Hlai

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. 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. Individual languages are highlighted in bold. There are some 750,000 Hlai speakers. Proto-Hlai Bouhin (Heitu 黑土) – 73,000 Greater Hlai Ha Em 哈炎 (Zhongsha 中沙) – 193,000 Central Hlai East Central Hlai – 344,000 Lauhut (Baoding 保定) – 166,000, the basis of the literary language Qi 杞 (also known as Gei) – 178,000 Tongzha (Tongshi 通什) – 125,000 Zandui (Qiandui 堑对) – 29,000 Baoting 保亭 – 24,000 North Central Hlai – 136,500 Northwest Central Hlai – 62,500 Cun 村语 (Ngan Fon, Gelong 仡隆) – 60,000 Nadou 那斗 (Dongfang 东方) – 2,500 Northeast Central Hlai – 74,000 Meifu 美孚 (Moifau) – 30,000 Changjiang 昌江 Moyfaw (Xifang 西方) Run 润 (Zwn; also known as Bendi 本地) – 44,000 Baisha 白沙 – 36,000 Yuanmen 元门 – 8,000 Nadou is spoken by approximately 4,000 people in the two villages of Nadou 那斗村 (in Xinlong Town 新龙镇) and Yue 月村 (in Basuo 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.