Jiamao language

{{Infobox language

|name=Jiamao

|nativename=Tai 台

|altname=Sai 塞

|states=China

|region=Hainan

|speakers= {{sigfig|52,300|1}}

|date=1987

|ref = e25

|familycolor=Kradai

|fam1=Kra-Dai or language isolate

|fam2=Hlai–Jiamao?

|iso3=jio

|glotto=jiam1236

|glottorefname=Jiamao

}}

Jiamao ({{zh|c=加茂|p=Jiāmào}}; also {{lang|zh|台}} Tái or {{lang|zh|塞}} Sāi) is a divergent Kra-Dai language or possible language isolate{{harvp|Norquest|2015}} spoken in southern Hainan, China.{{Cite web |last=Miyake |first=Marc |author-link=Marc Miyake |date=September 20, 2011 |title=11.9.20.22:04: Is Jiamao Hlai? |url=http://www.amritas.com/110924.htm#09202204 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804112844/http://www.amritas.com/110924.htm#09202204 |archive-date=August 4, 2019 |access-date=May 25, 2018 |website=www.amritas.com |language=en}} Jiamao speakers' autonym is {{IPA|tʰai}}¹.See {{slink|Proto-Tai language|Tones}} for an explanation of the tone codes.{{Cite journal |last=Liu |first=Yuanchao 刘援朝 |date=2008 |title=Líyǔ Jiāmàohuà gàikuàng |script-title=zh:黎语加茂话概况 |journal=Mínzú yǔwén |language=zh |volume=5 |script-journal=zh:民族語文}}

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.{{harvp|Norquest|2015|page=3}} Hsiu (2018) notes that Jiamao also contains various words borrowed from an unknown, currently extinct Tibeto-Burman branch.{{Cite web |last=Hsiu |first=Andrew |date=December 2017 |title=The Origins of Jiamao |url=https://sites.google.com/site/msealangs/home/blog/jiamao |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009124542/https://sites.google.com/site/msealangs/home/blog/jiamao |archive-date=2020-10-09 |website=MSEA Languages |language=en}}

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.{{harvp|Norquest|2007}}

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).{{Cite web |last=Lang |first=Alang 郎啊朗 |date=2006-09-27 |title="Bǎotíng Jiāmào Lízú" shì zhēn dí Lízú ma? |script-title=zh:“保亭加茂黎族”是真的黎族吗？ |url=http://bbs.tianya.cn/post-360-1314-1.shtml |website=Tiānyá shèqū |language=zh |access-date=2018-06-10 |archive-date=2018-06-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141425/http://bbs.tianya.cn/post-360-1314-1.shtml |url-status=dead }} In Lingshui County, Jiamao is known as Tái (台), and is also known as Sāi (塞) or Jiāwǒ (加我).{{cn|date=March 2023}}

There are four Jiamao dialects,{{Cite web |last=Xin |first=Shibiao 辛世彪 |date=2009-02-14 |title=Jiāmào Líyǔ de sìdà fāngyán |script-title=zh:加茂黎语的四大方言 |trans-title=The Four Dialects of Jiamao |url=http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_49d8b2980100c9nf.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222722/http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_49d8b2980100c9nf.html |archive-date=2016-03-03 |access-date=2017-12-30 |website=Xīnlàng bókè |language=zh}} 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.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

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).{{Cite journal |last=Yang |first=Yiqi 杨遗旗 |date=2014 |title=Líyǔ héxīn rénchēng dàicí yánjiū |script-title=zh:黎语核心人称代词研究 |trans-title=A Study of Core Personal Pronouns in Li Language |journal=Hǎinán shīfàn dàxué xuébào (Shèhuì kēxué bǎn) |language=zh |volume=27 |issue=7 |pages=118–123 |doi=10.16061/j.cnki.cn46-1076/c.2014.07.051 |script-journal=zh:海南师范大学学报 (社会科学版)}}

Phonology

=Tones=

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

class="wikitable" ! Tone category !! High register tone !! Low 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,{{Cite thesis |last=Chen |first=Yen-ling |title=Proto-Ong-Be |date=2018 |type=Ph.D. dissertation |publisher=University of Hawaii at Manoa |url=http://ling.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/ChenYenlingFinal.pdf |access-date=2023-04-27 |archive-date=2023-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605121229/http://ling.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/ChenYenlingFinal.pdf |url-status=dead }} 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.

References

Works cited

{{Cite book |last=Thurgood |first=Graham |title=Papers from the First Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society |publisher=Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies |year=1992 |editor-last=Ratliff |editor-first=Martha S. |pages=417–433 |language=en |chapter=The Aberrancy of the Jiamao Dialect of Hlai: Speculation on its Origins and History |editor-last2=Schiller |editor-first2=E.}}
{{Cite thesis |last=Norquest |first=Peter Kristian |title=A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai |date=2007 |degree=PhD dissertation |publisher=University of Arizona |language=en |hdl=10150/194203 |hdl-access=free}}
{{Cite book |last=Norquest |first=Peter K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d6i8CgAAQBAJ |title=A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-30052-1 |language=en}}