海南省的西北部，有一个仅有面积1317平方公里、40万人口的小县叫临高县，全县通讲一种方言“临高话”，这种语言比较独特，至今语言专家也没弄清是从属何种语系。
In the northwest of Hainan Province, there is a small county with an area of 1317 square kilometers and a population of 400000 called Lingao County. The whole county speaks a dialect "Lingao dialect", which is quite unique. Up to now, language experts have not figured out which language family it belongs to.
临高方言只有口头语，没有反映本语言的文字。长期以来，一直使用汉字。用临高方言读书（汉文字），语音跟普通话差不多，懂普通话的人一般都能听懂，如普通话的“你去哪里”，临高方言改为“nikinali”，所以外地到临高工作的同志说，临高话一半是本地话，一半是普通话。
Lingao dialect only has oral language, not the words that reflect the language. For a long time, Chinese characters have been used. When reading in Lingao dialect (Chinese characters), the pronunciation is similar to that of Putonghua. People who understand Putonghua can generally understand it. For example, "where are you going" in Putonghua, and Lingao dialect is changed to "nikinali". Therefore, comrades from other places working in Lingao say that half of Lingao dialect is local, and the other half is Putonghua.
从语法结构看，一般把形容词、副词置于名词、动词之后，构成倒装的语法形式。主要是定语与中心词倒装。
In terms of grammatical structure, adjectives and adverbs are generally placed after nouns and verbs to form an inverted grammatical form. It is mainly the inversion of attributive and central word.
也有少量状语与中心词倒装，临高方言和谐、含蓄、风趣，容易引起共鸣。这种通俗朴实的语言，扎根于群众中，有强大的生命力。它对交流思想，沟通感情，传播信息，都起着积极的作用。但这种临高方言的语系归属，一直到现在仍是众说纷纭，莫衷一是。有人说，它是“西江黎话”（《琼台志》）；
有人认为，“它可能是泰汉语的混合物”（德国史图博《海南岛民族志》）；
有人还说，“与缅甸语颇相似”（陈明枢《海南岛志》）。但根据1957年中国科学院少数民族语言调查()分队和1980年中央民族学院民族语言专业教育工作者和广东省民族研究所等单位组成的民族识别调查工作组的调查，初步结论是，临高方言不是黎话，也不是“黎、泰和汉语的混合物”，而是具有“古越语的成份”，“属于汉藏语系峒泰语族壮泰语支的一种语言”，“与壮语十分接近”。
There are also a small number of adverbials and the center word inversion. Lingao dialect is harmonious, implicit, funny and easy to resonate. This popular and simple language, rooted in the masses, has strong vitality. It plays a positive role in the exchange of ideas, feelings and information. But up to now, there are still different opinions about the language family of Lingao dialect. Some people say that it is "Xijiang Li dialect" (records of Qiongtai); some people think that "it may be a mixture of Thai and Chinese" (records of Hainan Island by German stubo); others say that "it is quite similar to Burmese" (records of Hainan Island by Chen Mingshu). However, according to the investigation conducted by the ethnic language investigation team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1957 and the ethnic language professional educators of the Central Institute for Nationalities in 1980 and the ethnic identity investigation team of Guangdong Provincial Institute of nationalities, the preliminary conclusion is that Lingao dialect is not Li dialect, nor a mixture of Li, Tai and Chinese, but has the "components of ancient Yue language" and belongs to A language of the Zhuangtai branch of the Dongtai people of the Sino Tibetan language family "very close to the Zhuang language".
