each speaking their own language, but Vietnamese speakers who do not know Mðá»Âng cannot understand Nguá»Ân.
Although closer to Mðá»Âng generally (especially concerning sound system similarities), in some aspects Nguá»Ân is more similar to Vietnamese. For example, the negative marker in Vietnamese is the particle không, which is ultimately a loanword from Chinese that became grammaticalized. The native negative marker chẳng, which is attested in earlier stages of Vietnamese, was largely replaced by the Chinese borrowing. Mðá»Âng, in contrast, has preserved the original chẳng. Nguá»Ân has, like Vietnamese, lost chẳng to không. In this feature of the loss of the native negative marker, Nguá»Ân is like Vietnamese rather than Mðá»Âng.
Nguyá» n Ph. Ph. (1996) notes that there are two varieties of Nguá»Ân:
CỠLiêm is named after the village of the same name; Yên ThỠis the name of a cooperative in Tân Hoá village.
The Yên ThỠvariety is closer to Vietnamese than CỠLiêm with respect to certain phonological developments.
In 1905, Cadière reported that the Nguá»Ân (as well as the Sách people) were to be found in valleys of the Nguá»Ân NÃÂn river in eleven villages. Originally there were two groups of five villages. The northern group was in Cá Sa canton (along with some Viá»Ât villages) and consisted of the following villages:
Tân Kiá»Âu was later split into two villages resulting in a sixth village in the northern group:
The more southerly village group consisted of
Mạc (1964) and Nguyá» n ÃÂ. B. (1975) assert that Nguá»Ân is an original Viá»Ât group from the area of the HàTénh and Nghá» An provinces who moved into their present territory by the 17th century. Evidence for this opinion is based on family records. Mạc (1964) also reports that most Nguá»Ân declared themselves to be Viá»Ât on the 1960 census.
Nguyá» n V. T. (1975) suggests that the Mðá»Âng could have migrated further south than Nghá» An to as far as Quảng Bình. Although some Viá»Ât families may have migrated to this region, they may have done so after Mðá»Âng groups had already been established in the area. These Viá»Ât migrants could, then, have assimilated in language to the Mðá»Âng. This Mðá»Âng variety also would have been in contact with Chứt languages, like Sách. Thus, Nguyá» n V. T. (1975) suggests that Nguá»Ân is a variety of Mðá»Âng spoken by Mðá»Âng (possibly HàTénh Mðá»Âng) and assimilated Viá»Ât people with influences from Chứt languages.