Jiamao language
Encyclopedia
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 originally a non-Hlai (possibly Austro-Asiatic
) language.
Hlai languages
The Hlai languages are a primary branch of the Tai–Kadai language family spoken in China on the island of Hainan. They include Hlai proper, with 600,000 speakers, and Cun, which has 80,000 speakers. The most divergent language is Jiamao, with 52,300 speakers in southern Hainan.-Classification:The...
of the 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...
. 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 originally a non-Hlai (possibly Austro-Asiatic
Austro-Asiatic languages
The Austro-Asiatic languages, in recent classifications synonymous with Mon–Khmer, are a large language family of Southeast Asia, also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh. The name Austro-Asiatic comes from the Latin words for "south" and "Asia", hence "South Asia"...
) language.