Cun (; 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. It is a part of the Hlai languages branch and has a lexical similarity with standard Hlai at 40%. 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 and Lingao speakers are also classified as ethnic Han.
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.Norquest, Peter K. 2015. A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai. Languages of Asia, Volume 13. Leiden: Brill.
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.Wang, Xueyan 王雪燕. 2016. Hainan Fumahua diaocha baogao 海南付马话调查报告. Beijing: Capital Normal University, Literature Institute 首都师范大学文学院. It had about 800 speakers in 1994.
Phonology The tables below show the vowel Ni 1990, p. 173. and consonant Ni 1990, p. 172. phonemes of Cun:
Vowels Front Central Back Close , Mid () Open
Diphthongs Cun has many diphthongs. With : , . With : , . With : , , , , , , . With : , , , , , , , , .
Consonants Bilabial Alveolar Alv.-palatal Velar Glottal Median Lateral Plosives Voiceless Aspirated Glottalized Fricatives Voiceless Voiced Affricates Voiceless Aspirated Liquids Nasals Voiced Labialized Semivowels
Tones Cun is a tonal language with ten tones. Four of the tones occur only in syllables ending with a consonant: , , or .Ni 1990, p. 178.
Tone Pitch Value ExampleFrom Ni 1990, pp. 174–178. Meaning 1 35 field 2 44 ear 3 42 water 4 21 to scratch, to scrape 5 13 path, road 6 55 to speak 7 33 cloth 8 42 dog 9 21 frog 10 13 thorn
References
http://www.language-archives.org/language/cuq