| Hlai | |
|---|---|
| Li | |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Hainan |
| Ethnicity | Hlai |
Native speakers | (667,000 cited 1999)[1] |
Early form | Proto-Hlai (reconstructed) |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:lic – Hlaicuq – Cun |
| Glottolog | nucl1241 |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
TheHlai languages (Chinese:黎语;pinyin:Líyǔ) are a primary branch of theKra–Dai language family spoken in the mountains of central and south-centralHainan inChina by theHlai people, not to be confused with the colloquial name for theLeizhou branch of Min Chinese (Chinese:黎话;pinyin:Líhuà). They includeCun, 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 theLatin 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 ofNàdòu那斗村 (inXīnlóng Town新龙镇) andYuè月村 (inBāsuǒ Town八所镇), inDongfang, Hainan. Speakers refer to themselves aslai¹¹ 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 thereconstructed 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]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɯ | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o | |
| ɛ | ɔ | |||
| Low | a | |||
Hlai was not written until 1957 when a Latin alphabet was created.
Hlai alphabet (1957):
| Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A a | [a] | H h | [h] | Q q | [ts'] before [i] |
| B b | [p] | I i | [i] | R r | [r] |
| Ƃ ƃ | [ʔb] | J j | [ts] | S s | [ɬ] |
| C c | [ts'] | K k | [k'] | T t | [t'] |
| D d | [t] | L l | [l] | U u | [u] |
| Ƌ ƌ | [ʔd] | M m | [m] | Ɯ ɯ | [ɯ] |
| Ə ə | [ɐ] | N n | [n] | V v | [v] |
| E e | [e] | Ŋ ŋ | [ŋ] | Z z | [z], [ʔj] |
| F f | [f] | O o | [o] | X x | Tone 2 |
| G g | [k] | P p | [p'] | З з | Tone 3 and 8 |
In 1984a new Hlai alphabet version, which included only standard Latin letters. In 2006 this alphabet was reformed. The Hlai alphabet in the 2006 version includes the following characters for initials (there are also 99 finals and 5 tones):
| Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA | Letter | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b | [p] | n | [n] | g | [k] |
| p | [ph] | l | [l] | k | [kh] |
| bl | [pl] | hl | [ɬ] | gh | [g] |
| bh | [b] | r | [r] | ng | [ŋ] |
| m | [m] | z | [ts] | h | [h] |
| w | [ʔw] | j | [ts] | gw | [kw] |
| f | [f] | c | [ɕ], [s] | kw | [khw] |
| v | [v] | q | [tsh] | ghw | [ghw] |
| d | [t] | dz | [z] | ngw | [ŋw] |
| t | [th] | ny | [ȵ] | hw | [hw] |
| dh | [d] | y | [ʔj] | hy | [hj] |
Liang & Zhang (1996:18–21)[9] conclude that the original homeland of the Hlai languages was theLeizhou Peninsula, and estimate that the Hlai had migrated across theHainan Strait to Hainan Island about 4,000 years before present.[9]
