Be languages

Be, also known as Ong Be, Bê, or Vo Limgao (Mandarin: 临高话 Lín'gāohuà), 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 仡隆 (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- (调 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 on the Chinese mainland.

Dialects
Be consists of the Lincheng 临城 (Western) and Qiongshan 琼山 (Eastern) dialects. Liang (1997:32) documents the following varieties of Be.
 * Lingao County (including Lincheng 临城镇 and Xinying 新盈镇 towns)
 * Bailian 白莲, Chengmai County
 * Longtang Township 龙塘镇, 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 (長流), Yongxing (永興), Longtang (龍塘), Qiaotou (橋頭), Huangtong (皇桐), and Xinying (新盈). The Qiaotou, Huangtong, and Xinying dialects are unintelligible with the Changliu, Yongxing, Longtang, and Shishan (石山) 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 桥头
 * Huangtong 皇桐
 * Maniao 马尿
 * Lincheng 凌城
 * Jialai 加來
 * Meiliang 美良
 * Xinying 新盈
 * Eastern Ong-Be
 * Longtang 龙塘
 * Longqiao 龙橋
 * Longquan 龙泉 (formerly Shizilu 十字路)
 * Yongxing 永兴
 * Shishan 石山
 * Changliu 长流
 * Laocheng 老城

Schmitz (2024) suggests three dialects:


 * Ong-Be (Lingao)
 * Lingao County Lingao
 * Bohou 博厚
 * Jialai 加来
 * Lincheng 临城
 * Chengmai County Lingao
 * Haikou City Lingao

Initials

 * 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.

Vowels

 * 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.