Jiamao language explained

Jiamao
Nativename:	Tai 台
Also Known As:	Sai 塞
Region:	Hainan
Date:	1987
Ref:	e25
Familycolor:	Kradai
Fam1:	Kra-Dai or language isolate
Fam2:	Hlai–Jiamao?
Iso3:	jio
Glotto:	jiam1236
Glottorefname:	Jiamao

Jiamao (; also Chinese: 台 Tái or Chinese: 塞 Sāi) is a divergent Kra-Dai language or possible language isolate spoken in southern Hainan, China.^[1] Jiamao speakers' autonym is pronounced as /tʰai/¹.^{[2] [3]}

Classification

Jiamao is often classified one of the Hlai languages, which constitute a primary branch of the Kra–Dai language family, but Norquest (2007, 2015) and others note that Jiamao has a non-Hlai substratum.

Graham Thurgood (1992) suggested that Jiamao might have an Austroasiatic substratum. Norquest (2007) identified various lexical items in Jiamao that do not reconstruct to Proto-Hlai and later firmly established it as a non-Hlai language. Hsiu (2018) notes that Jiamao also contains various words borrowed from an unknown, currently extinct Tibeto-Burman branch.^[4]

Demographics

In the 1980s, Jiamao was spoken by 50,000 people in central and south-central Hainan, mostly in Jiamao Township (加茂镇) in Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County. It shares less than half of its lexicon with the Hlai languages.

In Lingshui Li Autonomous County, Jiamao is spoken in Benhao (本号), Nanping (南平), Wenluo (文罗), Zuguan (祖关), Longguang (隆广), and Tianzi (田仔).^[5] In Lingshui County, Jiamao is known as Tái (台), and is also known as Sāi (塞) or Jiāwǒ (加我).

There are four Jiamao dialects,^[6] namely Jiamao (加茂), Liugong (六弓), Tianzi (田仔), and Qunying (群英).

Jiamao is spoken in the following villages and townships of southern Hainan.

• Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County (保亭黎族苗族自治县)
  • Jiamao Township (加茂乡)
  • Liugong Township (六弓乡)
  • Shiling Town (什玲镇, in Jie 介村 and Shisheng 什胜村 villages)
• Lingshui Li Autonomous County (陵水黎族自治县)
  • Longguang Town (隆广镇)
  • Benhao Town (本号镇)
• Sanya (三亚市)
  • Haitangwan Town (海棠湾镇, northeastern part: in Longtoucai 龙头菜村, Xiepei 协配村, and Maohou 毛喉村 villages)

The Liaoergong (廖二弓) dialect is documented in Huang (2011).^[7]

Phonology

Tones

Jiamao has 8 distinct tone categories (Norquest 2015:311):

Tone category	High register tone	Low register tone
A (open)	/55/ (tone 1)	/11/ (tone 4)
X (glottalized)	/51/ (tone 5)	/31/ (tone 2)
DL (long closed)	/53/ (tone 9)	/31/ (tone 8)
DS (short closed)	/55/ (tone 7)	/22/ (tone 10)

Like Proto-Be,^[8] Jiamao does not distinguish between tone categories B and C, but rather only has an X category.

As noted by Thurgood (1992) and Norquest (2015), these do not correspond to Hlai tones, but rather initials in Proto-Hlai. High register tones are derived from unvoiced initials, and low register tones from voiced initials.

See also

• Jiamao vocabulary lists (Wiktionary)

Works cited

• Book: Thurgood, Graham . Papers from the First Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society . Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies . 1992 . Ratliff . Martha S. . 417–433 . en . The Aberrancy of the Jiamao Dialect of Hlai: Speculation on its Origins and History . Schiller . E..
• Norquest . Peter Kristian . A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai . 2007 . PhD dissertation . University of Arizona . en . 10150/194203 . free.
• Book: Norquest, Peter K. . A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai . 2015 . Brill . 978-90-04-30052-1 . en.

Further reading

• Book: Huang, Quan 黄权 . Hàn-Lí zìdiǎn (Sài fāngyán) . 2011 . Yunnan minzu chubanshe . 978-75367-4971-9 . zh . zh:汉黎字典 (赛方言) . Chinese-Hlai Dictionary (Sai Dialect).
• Book: Yang, Wenping 杨文平 . Hàn-Lí zìdiǎn: Tái fāngyán (Língshuǐ) . 2016 . Nanhai chuban gongsi . 978-7-5442-8130-0 . zh . zh:汉黎字典: 台方言 (陵水) . Chinese-Hlai Dictionary: Tai Dialect (Lingshui).
• Book: Zeng . Kewen 曾科文 . Lízú: Sài fāngyán . Liang . Zhenzhen 梁珍珍 . 2016 . Nanhai chuban gongsi . 978-7-5442-8364-9 . zh . zh:黎族: 赛方言 . The Li Ethnic Group: Sai Dialect.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Miyake . Marc . Marc Miyake . September 20, 2011 . 11.9.20.22:04: Is Jiamao Hlai? . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190804112844/http://www.amritas.com/110924.htm#09202204 . August 4, 2019 . May 25, 2018 . www.amritas.com . en.
2. See for an explanation of the tone codes.
3. Liu . Yuanchao 刘援朝 . 2008 . Líyǔ Jiāmàohuà gàikuàng . zh:黎语加茂话概况 . Mínzú yǔwén . zh . 5 . zh:民族語文.
4. Web site: Hsiu . Andrew . December 2017 . The Origins of Jiamao . https://web.archive.org/web/20201009124542/https://sites.google.com/site/msealangs/home/blog/jiamao . 2020-10-09 . MSEA Languages . en.
5. Web site: Lang . Alang 郎啊朗 . 2006-09-27 . "Bǎotíng Jiāmào Lízú" shì zhēn dí Lízú ma? . zh:“保亭加茂黎族”是真的黎族吗？ . Tiānyá shèqū . zh.
6. Web site: Xin . Shibiao 辛世彪 . 2009-02-14 . Jiāmào Líyǔ de sìdà fāngyán . zh:加茂黎语的四大方言 . The Four Dialects of Jiamao . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222722/http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_49d8b2980100c9nf.html . 2016-03-03 . 2017-12-30 . Xīnlàng bókè . zh.
7. Yang . Yiqi 杨遗旗 . 2014 . Líyǔ héxīn rénchēng dàicí yánjiū . zh:黎语核心人称代词研究 . A Study of Core Personal Pronouns in Li Language . Hǎinán shīfàn dàxué xuébào (Shèhuì kēxué bǎn) . zh . 27 . 7 . 118–123 . 10.16061/j.cnki.cn46-1076/c.2014.07.051 . zh:海南师范大学学报 (社会科学版).
8. Chen . Yen-ling . Proto-Ong-Be . 2018 . Ph.D. dissertation . University of Hawaii at Manoa .