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.

Hlai
Li
Native toChina
RegionHainan
EthnicityHlai
Native speakers
(667,000 cited 1999)
Early form
Proto-Hlai (reconstructed)
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
lic  Hlai
cuq  Cun
Glottolognucl1241
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