Gelao language
| Gelao | |
|---|---|
| Kláo | |
| Region | Western Guizhou, Wenshan Prefecture in Yunnan, Longlin County in Guangxi, China; Hà Giang Province in Vietnam |
|
Native speakers
|
7,900 (2008) |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: giq – Hagei (Green Gelao) gir – Vandu (Red Gelao) giw – Telue (White Gelao, Duoluo) aou – A'ou giu – Mulao gqu – Qau |
| Glottolog | gela1265 |
Gelao (autonym: Kláo, Chinese: 仡佬 Gēlǎo, Vietnamese: Cờ Lao) is a dialect cluster of Kra languages in the Tai–Kadai language family. It is spoken by the Gelao people in southern China and northern Vietnam. Despite an ethnic population of 580,000 (2000 census), only a few thousand still speak Gelao. Estimates run from 3,000 in China by Li in 1999, of which 500 are monolinguals, to 7,900 by Edmondson in 2008. Edmondson (2002) estimates that the three Gelao varieties of Vietnam have only about 350 speakers altogether.
In 2009, a book allegedly written in a native Gelao script was found in Guizhou, China, but scholarship reveals it is certainly fake.
Like Buyang, another Kra language, Gelao contains many words which are likely to be Austronesian cognates. (See Austro-Tai.)
As noted by Li and Zhou, Gelao shares much vocabulary with the Hlai and Ong Be languages, suggesting contact with Pre-Hlai speakers before their migration to Hainan.
Zhang Jimin estimated a total of over 10,000 Gelao speakers in the early 1990s, while Li Jinfang places this number at 3,000 in 1999. Jerold A. Edmondson's 2008 estimate is 7,900 speakers. This number is rapidly declining, as the Gelao are intermarrying with the neighboring Han, Bouyei, and Miao. Many Gelao speakers can also speak Bouyei, Zhuang, or Miao, and nearly all can speak local varieties of Chinese. Among Gelao-speaking families, most middle-age Gelao have very limited speaking abilities for Gelao, while much of the younger generation cannot even understand the most simple words and phrases.
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