Be languages

Be (), also known as Ong Be, Bê, or Vo Limgao (), is a pair of languages spoken by 600,000 people, 100,000 of them monolingual, on the north-central coast of Hainan Island, including the suburbs of the provincial capital Haikou. The speakers are counted as part of the Han Chinese nationality in census. According to Ethnologue, it is taught in primary schools.

Names Be speakers refer to themselves as , with being the prefix for persons and meaning 'village'. Liang (1997) notes that it is similar to the autonym (from 'person' and 'village'), by which Gelong (Cun language) speakers refer to themselves.

Classification The Be languages are a pair of Kra–Dai languages, but its precise relationship to other branches within the Kra-Dai family has yet not been conclusively determined. Hansell (1988) considers Be to be a sister of the Tai branch based on shared vocabulary, and proposes a Be–Tai grouping.

Based on toponymic evidence from place names with the prefix dya- ( diao), Jinfang Li considers Be to have originated from the Leizhou peninsula of Guangdong province. Liang (1997:16) considers Be to have migrated to Hainan from the Leizhou Peninsula of Guangdong about 2,500 years ago during the Warring States Period, but not over 3,000 years ago. Liang & Zhang (1996:21–25) also believe that Be had migrated from the Leizhou Peninsula to northern Hainan about 2,500 years ago during the Warring States period.

Weera Ostapirat (1998), analyzing data from Zhang (1992), notes that Be and Jizhao share many lexical similarities and sound correspondences, and that Jizhao may be a remnant Be-related language in China.

According to Ostapirat (2026), Be originated from the present-day borderlands of Guangxi, China and northern Vietnam. The ancestors of Be speakers migrated to northern Hainan via the Leizhou Peninsula.

Dialects Be consists of the Lincheng (, Western) and Qiongshan (, Eastern) dialects. Liang (1997:32) documents the following varieties of Be. Lingao County, including Lincheng () and Xinying () towns Bailian (), Chengmai County Longtang Township (), Qiongshan District

Be of Chengmai is intermediate between the Lincheng and Qiongshan dialects, and has features of both.

Chen (2018) contains extensive comparative lexical data for the Be dialects of Changliu (), Yongxing (), Longtang (), Qiaotou (), Huangtong (), and Xinying (). The Qiaotou, Huangtong, and Xinying dialects are unintelligible with the Changliu, Yongxing, Longtang, and Shishan () dialects. Chen (2018) also reconstructs Proto-Ong-Be on the basis of this comparative lexical data.

Classification Chen (2018: 82) classifies the Ong-Be dialects into two groups, which are mutually unintelligible with each other.

Ong-Be Western Ong-Be Qiaotou Huangtong Maniao Lincheng Jialai Meiliang Xinying Eastern Ong-Be Longtang Longqiao Longquan (formerly Shizilu ) Yongxing Shishan Changliu Laocheng

Schmitz (2024) suggests three dialects:

Ong-Be (Lingao) Lingao County Lingao Bohou Jialai Lincheng Chengmai County Lingao Haikou City Lingao

Phonology

Consonants

Initials +Be consonant initialsLabialAlveolar(Alveolo-)palatalVelarGlottalPlosivevoiceless()glottalizedAffricateFricativevoiceless()voicedNasalApproximant

is mainly heard in finals, rarely in initials. can also be heard as in free variation. can be heard as in the dialect of Xindengyi.

Finals +Be consonant finals Labial Alveolar Velar GlottalPlosive Nasal

Vowels +Be vowelsFrontCentralBackHighMid()()Low

Vowels in word-initial position are phonetically heard beginning with a glottal . An open-mid vowel occurs in the Chengmai and Qiongshan dialects. A near-open central vowel sound also occurs in the Qiongshan dialect. Tones Be is a tonal language. It has 5 tones: Rising () High () Mid () Low () Mid checked ()

The Bolian dialect has also a high checked tone ().

See also List of Proto-Ong-Be reconstructions (Wiktionary)

References

Works cited

Schmitz, Timo. 2024. Family Tree: Tai-Kadai Languages.

Be languages

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