Hlai languages explained

Hlai
Also Known As:	Li
States:	China
Region:	Hainan
Ethnicity:	Hlai
Speakers:	667,000
Date:	1999
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Tai–Kadai
Fam2:	Hlai–Jiamao?
Protoname:	Proto-Hlai (reconstructed)
Script:	Latin
Lc1:	lic
Ld1:	Hlai
Lc2:	cuq
Ld2:	Cun
Glotto:	nucl1241
Glottorefname:	Nuclear Hlaic
Notice:	IPA

The Hlai languages 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 . They include Cun, whose speakers are ethnically distinct.^[1] 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.^[2] Individual languages are highlighted in bold. There are some 750,000 Hlai speakers.

• • • Proto-Hlai Bouhin (Chinese: 黑土) – 73,000
  • Greater Hlai
    • Ha Em 哈炎 (Chinese: 中沙) – 193,000
    • Central Hlai
      • East Central Hlai – 344,000
        • Lauhut (Chinese: 保定) – 166,000, the basis of the literary language
        • Qi 杞 (also known as Gei) – 178,000
          • Tongzha (Chinese: 通什) – 125,000
          • Zandui (Chinese: 堑对) – 29,000
          • Chinese: 保亭 – 24,000
      • North Central Hlai – 136,500
        • Northwest Central Hlai – 62,500
          • Cun 村语 (Ngan Fon, Chinese: 仡隆) – 60,000
          • Chinese: 那斗 (Chinese: 东方) – 2,500
        • Northeast Central Hlai – 74,000
          • Chinese: 美孚 (Moifau) – 30,000
            • Chinese: 昌江
            • Moyfaw (Chinese: 西方)
          • Chinese: 润 (Zwn; also known as Chinese: 本地) – 44,000
            • Chinese: 白沙 – 36,000
            • Chinese: 元门 – 8,000

Nadou is spoken by approximately 4,000 people in the two villages of Chinese: 那斗村 (in Town Chinese: 新龙镇) and Chinese: 月村 (in Town Chinese: 八所镇), in Dongfang, Hainan. Speakers refer to themselves as lai¹¹ and are officially classified by the Chinese government as ethnic Han Chinese.^[3]

Chinese: 加茂 (52,000 speakers) is a divergent Kra-Dai language with a Hlai superstratum and a non-Hlai substratum.^[2]

Reconstruction

See main article: Proto-Hlai language.

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:^{[4] [5] [6]}

Consonants

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Velar		Glottal
						plain	lab.	plain	lab.	pal.
Plosive	voiceless	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	aspirated	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	voiced					pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	implosive	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
Affricate	voiceless			pronounced as /ink/
	aspirated			pronounced as /ink/
Fricative	voiceless		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	voiced		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
	lateral			pronounced as /ink/
Nasal		pronounced as /ink/	(pronounced as /ink/)	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Trill				pronounced as /ink/
Approximant				pronounced as /ink/				pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/

• pronounced as /[ɬ]/, pronounced as /[f]/ mainly occur word-initially among various dialects. pronounced as /[ɬ]/ may also be realized as pronounced as /[tɬ]/.
• [{{IPAlink|x}}], [{{IPAlink|ɣ}}] mainly occur among the Xifang dialects.
• pronounced as /[ɣ]/ can also occur as an allophone of pronounced as //ɡ//.
• pronounced as //t͡s//, pronounced as //t͡sʰ//, pronounced as //z// are pronounced as alveolo-palatal sounds pronounced as /[t͡ɕ]/, pronounced as /[t͡ɕʰ]/, pronounced as /[ɕ]/, among other various dialects.
• pronounced as //r// can have allophones as pronounced as /[ɾ, dɾ]/.
• For a brief period of time Yuanmen distinguished pronounced as //m// and pronounced as //ɱ// after pronounced as /
  • /ŋw/
  / became pronounced as //ɱ// which soon merged with pronounced as //m//.^[7]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Mid	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
Low		pronounced as /ink/

• Among other Hlai dialects, pronounced as //a, i, e, o// can have allophones of pronounced as /[ɐ, ɪ, ɛ, ɔ]/.
• Vowel sounds pronounced as //ɛ// and pronounced as //ɔ// are common among the Baisha and Jiamao dialects.
• pronounced as //ə// occurs among some dialects.

History

Liang & Zhang (1996:18–21)^[8] 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.

See also

• Proto-Hlai reconstructions (Wiktionary)
• Has Hlai grammar
• Hlai people
• Proto-Hlai language

References

• Ostapirat . Weera . 2005 . The Cun Language, by Ouyang Jueya. Shanghai Far East Publishers. 1998 . Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area . 28 . 1 . 99–105.
• Book: Ouyang, Jueya 欧阳觉亚 . Líyǔ diàochá yánjiū . Zheng . Yiqing 郑贻青 . 1983 . Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe . Beijing . zh . zh:黎语调查研究 . Li Language Investigation and Research .

Further reading

• Miyake, Marc. 2013. The other Kra-Dai numerals (Parts 1, 2).
• Miyake, Marc. 2011. Is Jiamao Hlai?
• Miyake, Marc. 2008. Hlai -ɯ.
• Miyake, Marc. 2008. Implosives on Hainan (Parts 1, 2).
• Miyake, Marc. 2008. Hlai initial verification.
• Miyake, Marc. 2008. Hlai initial glides.
• Miyake, Marc. 2008. Hlai palatal codas.
• 中国科学院少数民族语言调查第一工作队海南分队编. 1957. Guanyu huafen Liyu fangyan he chuangzuo Liwen de yijian 关于划分黎语方言和创作黎文的意见. 黎族语言文字问题科学讨论会.
• Norquest, Peter K. 2015. A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai. Languages of Asia, Volume 13. Leiden: Brill.

External links

• Bible recordings in various Hlai languages
• ABVD: Proto-Hlai word list
• Hlai-language Swadesh vocabulary list of basic words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• Hlai languages learning website (both in Mandarin Chinese and English)

Notes and References

1. Ethnologue mistakenly lists Cun among the Kra languages.
2. Norquest . Peter K. . A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai . 2007 . Ph.D. . University of Arizona . 10150/194203 . free.
3. Book: Fu, Changzhong 符昌忠 . 2020 . Nadouyu yanjiu 那斗语研究 . Beijing . Minzu chubanshe 民族出版社 . 1294545717.
4. Book: Ostapirat, Weera . The Tai-Kadai Languages . 2008 . Routledge . Diller . Anthony V. N. . London & New York . 623–652 . The Hlai Language . Edmondson . Jerold A. . Luo . Yongxian.
5. Book: Líyǔ yǔfǎ gāngyào . Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe . 1994 . Yuan . Zhongshu 苑中树 . Beijing . 1–10 . zh . zh:黎语语法纲要 . An Outline of Li Grammar.
6. Book: Ouyang, Jueya 欧阳觉亚 . Líyǔ jiǎnzhì . 1980 . Minzu chubanshe . Beijing . zh . zh:黎语简志 . Description of the Li language.
7. https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/194203/azu_etd_2517_sip1_m.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Norquest (2007)
8. Book: Liang, Min 梁敏 . Dòng tái yǔzú gàilùn . Zhang . Junru 张均如 . 1996 . Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe . 9787500416814 . Beijing . zh . zh:侗台语族概论 . An Introduction to the Kam–Tai Languages.