Malang

The three dialectal zones of the Pakatan/Maleng Vietic subgroup are:

1) Maleng, (Kha) Pakatan, Malang, Harème (Rivière 1902). Other names: Kha Muong Ben and Kha Bo (Fraisse 1950). Spoken in Laos by around 500 people.

2) Kha Phong, Maleng Kari, Maleng Brô. Other name: Kha Nam Om (Fraisse 1949). Spoken in Laos and Vietnam. It was assumed that the Malêng Brô variety had already vanished, but in 1992 Michel Ferlus could find speakers, although only 3 at the time (Ferlus 1997).

3) Mãliềng, vietnamised form of maleng. This dialectal zone was attested by Vietnamese researchers, who use another name: Pa Leng (Đặng Nghiêm Vạn et al. 1986). Spoken in Vietnam on the mountain range between the provinces of Quảng Bình and Hà Tĩnh by around 200 people (Ferlus 1996, 1997).

We don’t know the exact number of speakers in Laos, but it is supposed that the total number of speakers of the Maleng sub-group may not be higher than a thousand (Ferlus 1996).