Jarai (; , , , , , , or ; , ) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Jarai people of Vietnam and Cambodia. The speakers of Jarai number approximately , not including other possible Jarai communities in countries other than Vietnam and Cambodia such as United States of America. They are the largest of the upland ethnic groups of Vietnam's Central Highlands known as Degar or Montagnards, and 25 per cent of the population in the Cambodian province of Ratanakiri. The language is in the Chamic subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, and is thus related to the Cham language of central Vietnam. A number of Jarai also live in the United States, having resettled there following the Vietnam War. Classification The Jarai language belongs to Chamic branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages. Although often classified as a Mon-Khmer language until the 20th century, the affiliation of Jarai to the Chamic sister languages Cham and Rade, and a wider connection to Malay was already recognized as early as 1864. Geographic distribution and dialects Jarai is spoken by some 262,800 people in Cambodia and Vietnam (Simons, 2017) where it is recognized as an official minority language, although in Cambodia it has not its own writing in the Khmer scripts. Additionally there are some hundreds of Jarai speakers in United States from the Jarai refugees settled in that country after the Vietnamese War. Jarai dialects can be mutually unintelligible. Đào Huy Quyền (1998) lists the following subgroups of Jarai dialects and their respective locations. Jarai Pleiku: in the Pleiku area. Jarai Cheoreo: in AJunPa (Phú Bổn). Jarai ARáp: in northwestern Pleiku, southwestern Kon Tum. Jarai H’dRung: in northeastern Pleiku, southeastern Kon Tum. Jarai Tbuan: western Pleiku. Other related groups include: HRoi: in western Phú Yên, southern Bình Định. Mixed Ede and Jarai people. M’dhur: in southern Phú Yên. Mixed Ede and Jarai people. Hàlang: in southwestern Kon Tum, and some in Laos and Cambodia. Mixed Sedang and Jarai people. Phonology Influenced by the surrounding Mon–Khmer languages, words of the various Chamic languages of Southeast Asia, including Jarai, have become disyllabic with the stress on the second syllable. Additionally, Jarai has further evolved in the pattern of Mon–Khmer, losing almost all vowel distinction in the initial minor syllable. While trisyllabic words do exist, they are all loanwords. The typical Jarai word may be represented: (C)(V)-C(C)V(V)(C) where the values in parentheses are optional and