Ngái people
Ngái people doing moxibustion in Province Thái Nguyên | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 4,841 (1999) 1,035 (2009) 1,649 (2019) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Vietnam: Quảng Ninh, Thái Nguyên, Hải Phòng | |
| Languages | |
| Hakka, Cantonese & Vietnamese | |
| Religion | |
| Mahayana Buddhism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Hakka people, Chinese Vietnamese, Tanka people |
The Ngái (Vietnamese: Người Ngái; Chữ Nôm: 𠊛𠊎) are a Hakka-speaking community in Vietnam and other nearby countries of Indochina, whose ancestors were Southern Chinese. The Vietnamese government separated Ngai from Cantonese when considering ethnic minority groups. The term "Ngai" comes from the Hakka first person pronoun "ngai" (𠊎, "I / me"), and some Ngai use the endonym "San Ngai" (山𠊎, "mountain [-dwelling] Ngai").
The Ngái people speak Hakka, a Sino-Tibetan language but are classified separately from the Hoa or urban ethnic "Overseas Chinese" by the Vietnamese government. The Ngái population was 4,841 in 1999 but down only 1,035 in 2009 and up to 1,649 in 2019.