Jiamao

Jiamao (also spelled Jiamao Hlai) is a Tai-Kadai (Kra-Dai) language of the Hlai branch, on the verge of extinction with only around 3,000 elderly speakers in southern Hainan island, China. The Hlai (Li in Mandarin) are the indigenous people of Hainan island, distinct from the Han Chinese majority and from the related Sino-Tibetan-speaking Kam-Sui peoples of the southern Chinese mainland. Jiamao is one of the most divergent Hlai varieties — sufficiently distinct that some linguistic classifications place Jiamao outside the Hlai sub-branch entirely, treating it as a separate Kra-Dai language with significant Hlai contact influence. The Jiamao community has been heavily affected by 20th-century language shift toward Standard Mandarin and Hlai Proper, with younger generations no longer learning Jiamao as a first language. Limited revival efforts via Hainan Provincial Indigenous Affairs Department have begun.