Excerpt from change request document:

Based on recent linguistic survey findings with research components exploring identity, contact and intelligibility, we recommend that [ypl] should be split into three closely related, but synchronically distinct languages. Speaker perceptions and recorded text test scores both point to low intelligibility between Phola [ypg] and Phala [ypa]*. Undirectional intelligibility from Phala to Phola is apparent in middle-aged to elderly speakers, but younger speakers who have had less contact are unable to converse in Phala or Phola and must resort to Chinese. Based on the views of in-group and out-group members alike, ethnic identity and material culture also confirm this distinction.

The proposed language [ypo], or Alo Phola, is reported by Phola speakers to be an unintelligible dialect of Phola spoken in a village in central Yuanjiang County. The village is surrounded by Dai villages, and Phola speakers say the language sounds like a mix of Phola, Chinese and Dai. Speakers from the two varieties reportedly must resort to Chinese in order to communicate.