Hlai languages (original) (raw)

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Kra–Dai language family of China

Hlai
Li
Ha dialect Qi dialect Run dialect Meifu dialect) Jiamao language
Native to China
Region Hainan
Ethnicity Hlai
Native speakers (667,000 cited 1999)[1]
Language family Kra–DaiHlai–Jiamao?Hlai
Early form Proto-Hlai (reconstructed)
Writing system Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:lic – Hlaicuq – Cun
Glottolog nucl1241
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The Hlai languages (Chinese: 黎语; pinyin: Líyǔ) are a primary branch of the Kra–Dai language family spoken in the mountains of central and south-central Hainan in China by the Hlai people, not to be confused with the colloquial name for the Leizhou branch of Min Chinese (Chinese: 黎话; pinyin: Líhuà). They include Cun, whose speakers are ethnically distinct.[2] A quarter of Hlai speakers are monolingual. None of the Hlai languages had a writing system until the 1950s, when the Latin script was adopted for Ha.

Norquest (2007) classifies the Hlai languages as follows.[3] There are some 750,000 Hlai speakers.

Nadou is spoken by approximately 4,000 people in the two villages of Nàdòu 那斗村 (in Xīnlóng Town 新龙镇) and Yuè 月村 (in Bāsuǒ Town 八所镇), in Dongfang, Hainan. Speakers refer to themselves as lai¹¹ and are officially classified by the Chinese government as ethnic Han Chinese.[4]

Jiāmào 加茂 (52,000 speakers) is a divergent Kra-Dai language with a Hlai superstratum and a non-Hlai substratum.[3]

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).

The following displays the phonological features of the modern Hlai dialects:[5][6][7]

| | Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal | Velar | Glottal | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | pal. | | | | | | | | Plosive | voiceless | p | | t | ȶ | k | kʷ | ʔ | | | | aspirated | pʰ | | tʰ | | kʰ | kʰʷ | | | | | | voiced | | | | | ɡ | ɡʷ | | | | | | implosive | ɓ | | ɗ | | | | | | | | | Affricate | voiceless | | | t͡s | | | | | | | | aspirated | | | t͡sʰ | | | | | | | | | Fricative | voiceless | | f | s | | x | | h | hʷ | hʲ | | voiced | | v | z | | ɣ | | | | | | | lateral | | | ɬ | | | | | | | | | Nasal | m | (ɱ) | n | ȵ | ŋ | ŋʷ | | | | | | Trill | | | r | | | | | | | | | Approximant | | | l | | | | ˀj | ˀw | | |

| | Front | Central | Back | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | High | i | | ɯ | u | | Mid | e | ə | o | | | ɛ | ɔ | | | | | Low | | a | | |

Liang & Zhang (1996:18–21)[9] conclude that the original homeland of the Hlai languages was the Leizhou Peninsula, and estimate that the Hlai had migrated across the Hainan Strait to Hainan Island about 4,000 years before present.[9]

  1. ^ Hlai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Cun at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Ethnologue mistakenly lists Cun among the Kra languages.
  3. ^ a b Norquest, Peter K. (2007). A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai (Ph.D. thesis). University of Arizona. hdl:10150/194203.
  4. ^ Fu, Changzhong 符昌忠 (2020). Nadouyu yanjiu 那斗语研究. Beijing: Minzu chubanshe 民族出版社. OCLC 1294545717.
  5. ^ Ostapirat, Weera (2008). "The Hlai Language". In Diller, Anthony V. N.; Edmondson, Jerold A.; Luo, Yongxian (eds.). The Tai-Kadai Languages. London & New York: Routledge. pp. 623–652.
  6. ^ Yuan, Zhongshu 苑中树, ed. (1994). Líyǔ yǔfǎ gāngyào 黎语语法纲要 [_An Outline of Li Grammar_] (in Chinese). Beijing: Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe. pp. 1–10.
  7. ^ Ouyang, Jueya 欧阳觉亚 (1980). Líyǔ jiǎnzhì 黎语简志 [_Description of the Li language_] (in Chinese). Beijing: Minzu chubanshe.
  8. ^ Norquest (2007), p. 106
  9. ^ a b Liang, Min 梁敏; Zhang, Junru 张均如 (1996). Dòng tái yǔzú gàilùn 侗台语族概论 [_An Introduction to the Kam–Tai Languages_] (in Chinese). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe. ISBN 9787500416814.

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