Jiamao language
| Jiamao | |
|---|---|
| Kamau | |
| Native to | People's Republic of China |
| Region | Hainan |
|
Native speakers
|
(52,000 cited 1987) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | jiam1236 |
Jiamao (加茂, or Kamau) is a divergent Hlai language spoken in southern Hainan, China.
Jiamao has many divergent words, and this lexical aberrancy is still a matter of debate. Graham Thurgood (1992) suggests that it might have an Austroasiatic substratum. Norquest (2007) identifies various lexical items in Jiamao that do not reconstruct to Proto-Hlai.
In the 1980s, Jiamao was spoken by 50,000 people in central and south-central Hainan Island, mostly in Jiamao Township (加茂镇), Baoting County (保亭县). It shares less than half of its lexicon with standard Hlai.
There are four Jiamao dialects.
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