Hainanese | |
---|---|
Qiong wen | |
海南話 Hái-nâm-oe | |
Pronunciation | [hai˨˩˧ nam˨˩ ue˨˧] (Haikou dialect) |
Native to | China |
Region | Hainan |
Ethnicity | Hainanese (Han Chinese) |
Native speakers
|
Around 5 million in China (2002) |
Dialects | |
Chinese characters Hainan Romanized |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
None (mis ) |
Glottolog |
hain1237 hain1238
|
Linguasphere | 79-AAA-k |
Hainanese
|
|
Hainanese (Hainan Romanised: Hái-nâm-oe, simplified Chinese: 海南话; traditional Chinese: 海南話; pinyin: Hǎinán huà), also known as Qióng Wén (simplified Chinese: 琼文; traditional Chinese: 瓊文) or Qióng yǔ (瓊語/琼语), is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan. In the classification of Yuan Jiahua, it was included in the Southern Min group, though is mutually unintelligible with Southern Min varieties such as Teochew and Hokkien–Taiwanese. In the classification of Li Rong, used by the Language Atlas of China, it was treated as a separate Min subgroup. It is sometimes combined with Leizhou Min, spoken on the neighboring mainland Leizhou Peninsula, in a Qiong–Lei group. "Hainanese" is also used for the language of the Li people living in Hainan, but generally refers to Min varieties spoken in Hainan.
Hainanese has a simple vowel system.
Hainanese notably has a series of implosive consonants, which it acquired through contact with surrounding languages, probably Hlai.