| Cai–Long | |
| Also Known As: | Ta–Li |
| Acceptance: | tentative |
| Region: | western Guizhou, China |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Sinitic? |
| Fam3: | Macro-Bai? |
| Child1: | Caijia |
| Child2: | Longjia–Luren † |
| Glotto: | tali1265 |
| Glottorefname: | Ta-Li |
The Cai–Long or Ta–Li languages are a group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in western Guizhou, China. Only Caijia is still spoken, while Longjia and Luren are extinct.[1] The branch was first recognized by Chinese researchers in the 1980s, with the term Cai–Long first mentioned in Guizhou (1982: 43).[2]
The languages are unclassified within Sino-Tibetan, and could be Sinitic[1] or Macro-Bai.[3]
The Cai–Long languages are:[1]
In addition, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, through their Glottolog database, proposes that Longjia and Luren form a Longjia–Luren branch within Cai–Long.[4]
Hölzl (2021) proposes the name Ta–Li as a portmanteau of the two lexical innovations ‘two’ and ‘pig’, respectively.
| Language | ‘two’ | ‘pig’ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caijia (Hezhang) | ta55 | li21 | |
| Luren (Qianxi) | ta31 | li31 | |
| Longjia (Pojiao/Huaxi) | ta31 | lɛ55 |