Social:Santa language

Short description: Mongolic language of Northwest China

Santa
Dunxian kielen لھجکءاءل‎
Native to	China
Region	Gansu (mainly Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture) and Xinjiang (Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture)
Native speakers	200,000 (2007)
Language family	Mongolic Southern Mongolic Shirongolic (fr) Santa
Writing system	Arabic, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sce
Glottolog	dong1285
Santa is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

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.

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.

Consonants

Dongxiang has 29 consonants:

		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. Unlike other neighboring Mongolic languages, it has neither vowel harmony nor distinctions of vowel length.

	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)

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

• -pi (relatives)

Cases

Santa/Dongxiang has 6 cases.

	Function	Marker	Example	Meaning (Chinese)
Nominative	nominative	(nothing)	morei holuwe	马跑了
Connective	genitive-accusative	-ni (yi)	bula-ni usu	泉里的水
Dative	dative-locative-benefactive	-de	ula-de khirei	登上山
Ablative	ablative-comparative	-se	udani hon-se gaowe	比去年好
Comitative	comitative (联合格)	-le	chi ibura-le hhantu echi	你和伊卜拉一起去
Comitative	comitative (方面格)	-re	bi chima-re sanane	我要和你算帐
Sociative	sociative-instrumental	-gh(u)ala	khidei-ghala kielie	用汉话说
Prosecutive	locative-prosecutive	-gvun	moronghizha-gvun nie uzhe	沿河边看一下

Possessive

Pronoun

Word	Note	Meaning
morei-mini	(also -miyi, -miy)	my horse
morei-matanni	(also -matayi, -matay)	our (inclusive) horse
morei-bijienni	(also -bijieyi, -bijiey)	our (exclusive) horse
morei-chini	(also -chiyis, -chiy)	your horse
morei-tani	(also -tayi, -tay)	your (plural) horse
morei-ni		him/ her/ their (any 3rd person pronoun) horse

Reflexive

Particle	Word	Meaning
-ne	chi gaga-ne uru	你叫你哥哥来

Pronoun Declension

1st Person

Case	Singular	Plural
		Exclusive	Inclusive
Nominative	bi / orun (quotation)	bijien	matan / oruntan (quotation)
Genitive accusative	mi-ni / nama-ni (namiyi)	bijien-ni	matan-ni / ma-ni
Dative locative	nama-de / ma-de	bijien-de	matan-de
Ablative comparative	nama-se / ma-se	bijien-se	matan-se
Comitative (联合格)	nama-le / ma-le	bijien-le	matan-le
Sociative instrumental	bi-ghala	bijien-ghala	matan-ghala

2nd Person

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	chi	ta / tan
Genitive accusative	chi-ni	ta-ni
Dative locative	chima-de	tan-de
Ablative comparative	chima-se / cha-se	tan-se
Comitative (联合格)	chima-le	tan-le
Sociative instrumental	chi-ghala	ta-ghala

3rd Person

Case	Singular			Plural
Nominative	hhe	tere	egven	hhela	terela	egvenla
				hhesila	teresila	egvesila
Genitive accusative	hhe-ni	tere-ni	egen-ni	hhela-ni	terela-ni	egvenla-ni
Dative locative	hhe-nde	tere-(n)de / ten-de	egven-de	hhela-de	terela-de	egvenla-de
Ablative comparative	hhe-nse	tere-(n)se	egven-se	hhela-se	terela-se	egvenla-se
Comitative (联合格)	hhe-nle	tere-le	egven-le	hhela-le	terela-le	egvenla-le
Sociative instrumental	hhe-ghala	tere-ghala	egven-ghala	hhela-ghala	terela-ghala	egvenla-ghala

Verb suffix

正动词

Type 式(语气或情态)的范畴

Case	Particle	Example	Meaning (Chinese)
Imperative	-ye	matanghala yawu-ye	我们两个走吧
	-gie	chini gien ghujingvan gaoda-gie	让你的病尽快痊愈
Declarative	-we	bi uzhe-we	我看了

Aspect 体(动词行为方式或状态)范畴

Aspect	Particle	Example	Meaning (Chinese)
Perfect	-we	bi bazade echi-we	我到临夏去了
Imperfect	-ne	chi khala echi-ne	你到哪里去?
Continuative	-zhiwe (zho)	ana-miyi budan gie-zhiwe	我妈正在做饭

Voice 态(行为与其主体之间的关系)的范畴

Voice	Particle	Example	Meaning (Chinese)
主动态	(nothing)
使动态	-gva	bai-gva	建立
共动态	-ndu	jie-ndu	吃

Numeral: Singular has no suffix, plural suffix is -ndu, same as 共动态.

