Santa language

The Santa language, also known as Dongxiang (simplified Chinese: 东乡语; traditional Chinese: 東鄉語; pinyin: Dōngxiāng yǔ), is a Mongolic language spoken by the Dongxiang people in Northwest China.

Santa
Santa
لھجکءاءل‎
Native toChina
RegionGansu (mainly Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture) and Xinjiang (Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture)[1]
Native speakers
200,000 (2007)[2]
Mongolic
  • Shirongolic
    • Santa
Arabic, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3sce
Glottologdong1285
ELPDongxiang[3]

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:[4]

Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Stop 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.[4] 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

Plural marking
  • -la (remaining of nouns)

Examples: ~oni 'sheep', eoni-la 'sheep(s)'

  • -sla/-sila (certain nouns and pronouns)

Examples: o~in 'girl', o~in-sla 'girls'

  • -pi (relatives)

Examples: gajieiau 'brother', gajieiau-pi 'brothers'

Cases

Santa/Dongxiang has 6 cases.[5]

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 basically a 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.[6]

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, the official Latin alphabet for Dongxiang, developed on the basis of the Monguor alphabet, remained in the experimental stage.[7]

Numerals
Numeral Classical Mongolian Dongxiang
1 nigen niy
2 qoyar ghua
3 ghurban ghuran
4 dorben jierang
5 tabun tawun
6 jirghughan jirghun
7 dologhan dolon
8 naiman naiman
9 yisun yysun
10 arban haron

The Tangwang language
Main article: 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. [8] 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.[8]

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.[8]

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).[8]

References
  1. Bao (2006).
  2. Santa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. Endangered Languages Project data for Dongxiang.
  4. Field (1997), p. 37.
  5. Janhunen (2003), p. 354.
  6. Bao (2006), 1.1: 东乡语的语序特点.
  7. Kim (2003), p. 348.
  8. 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

Further reading
  • Baker, Craig (April 2000), The Dongxiang Language and People (PDF), retrieved 2016-02-12
  • 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
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