Photos of Chong and Their Environment

In Chantaburi province of eastern Thailand, and in pockets of western Cambodia, is a group of people whose primary language is Chong, and whose secondary language is either Thai or Khmer, depending on the country they live in. Their culture and language are disappearing.

One man, Kamnan Cheun Phunphan, a Chong himself, has taken it upon himself to try and save his language from extinction. [Kamnan is a title, meaning something like "community leader".] Using a grant from Mahidol University, he has developed teaching courses, and the language is being taught in one school.

He has also developed a simple alphabet to represent Chong sounds, as there is no existing Chong alphabet. It is an oral language, not a written one. Samples of the characters he has created are shown below.

We have given two presentations to the Chong about my South East Asian Language (SEAL) Software and how it can be readily adapted to build a dictionary and help teach this endangered language.

By using SEAL Software to build a Chong-Thai-English dictionary, they automatically also create Chong-German, Chong-French, etc., dictionaries, all the languages supported by SEAL Software.

In the index below, click on a small image for a large one,
or click on the arrow at the bottom to see the images in sequence.

We are now seeking funds to help the Chong people

The first 150,000 baht (about US$4000) raised will be used to employ my two Thai assistants for about 6 months to help convert the software to handle Chong, creating a Chong font, tailoring the teaching program for Chong, converting English captions and titles to Thai and Chong, and providing on-site technical support to the Chong when the system is implemented. My time will be donated. I will not receive any money.

Any amount over 150,000 baht will go directly to Kamnan Cheun, who will use it to buy computer hardware (ideally, 3 or 4 machines and a printer), and pay native Chong speakers to enter words into the dictionary and record Chong words. The goal is to raise a total of US$50,000, which will provide employment for several people for several years, as well as buy all the hardware they need.

If you would like to donate to this project, click here (opens in a new window). Any donation of US$25 or more will receive a password that will unlock the bonus files on this site; this makes thousands more images and sounds available, making Speak Easy Thai much more usable.