The Hlai languages () are a primary branch of the Kra–Dai language family spoken in the mountains of central and south-central

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

by the

Hlai people The Hlai, also known as Li or Lizu, are a Kra–Dai-speaking ethnic group, one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. The vast majority live off the southern coast of China on Hainan Island, where they ...

, not to be confused with the colloquial name for the

Leizhou Leizhou () is a county-level city in Guangdong Province, China. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Zhanjiang. The city was formerly known as Haikang County ( postal: Hoihong); it was upgraded into a city in 1994. G ...

branch of Min Chinese (). They include Cun, whose speakers are ethnically distinct. A quarter of Hlai speakers are monolingual. None of the Hlai languages had a writing system until the 1950s, when the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

was adopted for Ha.

Classification

Norquest (2007) classifies the Hlai languages as follows. Individual languages are highlighted in bold. There are some 750,000 Hlai speakers. *

Proto-Hlai Proto-Hlai is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed ancestor of the Hlai languages. Proto-Hlai reconstructions include those of Matisoff (1988), Thurgood (1991), Wu (2000), Ostapirat (2004), and Norquest (2007). Phonology Peter K. Norques ...

** Bouhin (Heitu 黑土) – 73,000 **Greater Hlai ***Ha Em 哈炎 (Zhongsha 中沙) – 193,000 ***Central Hlai ****East Central Hlai – 344,000 ***** Lauhut (Baoding 保定) – 166,000, the basis of the literary language *****Qi 杞 also known as ''Gei'' – 178,000 ****** Tongzha (Tongshi 通什) – 125,000 ****** Zandui (Qiandui 堑对) – 29,000 ****** Baoting 保亭 – 24,000 ****North Central Hlai – 136,500 *****Northwest Central Hlai – 62,500 ****** Cun (Ngan Fon, Gelong 仡隆) – 60,000 ****** Nadou (Dongfang 东方) – 2,500 *****Northeast Central Hlai – 74,000 ******Meifu 美孚 (Moifau) – 30,000 ******* Changjiang 昌江 ******* Moyfaw (Xifang 西方) ******Run (''Zwn'') also known as ''Bendi'' – 44,000 ******* Baisha 白沙 – 36,000 ******* Yuanmen 元门 – 8,000 The Fuma 府玛 dialect is spoken in one village north of

Changjiang The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

昌城, Hainan. It had about 800 speakers in 1994.

Jiamao Jiamao (, ''Jiamao''; also ''Tái'' or ''Sāi'') is a possible language isolate spoken in southern Hainan, China. Jiamao speakers' autonym is ''1''.See Proto-Tai_language#Tones for an explanation of the tone codes. Classification Jiamao was ...

加茂 (52,000) is a divergent Kra-Dai language with a Hlai superstratum and a non-Hlai substratum.

Reconstruction

The Proto-Hlai language is the reconstructed ancestor of the Hlai languages. Proto-Hlai reconstructions include those of Matisoff (1988), Thurgood (1991), Ostapirat (2004), and Norquest (2007).

Phonology

The following displays the phonological features of the modern Hlai dialects:

Consonants

* , mainly occur word-initially among various dialects. may also be realized as . *[], [] mainly occur among the Xifang dialects. * can also occur as an allophone of . * , , are pronounced as alveolo-palatal sounds , , , among other various dialects. * can have allophones as . * For a brief period of time Yuanmen distinguished and after became which soon merged with .Norquest (2007)
p. 106

Vowels

* Among other Hlai dialects, can have allophones of . * Vowel sounds and are common among the Baisha and Jiamao dialects. * occurs among some dialects.

History

Liang & Zhang (1996:18-21) conclude that the original homeland of the Hlai languages was the

Leizhou Peninsula The Leizhou Peninsula, alternately romanized as the Luichow Peninsula, is a peninsula in the southernmost part of Guangdong province in South China. History Qing naval forces were stationed at the Leizhou Peninsula. During the 19th century ...

, and estimate that the Hlai had migrated across the

Hainan Strait The Qiongzhou Strait, also called the is the Chinese strait that separates Guangdong's Leizhou Peninsula from the island province of Hainan. It connects the Gulf of Tonkin on its west to the South China Sea on its east. The strait is on aver ...

to Hainan island about 4,000 years before present.

Notes

References

* *

External links

Bible recordings in various Hlai languages

ABVD: Proto-Hlai word list

Hlai-language Swadesh vocabulary list of basic words
(from Wiktionary'
Swadesh-list appendix

Hlai languages learning website
(both in Mandarin Chinese and English) {{Authority control