Bahnaric

Bahnaric is a group of about thirty Austroasiatic languages spoken through the Central Highlands of Vietnam and across the border into Cambodia and Laos, whose internal diversity suggests the branch broke up around 1000 BCE. It divides into northern, central, western and eastern groups.

Chamic-speaking peoples pushed between the northern and central groups, and wars with Chams, Lao and Siamese from the twelfth century onward narrowed the highlanders' range, leaving them swidden farmers in the mountains above the coastal kingdoms.

None of these languages had a traditional script; they were carried by oral epics such as the Bahnar Dam Noi and by gong-and-bamboo music. In 1771 Sedang and Bahnar warriors, with their war elephants, joined the Tây Sơn rebellion from the hills of Bình Định and helped carry the Tây Sơn brothers to power.