lingvo.wikisort.org - Language
The Santa language, also known as Dongxiang (simplified Chinese: 东乡语; traditional Chinese: 東鄉語; pinyin: Dōngxiāngyǔ), is a Mongolic language spoken by the Dongxiang people in Northwest China.
| Santa | |
|---|---|
| Santa لھجکءاءل | |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Gansu (mainly Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture) and Xinjiang (Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture)[1] |
Native speakers | 200,000 (2007)[2] |
Language family | Mongolic
|
Writing system | Arabic, Latin |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | sce |
| Glottolog | dong1285 |
| ELP | Dongxiang |
 Santa is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Dialects
There are no dialects in strict sense, but three local varieties (tuyu) can be found: Suonanba (ca. 50% of all Dongxiang speakers), Wangjiaji (ca. 30% of all Dongxiang speakers) and Sijiaji (ca. 20% of all Dongxiang speakers).
Phonology
Except for a limited number of cases there is no vowel harmony and the harmonic rules governing the suffix pronunciation are by far not as strict as those of Mongolian.[2]
Consonants
Dongxiang has 29 consonants:[3]
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | plain | p | t | k | q | |||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | qʰ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʂ | ɕ | x | h | |
| voiced | ʐ | ʁ | ||||||
| Affricate | plain | t͡s | t͡ʂ | t͡ɕ | ||||
| aspirated | t͡sʰ | t͡ʂʰ | t͡ɕʰ | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
Vowels
Dongxiang has 7 vowels.[3] Unlike other neighboring Mongolic languages, it has neither vowel harmony nor distinctions of vowel length.[2]
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | retroflex | unrounded | rounded | ||
| High | i | ɯ | u | ||
| Mid | ə | ɚ | o | ||
| Low | ɑ | ||||
Grammar
Morphology
Plural marking
- -la (remaining of nouns)
~oni,
sheep,
eoni-la
sheep(s)
- -sla/-sila (certain nouns and pronouns)
o~in,
girl,
o~in-sla
girls
- -pi (relatives)
gajieiau
brother,
gajieiau-pi
brothers
Cases
Santa/Dongxiang has 6 cases.[4]
| Function | Marker | |
|---|---|---|
| Connective | genitive-accusative | -ni |
| Dative | dative-locative-benefactive | -de |
| Ablative | ablative-comparative | -se |
| Comitative | comitative | -le ~ -re |
| Sociative | sociative-instrumental | -gh(u)ala |
| Prosecutive | locative-prosecutive | -ghun |
Syntax
In common with other Mongolic languages, Dongxiang is spoken as an SOV language. In Linxia, however, under the influence of the Mandarin Chinese dialects spoken by the neighbouring Hui people, sentences of the SVO type have also been observed.[5]
Writing system
Knowledge of Arabic is widespread among the Sarta and as a result, they often use the Arabic script 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 alphabet for Dongxiang, developed on the basis of the Monguor alphabet, remained in the experimental stage.[6]
Numerals
| Numeral | Classical Mongolian | Dongxiang |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | nigen | niy |
| 2 | qoyar | ghua |
| 3 | ghurban | ghuran |
| 4 | dörben | jierang |
| 5 | tabun | tawun |
| 6 | jirghughan | jirghun |
| 7 | dologhan | dolon |
| 8 | naiman | naiman |
| 9 | yisün | yysun |
| 10 | arban | haron |
The Tangwang language
There are about 20,000 people in the north-eastern part Dongxiang County, who self-identify as Dongxiang or Hui people who do not speak Dongxiang, but natively speak a Dongxiang-influenced form of Mandarin Chinese. The linguist Mei W. Lee-Smith calls this 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 and argues it is a creolized language.[7] 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.[7]
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.[7]
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 (however only four of them, unlike eight in Dongxiang).[7]
References
- Bao (2006).
- Santa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Field (1997), p. 37.
- Janhunen (2003), p. 354.
- Bao (2006), 1.1: 东乡语的语序特点.
- Kim (2003), p. 348.
- Lee-Smith, Mei W.; International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (1996), "The Tangwang language", in Wurm, Stephen A.; Mühlhäusler, Peter; Tyron, Darrell T. (eds.), 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 978-3-11-013417-9
Bibliography
- Bao, Saren (包萨仁) (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, archived from the original on 2011-07-13
- Cheng, Joyce (2013-05-10), "Dongxiang – people of the northwest", GBTIMES, archived from the original on 2016-04-28
- Field, Kenneth Lynn (1997), A grammatical overview of Santa Mongolian (PDF), PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara
- People's Daily (2012-08-08), Chinese Ethnic Groups：东乡族（Dōngxiāng zú ）The Dongxiang ethnic minority, retrieved 2016-02-12
Further reading
- Baker, Craig (April 2000), The Dongxiang Language and People (PDF), retrieved 2016-02-12
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Chuluu, Üjiyediin (Chaolu Wu) (November 1994), Introduction, Grammar, and Sample Sentences for Dongxiang (PDF), SINO-PLATONIC, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania
- Jorigt, G.; Stuart, Kevin (1998), "Problems Concerning Mongolian Case", Central Asiatic Journal, Harrassowitz Verlag, 42 (1): 110–122, JSTOR 41928140
- Kim, Stephen S. (2003), "Santa", in Janhunen, Juha (ed.), The Mongolic Languages, Routledge Language Family Series, pp. 346–363, ISBN 978-0-203-98791-9
- Ma, Guozhong (马国忠) (2001), 东乡语汉语词典 [Dongxiang-Chinese Dictionary], Lanzhou: Gansu Nationalities Publishing House (甘肃民族出版社), ISBN 978-7-5421-0767-1
- Wei, Li Xue; Stuart, Kevin (1989), "Population and Culture of the Mongols, Tu, Baoan, Dongxiang, and Yugu in Gansu", Mongolian Studies, Mongolia Society, 12 (The Owen Lattimore Memorial Issue): 71–93, JSTOR 43194234
External links
На других языках
- [en] Santa language
[fr] Dongxiang (langue)
Le dongxiang (ou santa) est une langue mongole parlée dans le Sud-Ouest de la province du Gansu, en Chine par 250 000 Dongxiang.[it] Lingua dongxiang
La lingua Dongxiang (东乡语) o Santa è una lingua appartenente alla Famiglia linguistica delle Lingue mongoliche, parlata nel Sud-Ovest della provincia di Gansu, in Cina da circa 200.000 persone appartenenti al popolo Dongxiang, di cui circa 80.000 sono monolinguisti. L'etnia conta 540.000 persone (Dati del 2007)[1].[ru] Дунсянский язык
Дунсянский язык (широнгол-монгольский, санта, саньта) — язык народа дунсян, один из монгольских языков. Близко родственен баоаньскому языку.Другой контент может иметь иную лицензию. Перед использованием материалов сайта WikiSort.org внимательно изучите правила лицензирования конкретных элементов наполнения сайта.
WikiSort.org - проект по пересортировке и дополнению контента Википедии