Dongxiang 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] | |
| Total speakers | 250,000[2] | |
| Language family | Altaic[3] (controversial) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | tut | |
| ISO 639-3 | sce | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
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 |
[edit] Phonology
Dongxiang has neither vowel harmony nor distinctions of vowel length.[2]
[edit] 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.[4]
[edit] 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; 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.[5]
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- Kim, Stephen S. (2003), "Sarta", 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 on 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 on 2009-04-13
[edit] 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
[edit] External links
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