Proposed Chong Alphabet

The first questions that might be asked are, "Why develop an alphabet? Why not use an existing alphabet, like English, or Khmer, or Thai?" The answer is:

• the local people do not know English (or any other European language);
• the locals do know Thai (in Thailand) and Khmer (in Cambodia) but do not know Khmer in Thailand nor Thai in Cambodia;
• the Chong want to show that they are neither Thai nor Khmer, they are distinct.

This idea of distinct identity is common to many endangered societies, and a perfect illustration of this is Canada's Eskimos. Note the symbols used in their alphabet:

Thai has many more characters than shown in the lists above, because the alphabet was developed several hundred years ago, and shows influences from its source languages. Kamnan Cheun has only defined characters for actual sounds, so the total number of characters is small: 22 consonants and 31 vowels.

Furthermore, Thai has a complex way of drawing vowels, with some placed before the consonant (although they are pronounced after the consonant), some above, some below, and some after. In the vowel list above, a consonant is shown with a small dash (hyphen). Kamnan Cheun has tried to simplify the Thai arrangements, while still maintaining a similarity that is immediately recognisable to a Thai speaker.