Katuic

Katuic is a branch of around fifteen Austroasiatic languages in the middle Mekong region, spoken in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and the Annamite hills of Vietnam. Its western languages, Kuy and Bru, have the most speakers; smaller branches include the namesake Katu group, judged the most conservative.

The Bru, whose name means people of the woods, hold the Annamite highlands and trace ties to the Khmer kingdom of Angkor at its height between the 800s and the 1200s. The Kuy are regarded as older inhabitants between the Mun River and the Dangrek Mountains; their Tai exonym Suay means tribute-payers.

The elephant Kuy of Surin were famed as catchers and trainers of wild elephants for lowland courts. In this period Katuic remained unwritten, transmitted orally in swidden-farming villages, while writing and religion reached them through the Lao, Thai or Khmer of the plains.