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.
Classification
Norquest (2007) classifies the Hlai languages as follows.[3] Individual languages are highlighted in bold. 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).
Phonology
The following displays the phonological features of the modern Hlai dialects:[5][6][7]
Among other Hlai dialects, /a,i,e,o/ can have allophones of [ɐ,ɪ,ɛ,ɔ].
Vowel sounds /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are common among the Baisha and Jiamao dialects.
/ə/ occurs among some dialects.
History
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]
^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.
^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.
^Ouyang, Jueya 欧阳觉亚 (1980). Líyǔ jiǎnzhì 黎语简志 [Description of the Li language] (in Chinese). Beijing: Minzu chubanshe.