Hlai is one of two languages of the Hlai or Li people

Li people

The Li or Hlai are a minority ethnic group, the vast majority of whom live off the southern coast of mainland China on Hainan Island, where they are the largest minority ethnic group...

, the other being the Jiamao

Jiamao language

Jiamao is one of the Hlai languages of the Li people. In the 1980s it was spoken by 50,000 people in central and south-central Hainan Island, mostly in Jiamao Township, Baoting County. It shares less than half of its lexicon with standard Hlai. Graham Thurgood has suggested that Jiamao was...

 "dialect". It is spoken by 600,000 people (not counting Jiamao), a quarter of them monolingual, in the mountains of central and south-central Hainan Island. It forms one of the primary branches of the family of Tai–Kadai languages.

Hlai has several dialects, some perhaps divergent enough to be considered separate languages. The main divisions are Ha 哈 (the prestige dialect

Prestige dialect

In sociolinguistics, prestige describes the level of respect accorded to a language or dialect as compared to that of other languages or dialects in a speech community. The concept of prestige in sociolinguistics is closely related to that of prestige or class within a society...

), Qi Gei 杞, Meifu Moifau 美孚, and Bendi Zwn, in addition to Jiamao Kamau 加茂, which is not mutually intelligible with the others.

Hlai did not have a writing system until the 1950s, when the Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

 was adopted.

Dialects

The following is a classification of Hlai dialects. Dialects are highlighted in bold, while names of branches are not.

• Proto-Hlai
  Proto-Hlai language
  The Proto-Hlai language is the reconstructed ancestor of the Hlai languages. Proto-Hlai reconstructions include those of Matisoff , Thurgood , Ostapirat , and Norquest .-Phonology:Peter K...
  
  
  • Bouhin (Heitu) - 73,000
  • Greater Hlai
    • Ha Em (Zhongsha) - 193,000
    • Central Hlai
      • East-Central Hlai - 344,000
        • Lauhut (Baoding) - 166,000
        • Qi - 178,000
          • Tongzha (Tongshi) - 125,000
          • Zandui (Qiandui) - 29,000
          • Baoting
            Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County
            Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County is an autonomous county in Hainan, People's Republic of China. One of the six autonomous counties on the island, its postal code is 572300. In 1999 the county had a population of 155,575, largely made up of people from the Li and Miao minorities.-External links:*...
            
            - 24,000
      • North-Central Hlai - 136,500
        • Northwest-Central Hlai - 62,500
          • Cun
            Cun language
            Cun is a variety of Hlai language on Hainan Island. Lexical similarity with standard Hlai is 40%....
            
             (Ngan Fon, Gelong) - 60,000
          • Nadou (Dongfang) - 2,500
        • Northeast-Central Hlai - 74,000
          • Meifu - 30,000
            • Changjiang
              Changjiang Li Autonomous County
              Changjiang Li Autonomous County is an autonomous county in Hainan, the People's Republic of China. It is one of 6 counties of Hainan. Its postal code is 572700, and in 1999 its population was 225,131 people, largely made up of the Li people.-References:...
              
              
            • Moyfaw (Xifang)
          • Run - 44,000
            • Baisha
              Baisha Li Autonomous County
              Baisha County is an autonomous county in Hainan, the People's Republic of China. It is one of 6 counties of Hainan. Its postal code is 572800, and in 1999 its population was 176,377 people, largely made up of the Li people.-References:...
              
              - 36,000
            • Yuanmen - 8,000

Jiamao

Jiamao language

Jiamao is one of the Hlai languages of the Li people. In the 1980s it was spoken by 50,000 people in central and south-central Hainan Island, mostly in Jiamao Township, Baoting County. It shares less than half of its lexicon with standard Hlai. Graham Thurgood has suggested that Jiamao was...

is an isolate with 52,300 speakers.

External links

• Entry for Hlai at Rosetta Project
• Hlai-language Swadesh vocabulary list of basic words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• ABVD: Proto-Hlai word list