Jorai comes first
Entries follow the Jorai headword in the language’s own alphabet order, with dj and ng as letters of their own. Typing a word without its marks still finds it.
About the project
Keeping Jorai words within reach
Jorai, written Jrai by its speakers, carries family knowledge, place names, songs, prayers and everyday conversation across Vietnam’s Central Highlands and the Jorai communities beyond them.
The Jorai–English Dictionary gathers the words of the Jorai Bible into one searchable place. Each word was counted, set in the Jorai alphabet and given an English meaning, so the language is easier to browse, compare and come back to on the devices people use every day.
A first edition, made to be checked
Every meaning was drafted by reading the Jorai Bible beside the World English Bible and the Rhade Bible, verse by verse. The meanings are a first draft for fluent Jorai readers, and every correction a reader sends makes the next search better.
About the language
A language shaped by community and place
Jorai, called Jrai by its speakers and also written Jarai or Gia Rai, is an Austronesian language of the Chamic family, spoken in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
JraiJoraiJaraiGia Rai
Rooted in the highlands
Home on the Pleiku plateau
Most Jorai speakers live on the plateau around Pleiku in Gia Lai, with communities in neighbouring Kon Tum and Đắk Lắk and across the border in Ratanakiri, Cambodia.
A Chamic sister
Close to Rhade and Cham
Jorai belongs to the Chamic branch of Austronesian with Rhade, Cham and other highland languages. Many everyday words are shared: Jorai ia and Rhade êa both mean water.
A writing system of its own
Every mark has a purpose
Jorai is written in Latin letters with marks of its own: ă â ĕ ê ĭ ŏ ô ơ ŭ ư, the short ô̆ ơ̆ ư̆, and the letters ƀ č đ ñ. The dictionary keeps every mark, because spelling is part of meaning.
Reading the dictionary
A word is only the beginning
Each entry shows how a word is written, what it means, how it behaves and, where an open source records it, where it came from.
Meaning has structure
Each entry names its part of speech and gives a short English meaning, with the common word pairs that help explain it, such as pran jua, the heart.
History stays visible
Where an openly licensed scholarly source lists the word, the entry shows its older Proto-Austronesian or Proto-Chamic form beside the meaning.
Spelling
Small marks carry real differences
Jorai keeps ŭ apart from ư̆ and ŏ apart from ơ̆. Women’s names begin with Hʼ, and a hyphen inside a word, as in pơ-ư, keeps two sounds apart. The dictionary writes every word the way the 2016 Jorai Bible does.
Sources
Drafts, clearly marked
Every meaning comes from how the word is used in the Bible, compared verse by verse with the World English Bible and the Rhade Bible. Until a fluent reader has checked it, read each meaning as a careful first draft.