# Hlai languages

The Hlai languages (Chinese: 黎语; pinyin: Líyǔ) 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 (Chinese: 黎话; pinyin: Líhuà). They include Cun, whose speakers are ethnically distinct. 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. There are some 750,000 Hlai speakers.
* Proto-Hlai
** Bouhin (Hēitǔ 黑土) – 73,000
** Greater Hlai
*** Ha Em 哈炎 (Zhōngshā 中沙) – 193,000
*** Central Hlai
**** East Central Hlai – 344,000
***** Lauhut (Bǎodìng 保定) – 166,000, the basis of the literary language
***** Qi 杞 (also known as Gei) – 178,000
****** Tongzha (Tōngshí 通什) – 125,000
****** Zandui (Qiànduì 堑对) – 29,000
****** Bǎotíng 保亭 – 24,000
**** North Central Hlai – 136,500
***** Northwest Central Hlai – 62,500
****** Cun 村语 (Ngan Fon, Gēlóng 仡隆) – 60,000
****** Nàdòu 那斗 (Dōngfāng 东方) – 2,500
***** Northeast Central Hlai – 74,000
****** Měifú 美孚 (Moifau) – 30,000
******* Chāngjiāng 昌江
******* Moyfaw (Xīfāng 西方)
****** Rùn 润 (Zwn; also known as Běndì 本地) – 44,000
******* Báishā 白沙 – 36,000
******* Yuánmén 元门 – 8,000
Nadou is spoken by approximately 4,000 people in the two villages of Nàdòu 那斗村 (in Xīnlóng Town 新龙镇) and Yuè 月村 (in Bāsuǒ Town 八所镇), in Dongfang, Hainan. Speakers refer to themselves as lai¹¹ and are officially classified by the Chinese government as ethnic Han Chinese.
Jiāmào 加茂 (52,000 speakers) is a divergent Kra-Dai language with a Hlai superstratum and a non-Hlai substratum.

## Reconstruction

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:

### Consonants

| | | Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal | Velar | Velar | Glottal | Glottal | Glottal |
| | | Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | pal. |
| Plosive | voiceless | p | | t | ȶ | k | kʷ | ʔ | | |
| Plosive | aspirated | pʰ | | tʰ | | kʰ | kʰʷ | | | |
| Plosive | voiced | | | | | ɡ | ɡʷ | | | |
| Plosive | implosive | ɓ | | ɗ | | | | | | |
| Affricate | voiceless | | | t͡s | t͡s | | | | | |
| Affricate | aspirated | | | t͡sʰ | t͡sʰ | | | | | |
| Fricative | voiceless | | f | s | | x | | h | hʷ | hʲ |
| Fricative | voiced | | v | z | | ɣ | | | | |
| Fricative | lateral | | | ɬ | | | | | | |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | (ɱ) | n | ȵ | ŋ | ŋʷ | | | |
| Trill | Trill | | | r | | | | | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | | | l | | | | ˀj | ˀw | |
* [ɬ], [f] mainly occur word-initially among various dialects. [ɬ] may also be realized as [tɬ].
* [x], [ɣ] mainly occur among the Xifang dialects.
* [ɣ] can also occur as an allophone of /ɡ/.
* /t͡s/, /t͡sʰ/, /z/ are pronounced as alveolo-palatal sounds [t͡ɕ], [t͡ɕʰ], [ɕ], among other various dialects.
* /r/ can have allophones as [ɾ, dɾ].
* For a brief period of time Yuanmen distinguished /m/ and /ɱ/ after */ŋw/ became /ɱ/ which soon merged with /m/.

### Vowels

| | Front | Central | Back | Back |
| High | i | | ɯ | u |
| Mid | e | ə | o | o |
| Mid | ɛ | ə | ɔ | ɔ |
| Low | | a | | |
* Among other Hlai dialects, /a, i, e, o/ can have allophones of [ɐ, ɪ, ɛ, ɔ].
* Vowel sounds /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are common among the Baisha and Jiamao dialects.
* /ə/ occurs among some dialects.

## History

Liang & Zhang (1996:18–21) 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.