Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 13, 2026

Cun language

Cun, also known as Gelong 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.

Last revised
Jun 13, 2026
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≈ 2 min
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Citations
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Source
Wikipedia ↗
Cun
仡隆语
Gelong
Native toChina
Regionwestern Hainan
Native speakers
(80,000 cited 1999)1
Kra–Dai
  • Hlai
    • Central
      • North
        • Cun
Dialects
  • Nadou
Language codes
ISO 639-3cuq
Glottologcunn1236
ELPNadouhua

Cun (Chinese: 村语; 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.2 It is a part of the Hlai languages branch and has a lexical similarity with standard Hlai at 40%.1 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, Nadou3 and Lingao speakers are also classified as ethnic Han.4

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.5

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.6 It had about 800 speakers in 1994.7

Phonology

The tables below show the vowel 8 and consonant 9 phonemes of Cun:

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i ɯ, u
Mid e (ə) o
Open a ɔ

Diphthongs

Cun has many diphthongs. With [a]: [ia], [ua]. With [ə]: [uə], [iə]. With [i]: [ai], [aːi], [ɛi], [ei], [ɔi], [oi], [ui]. With [u]: [au], [aːu], [iau], [eu], [iu], [iːu], [ɔu], [ou], [əu].

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Alv.-palatal Velar Glottal
Median Lateral
Plosives Voiceless t k ʔ
Aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ
Glottalized ʔb ʔd
Fricatives Voiceless f ʃ h
Voiced v ʒ
Affricates Voiceless t͡ʃ
Aspirated t͡ʃʰ
Liquids l
Nasals Voiced m n ɲ ŋ
Labialized ŋʷ
Semivowels j

Tones

Cun is a tonal language with ten tones. Four of the tones occur only in syllables ending with a consonant: t, k, or p.10

Tone Pitch Value Example11 Meaning
1 35 ʔeŋ35 field
2 44 lai44 ear
3 42 nam42 water
4 21 ʔɔu21 to scratch, to scrape
5 13 loŋ13 path, road
6 55 kaːŋ55 to speak
7 33 tʃhut33 cloth
8 42 khat42 dog
9 21 ʔɛp21 frog
10 13 het13 thorn
References

References

  1. Cun at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Ouyang, Jueya 欧阳觉亚 (1998). Cunyu yanjiu 村语研究. Shanghai: Shanghai Far East Publishing House 上海远东出版社.
  3. Fu, Changzhong 符昌忠 (2020). Nadouyu yanjiu 那斗语研究. Beijing: Minzu chubanshe 民族出版社. OCLC 1294545717.
  4. Liang, Min 梁敏 (1997). Língāo yǔ yánjiū 临高语研究 [A Study of Lingao] (in Chinese). Shanghai: Shanghai yuandong chubanshe 上海远东出版社.
  5. Norquest, Peter K. 2015. A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai. Languages of Asia, Volume 13. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-30052-1
  6. 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.
  7. Fuma (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-02, retrieved 2012-10-16 – via asiaharvest.org
  8. Ni 1990, p. 173.
  9. Ni 1990, p. 172.
  10. Ni 1990, p. 178.
  11. From Ni 1990, pp. 174–178.