Tsat language

Tsat, also known as Utsat, Utset, Hainan Cham, or Huihui (simplified Chinese: 回辉语; traditional Chinese: 回輝語; pinyin: Huíhuīyǔ), is a tonal Austronesian language spoken by 4,500 Utsul people in the Huihui and Huixin villages near the city of Sanya in Hainan, China. Tsat is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian group within the Austronesian language family, and is one of the Chamic languages originating on the coast of present-day Vietnam. It is thus closely related to Acehnese, Cham and Jarai.

• Sounds /ts, s/ may also be pronounced as [tɕ, ɕ] when before /i/.

• Final glide sounds [j, w] may also occur as a realization of /i/, /u/ at the end of falling diphthongs.

Hainan Cham tones correspond to various Proto-Chamic sounds.

Unusually for an Austronesian language, Tsat has developed into a tonal language, probably as a result of areal linguistic effects and contact with the diverse tonal languages spoken on Hainan including Sinitic languages such as Hainanese and Standard Chinese, Tai–Kadai languages such as the Hlai languages, and Hmong–Mien languages such as Kim Mun.

• Pérez Pereiro, Alberto. "Tonality in Phan Rang Cham and Tsat". Archived from the original on 2006-03-20. Retrieved 2006-12-22.
• Recent papers on Tsat Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine