MaiorMaihua (simplified Chinese: 迈话; traditional Chinese: 邁話; pinyin: Màihuà, meaning 'Mai speech') is a variety of Chinese of uncertain affiliation spoken in the area of 崖县 Yáxiàn (Sanya) in southern Hainan, China. It was classified as Yue in the Language Atlas of China. Ouyang, Jiang & Zou (2019) consider Mai to be a divergent Yue Chinese variety with Hakka and other mixed influences. There are just over 10,000 speakers of Mai in southern Hainan.[2]
| Mai | |
|---|---|
| Maihua | |
| 邁話 | |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Hainan (Sanya) |
Native speakers | 15,000 (2007)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
A comprehensive description of Mai was published in a monograph by Ouyang, Jiang & Zou (2019).[2]
Mai speakers refer to themselves as mai¹³nɔn⁵⁵ (迈人).[2]
Jiang et al. (2007) considers Mai to be a mix of Yue Chinese, Hakka-Gan, and Hainanese Min.[1]
Mai is spoken in the following four villages in southern Hainan.[1]
The Utsat language is spoken just to the west of the Mai area. Just to the southwest is Haibo Village (海波村), where Danzhouhua (儋州话) is spoken.