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.
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).
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]
^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.
