Gelao Autonomous Counties
Gelao may refer to: * Gelao language * Gelao people The Gelao people (also spelled Gelo) ( Gelao: ''Klau'', ) are an ethnic group of China and Vietnam. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. However, many Gelao are also variously classified a ...

Gelao Language
Gelao ( autonym: Kláo, Chinese: 仡佬 Gēlǎo, Vietnamese: Cờ Lao) is a cluster of Kra languages in the Kra–Dai language family. It is spoken by the Gelao people in southern China and northern Vietnam. Despite an ethnic population of 580,000 (2000 census of China), only a few thousand still speak Gelao in China. Estimates run from 3,000 in China by Li in 1999, of which 500 are monolinguals, to 7,900 by Edmondson in 2008. Edmondson (2002) estimates that the three Gelao varieties of Vietnam have only about 350 speakers altogether. External relationships Like Buyang, another Kra language, Gelao contains many words which are likely to be Austronesian cognates. (''See Austro-Tai languages''.) As noted by Li and Zhou,李锦芳/Li, Jinfang and 周国炎/Guoyan Zhou. 仡央语言探索/Geyang yu yan tan suo. Beijing, China: 中央民族大学出版社/Zhong yang min zu da xue chu ban she, 1999. Gelao shares much vocabulary with the Hlai and Ong Be languages, suggesting cont ...
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