Cun language

Cun (Chinese: 村语; meaning "village language/speech"), also known as Gelong (仡隆语 / 哥隆语) or Ngan-Fon, is a Kra–Dai language spoken on Hainan Island.^[2] It is a part of the Hlai languages branch and has a lexical similarity with standard Hlai at 40%.^[1] The language has approximately 80,000 speakers, 47,200 of which are monolingual. Cun is a tonal language with 10 tones, used depending on whether a syllable is checked or unchecked. The speakers of this language are classified by the Chinese government as ethnic Han; in Hainan, Nadou^[3] and Lingao speakers are also classified as ethnic Han.^[4]

The Cun are descended from Han Chinese migrants to Hainan Island who intermarried with the local Li people. As a result, Cun has more Chinese loanwords than other Hlai languages.^[5]

Nearby, the Fuma (Chinese: 付马话, 府玛话, or 富马话) dialect, a variety of Chinese similar to Gan-Hakka that has been strongly influenced by Cun, is spoken in Fuma Village 付马村, Sigeng Town 四更镇, Dongfang City.^[6] It had about 800 speakers in 1994.^[7]

The tables below show the vowel ^[8] and consonant ^[9] phonemes of Cun:

Cun has many diphthongs. With [a]: [ia], [ua]. With [ə]: [uə], [iə]. With [i]: [ai], [aːi], [ɛi], [ei], [ɔi], [oi], [ui]. With [u]: [au], [aːu], [iau], [eu], [iu], [iːu], [ɔu], [ou], [əu].

Cun is a tonal language with ten tones. Five of the tones occur only in syllables ending with a consonant: t, k, or p.^[10]

• http://www.language-archives.org/language/cuq