Jiamao
NativenameTai 台
AltnameSai 塞
StatesChina
RegionHainan
Date1987
Refe25
FamilycolorKradai
Fam 1Kra-Dai or language isolate
Fam 2Hlai–Jiamao?
Iso 3jio
Glottojiam1236
GlottorefnameJiamao

Jiamao (; also 台 Tái or 塞 Sāi) is a divergent Kra-Dai language or possible language isolate[1] spoken in southern Hainan, China.[2] Jiamao speakers' autonym is tʰai1.[3][4]

Classification

Jiamao is often classified one of the Hlai languages, which constitute a primary branch of the Kra–Dai language family, but Norquest (2007, 2015) and others note that Jiamao has a non-Hlai substratum.

Graham Thurgood (1992) suggested that Jiamao might have an Austroasiatic substratum. Norquest (2007) identified various lexical items in Jiamao that do not reconstruct to Proto-Hlai and later firmly established it as a non-Hlai language.[5] Hsiu (2018) notes that Jiamao also contains various words borrowed from an unknown, currently extinct Tibeto-Burman branch.[6]

Ostapirat (2026) suggests that Jiamao originated in northern Vietnam before migrating to southern Hainan.[7]

Demographics

In the 1980s, Jiamao was spoken by 50,000 people in central and south-central Hainan, mostly in Jiamao Township (加茂镇) in Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County. It shares less than half of its lexicon with the Hlai languages.[8]

In Lingshui Li Autonomous County, Jiamao is spoken in Benhao (本号), Nanping (南平), Wenluo (文罗), Zuguan (祖关), Longguang (隆广), and Tianzi (田仔).[9] In Lingshui County, Jiamao is known as Tái (台), and is also known as Sāi (塞) or Jiāwǒ (加我).[citation needed]

There are four Jiamao dialects,[10] namely Jiamao (加茂), Liugong (六弓), Tianzi (田仔), and Qunying (群英).

Jiamao is spoken in the following villages and townships of southern Hainan.[citation needed]

  • Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County (保亭黎族苗族自治县)
    • Jiamao Township (加茂乡)
    • Liugong Township (六弓乡)
    • Shiling Town (什玲镇, in Jie 介村 and Shisheng 什胜村 villages)
  • Lingshui Li Autonomous County (陵水黎族自治县)
    • Longguang Town (隆广镇)
    • Benhao Town (本号镇)
  • Sanya (三亚市)
    • Haitangwan Town (海棠湾镇, northeastern part: in Longtoucai 龙头菜村, Xiepei 协配村, and Maohou 毛喉村 villages)

The Liaoergong (廖二弓) dialect is documented in Huang (2011).[11]

Phonology

Tones

Jiamao has 8 distinct tone categories (Norquest 2015:311):

Tone categoryHigh register toneLow register tone
A (open)/55/ (tone 1)/11/ (tone 4)
X (glottalized)/51/ (tone 5)/31/ (tone 2)
DL (long closed)/53/ (tone 9)/31/ (tone 8)
DS (short closed)/55/ (tone 7)/22/ (tone 10)

Like Proto-Be,[12] Jiamao does not distinguish between tone categories B and C, but rather only has an X category.

As noted by Thurgood (1992) and Norquest (2015), these do not correspond to Hlai tones, but rather initials in Proto-Hlai. High register tones are derived from unvoiced initials, and low register tones from voiced initials.

See also

References

  1. ^ (Norquest 2015)
  2. ^ Miyake, Marc (September 20, 2011). "11.9.20.22:04: Is Jiamao Hlai?". www.amritas.com. Archived August 4, 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  3. ^ See Proto-Tai language § Tones for an explanation of the tone codes.
  4. ^ Liu, Yuanchao 刘援朝 (2008). "Líyǔ Jiāmàohuà gàikuàng" (in Chinese). Mínzú yǔwén. 5
  5. ^ (Norquest 2015, p. 3)
  6. ^ Hsiu, Andrew (December 2017). "The Origins of Jiamao". MSEA Languages. Archived 2020-10-09 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ Ostapirat, Weera (2026). "Kra-Dai Migration and Austro-Tai Numerals". Establishing Spatiotemporal Linguistics: Toward an Interdisciplinary Approach to the History of Language and of Human Movement. Kikusawa, Ritsuko; Okamoto, Susumu; Suzuki, Hiroyuki (eds.). Brill. p. 41–54. doi:10.1163/9789004762077-004. ISBN 978-90-04-76207-7.
  8. ^ (Norquest 2007)
  9. ^ Lang, Alang 郎啊朗 (2006-09-27). ""Bǎotíng Jiāmào Lízú" shì zhēn dí Lízú ma?" (in Chinese). Tiānyá shèqū. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-10.
  10. ^ Xin, Shibiao 辛世彪 (2009-02-14). "Jiāmào Líyǔ de sìdà fāngyán" [The Four Dialects of Jiamao] (in Chinese). Xīnlàng bókè. Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2017-12-30.
  11. ^ Yang, Yiqi 杨遗旗 (2014). "Líyǔ héxīn rénchēng dàicí yánjiū" [A Study of Core Personal Pronouns in Li Language] (in Chinese). Hǎinán shīfàn dàxué xuébào (Shèhuì kēxué bǎn). 27 (7): 118–123. doi:10.16061/j.cnki.cn46-1076/c.2014.07.051
  12. ^ Chen, Yen-ling (2018). Proto-Ong-Be (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Hawaii at Manoa. Archived from the original on 2023-06-05. Retrieved 2023-04-27.

Works cited

  • Thurgood, Graham (1992). "The Aberrancy of the Jiamao Dialect of Hlai: Speculation on its Origins and History". Papers from the First Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. Ratliff, Martha S. & Schiller, E. (eds.). Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 417–433.
  • Norquest, Peter Kristian (2007). A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai (PhD dissertation). University of Arizona. hdl:10150/194203
  • Norquest, Peter K. (2015). A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-30052-1.

Further reading

  • Huang, Quan 黄权 (2011). Hàn-Lí zìdiǎn (Sài fāngyán) [Chinese-Hlai Dictionary (Sai Dialect)] (in Chinese). Yunnan minzu chubanshe. ISBN 978-75367-4971-9.
  • Wú, Yàn [吴艳] (2024). Hǎinán Bǎotíng Líyǔ Jiāmòhuà [海南保亭黎语加茂话]. Beijing: Commercial Press [商务印书馆].
  • Yang, Wenping 杨文平 (2016). Hàn-Lí zìdiǎn: Tái fāngyán (Língshuǐ) [Chinese-Hlai Dictionary: Tai Dialect (Lingshui)] (in Chinese). Nanhai chuban gongsi. ISBN 978-7-5442-8130-0.
  • Zeng, Kewen 曾科文 & Liang, Zhenzhen 梁珍珍 (2016). Lízú: Sài fāngyán [The Li Ethnic Group: Sai Dialect] (in Chinese). Nanhai chuban gongsi. ISBN 978-7-5442-8364-9.