Jizhao language

Jizhao (Chinese: 吉兆话) is an unclassified Kra-Dai language spoken in Jizhao Village 吉兆村, Tanba Town 覃巴镇, Wuchuan, Guangdong. It may be most closely related to Be.^[3] In Wuchuan, Jizhao is locally referred to as Haihua 海话, which is the term used elsewhere in Leizhou 雷州, Xuwen 徐闻, and Maoming 茂名 to refer to the local Minnan Chinese dialect of Leizhou.^[5]

Jizhao
Native to	People's Republic of China
Region	Guangdong
Native speakers	< 100 (2017)[1]
Language family	Kra–Dai Kam–Tai? Be–Tai?[2] Be–Jizhao?[3][4] Jizhao
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	jizh1234

Demographics

Jizhao is an endangered language that only has speakers above the age of 60 (Shao 2016:70). Within Jizhao Administrative Village 吉兆行政村, it is spoken in the hamlets (natural villages) of Jizhao 吉兆, Meilou 梅楼, and Hong 洪村 villages (Shao 2016:9). Jizhao speakers are officially classified as ethnic Han by the Chinese government.

As of 2017, there are fewer than 100 speakers of Jizhao, most of whom are above the age of 70.^[1]

Classification

Shao & Meng (2016) observe some similarities with the Be language of northern Hainan, but provisionally consider Jizhao to be unclassified within the Kam-Tai (壮侗) branch. Jizhao has many loanwords from Yue Chinese and Minnan Chinese.

Weera Ostapirat (1998),^[3] analyzing data from Zhang (1992),^[6] notes that Be and Jizhao share many lexical similarities and sound correspondences, and that Jizhao may be a remnant Be-related language on the Chinese mainland.

In a 100-item Swadesh list, Shao (2016) found lexical matches between Jizhao and the following languages.

• Ong Be: 56 words
• Zhuang: 6 words
• Yue Chinese: 7 words
• Min Chinese: 1 word
• No parallels: 30 words

Phonology

Jizhao has 6 tones (Shao 2016:15).

1. [˨˩] 21
2. [˧˩] 31
3. [˧˨] 32
4. [˧] 33
5. [˥] 55
6. [˦˥] 45

Jizhao, like Hlai, also has the implosive consonants /ɓ/ and /ɗ/ (Li & Wu 2017).

See also

• Jizhao Swadesh list (Wiktionary)