- Santa language
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Dongxiang Santa Spoken in China Region Gansu province, mainly in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, and Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region[1] Native speakers 250,000[2] (date missing) Language family Mongolic- Shirongolic
- Dongxiang
Writing system Arabic alphabet, Latin alphabet Language codes ISO 639-3 sce The Dongxiang language (东乡语), also referred to as the Santa language or Sarta language, is a Mongolic language spoken by the Dongxiang people in northwest China.
Contents
Phonology
Dongxiang has neither vowel harmony nor distinctions of vowel length.[2]
Grammar
In common with other Mongolic languages, Dongxiang is basically a subject–object–verb language. In Linxia, however, under the influence of the Mandarin dialects spoken by the neighbouring Hui people, sentences of the subject–verb–object type have also been observed.[3]
Writing system
Knowledge of Arabic is widespread among the Sarta, and as a result, they often use the Arabic alphabet to write down their language informally (cf. the Xiao'erjing system that was used by Hui people); however, this has been little investigated by scholars. As of 2003[update], the official Latin orthography for Dongxiang, developed on the basis of the system used for the Monguor language, remained in the experimental stage.[4]
Numerals
English Classical Mongolian Dongxiang 1 One Nigen Niy 2 Two Qoyar Ghua 3 Three Ghurban Ghuran 4 Four Dorben Jierang 5 Five Tabun Tawun 6 Six Jirghughan Jirghun 7 Seven Dologhan Dolon 8 Eight Naiman Naiman 9 Nine Yisun Yysun 10 Ten Arban Haron The Tangwang creole language
Main article: Tangwang languageThere are about 20,000 people in the north-eastern part Dongxiang County, who self-identify as Dongxiang or Hui people who don't speak Dongxiang language, but speak natively a Dongxiang-influenced form of Mandarin. The linguist Mei W. Lee-Smith calls this creole language the "Tangwang language" (Chinese: 唐汪话), based on the names of the two largest villages (Tangjia and Wangjia, parts of Tangwang Town) where it is spoken. [5] According to Lee-Smith, the Tangwang language uses mostly Mandarin words and morphemes with Dongxiang grammar. Besides Dongxiang loanwords, Tangwang also has a substantial number of Arabic and Persian loanwords.[5]
Like standard Mandarin, Tangwang is a tonal language, but grammatical particles, which are typically borrowed from Mandarin, but are used in the way Dongxiang morphemes would be used in Dongxiang, don't carry tones.[5]
For example, while the Mandarin plural suffix -men (们) has only very restricted usage (it can be used with personal pronouns and some nouns related to people), Tangwang uses it, in the form -m, universally, the way Dongxiang would use its plural suffix -la. Mandarin pronoun ni (你) can be used in Tangwang as a possessive suffix (meaning "your"). Unlike Mandarin, but like Dongxiang, Tangwang has grammatical cases as well (but only 4 of them, instead of 8 in Dongxiang).[5]
References
- ^ Bao 2006
- ^ a b Gordon 2005, Dongxiang
- ^ Bao 2006, 1.1: 东乡语的语序特点
- ^ Kim 2003, p. 348
- ^ a b c d Lee-Smith, Mei W. (1996), "The Tangwang language", in Wurm, Stephen A., Atlas of languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Volume 2, Part 1. (Volume 13 of Trends in Linguistics, Documentation Series)., Walter de Gruyter, pp. 875–882, ISBN 3110134179, http://books.google.com/?id=glU0vte5gSkC
Sources
- Kim, Stephen S. (2003), "Santa", in Janhunen, Juha, The Mongolic Languages, Routledge Language Family Series, pp. 346–363, ISBN 0-203-98791-8
- Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. (2005), Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th ed.), Dallas, Texas: SIL International, http://www.ethnologue.com, retrieved 2009-04-13
- 包萨仁/Bao Saren (2006), "从语言接触看东乡语和临夏话的语序变化/Sequential Changes in Dongxiang Language and Linxia Dialects from the View of Linguistic Contact", Journal of the Second Northwest University for Nationalities (Social Science Edition) (2), ISSN 1008-2883, http://www.ilib2.com/A-ISSN~1008-2883(2006)02-0035-05.html, retrieved 2009-04-13
Further reading
- Field, Kenneth Lynn (1997), A grammatical overview of Santa Mongolian, PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara
- 马国忠/Ma Guozhong (2001), 东乡语汉语词典/Dongxiang-Chinese Dictionary, Lanzhou: 甘肃民族出版社/Gansu Nationalities Publishing House, ISBN 7542107674
External links
Categories:- Language articles with undated speaker data
- Agglutinative languages
- Languages of China
- Mongolic languages
- Language stubs
- Shirongolic
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