数:单数没有附加成分,复数的附加成分是-ndu,与共动态附加成分一样

副动词

Adverb	Particle	Example	Meaning (Chinese)
并列副动词	-zhi	shira-zhi ijie	烤着吃
重复副动词	-n	wila-n wila-n yawulawe	哭着哭着走了
目的副动词	-le	bi nie uzhe-le irewe	我来看一看
分离副动词	-dene or -de	chi ijie-dene bi ijieye	你吃完后我再吃
条件副动词	-se	ghura bao-se bi ulie irene	如果下雨,我就不来了
选择、界限副动词	-tala	khara olu-tala wilie giewe	干活到天黑
让步副动词	-senu	eqiemagva bosi-senu shu uzhezho	早晨起来后看书

形动词

Tense	Particle	Example	Meaning (Chinese)
Past	-san (sen)	ene baodei bolu-sanwe	这小麦是成熟的
Future	-ku / -wu	echi-ku mo gholowe	要去的路远
Present	-chin	enende sao-chin kun wainu uwe	有没有在这儿住的人?

存在动词 bi 和 wi

		bi	wi
正动词		wai-ne	wi-we
形动词	过去时形动词	bi-san	wi-san
	将来时形动词	bi-ku	wi-ku
	现在时形动词	bi-chin	wi-chin
副动词	并列副动词	bi-zhi	wi-zhi
	分离副动词	bi-dene	wi-dene
	条件副动词	bi-se	wi-se
	选择、界限副动词	bi-tala	wi-tala
	让步副动词	bi-senu	wi-senu

Tense	Particle	Example	Meaning (Chinese)
表示推测的	bi-mu	hhen-de baer bi-mu	他有钱吧
表示回忆的	bi-lai	hhe nasun giedun bi-lai bi matawe	我忘了他多少岁了

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.

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.

Numerals

Numeral	Classical Mongolian	Dongxiang	IPA
1	nigen	nie	niə
2	qoyar	ghua	ɢua
3	ghurban	ghuran	ɢuraŋ
4	dörben	jieron	dʑiəroŋ
5	tabun	tawun	tawuŋ
6	jirghughan	dzigvon	dʐiʁoŋ
7	dologhan	dolon	doloŋ
8	naiman	naiman	naimaŋ
9	yisün	yesun	jəsuŋ
10	arban	hharan	haraŋ

Some numbers in Dongxiang language was heavily influenced by Mandarin. Examples include 30 (sanshi) and 40 (sishi). Meanwhile both khorun /qoruŋ/ and ershi /'ɚʂi/ for 20.

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. 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.

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.

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).

Bibliography

• Bao, Saren (包萨仁) (2006), 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 
• Cheng, Joyce (2013-05-10), Dongxiang – people of the northwest, http://gbtimes.com/life/dongxiang-people-northwest 
• Field, Kenneth Lynn (1997), A grammatical overview of Santa Mongolian, PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, http://altaica.ru/LIBRARY/Field_Santa.pdf 
• Kim, Stephen S. (2003), "Santa", in Janhunen, Juha, The Mongolic Languages, Routledge Language Family Series, pp. 346–363, ISBN 978-0-203-98791-9 
• People's Daily (2012-08-08), http://cn.hujiang.com/new/p411605, retrieved 2016-02-12 

Further reading

• Baker, Craig (April 2000), The Dongxiang Language and People, http://journal.acs-cam.org.uk/data/archive/2013/201302-article4.pdf, retrieved 2016-02-12 
• Chuluu, Üjiyediin (Chaolu Wu) (November 1994), Introduction, Grammar, and Sample Sentences for Dongxiang, SINO-PLATONIC, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania, http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp055_dongxiang_language.pdf 
• Jorigt, G.; Stuart, Kevin (1998), "Problems Concerning Mongolian Case", Central Asiatic Journal (Harrassowitz Verlag) 42 (1): 110–122 
• Ma, Guozhong (马国忠) (2001), 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 

External links

• The Dongxiang Mongols and Their Language
• An example of the Dongxiang language being spoken