Be (native pronunciation:[ʔɑŋ˧ɓe˧]), 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.[5]
Be speakers refer to themselves as ʔaŋ³³vo³³, with ʔaŋ³³ being the prefix for persons and vo³³ meaning 'village'.[6] Liang (1997) notes that it is similar to the autonym ŋaːu¹¹fɔːn¹¹ (from ŋaːu¹¹ 'person' and fɔːn¹¹ 'village'), by which Gelong 仡隆 (Cun language) speakers refer to themselves.
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)[2] 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.[7] Liang (1997:16) considers Be to have migrated to Hainan from the Leizhou PeninsulaofGuangdong about 2,500 years ago during the Warring States Period, but not over 3,000 years ago. Liang & Zhang (1996:21–25)[8] 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),[9] analyzing data from Zhang (1992),[10] 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.
Be of Chengmai is intermediate between the Lincheng and Qiongshan dialects, and has features of both.[11]
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.
^ abHansell, Mark (1988). "The Relation of Be to Tai: Evidence from Tones and Initials". In Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B. (eds.). Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies Beyond Tai. Publications in Linguistics No. 86. Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington. pp. 239–288.
