Social:Songlin language
| Songlin | |
|---|---|
| sɑŋ³¹lin⁵⁵ | |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Shangchayu Town, Zayu County, Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet |
Native speakers | 1,000 (2019)[1] |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | song1316[2] |
Songlin (Chinese: 松林语) is a divergent, unclassified Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Zayu County, Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet. A linguistic description of Songlin has been published in a monograph by Song (2019).[1]
Names
Songlin speakers refer to their language as sɑŋ³¹lin⁵⁵pu⁵⁵lo³¹ɟe⁵⁵, and to Songlin village as sɑŋ³¹lin⁵⁵ (Song 2019:6).[1]
History of documentation
Jiang Huo (江获) first learned about the existence of Songlin while doing research on Idu during the 2000s, when local Idu people in the Upper Chayu Town area reported that the "Songleng Tuyu" 松冷土语 was spoken nearby. After preliminary data was collected in 2014, intensive field work was conducted during the summers of 2015–2017 by a Chinese research team led by Li Daqin (李大勤) (Song 2019:13). A monograph documenting the Songlin language, Xizang Chayu Songlin yu (西藏察隅松林语), was written by Song Cheng (宋成) and submitted for publication in 2018. The book was released in 2019.[1]
Demographics
The language is spoken in Songlin Village 松林村, Upper Chayu Town 上察隅镇 by approximately 1,000 people. The local lingua franca of the area is the Zayu dialect of Khams Tibetan. Some Songlin speakers can speak Idu and gSerkhu, both of which are also spoken in Upper Chayu Town 上察隅镇.[3]
Songlin village is located on the western banks of the Kangrigarbo Qu (贡日嘎布曲) river, several kilometers to the northwest of the Upper Chayu/Shangchayu Town (ʐoŋ³¹ȶø⁵⁵ in Songlin; located further downstream on the same river). Some nearby villages include Gonggu 巩固, Xiba 西巴 (ɕi⁵⁵tɑ⁵⁵ in Songlin), and Rongyu 荣玉 to the north, and Zongba 宗巴 and Migu 米古 to the south (Song 2019:6).
Classification
Song & Lin (2020) shows that Songlin is not closely related to any of the surrounding Tibeto-Burman languages and cannot be classified as a Tibetic language.[3] A computational phylogenetic study by Jiang (2023) also demonstrates the divergent position of Songlin.[4] Songlin and the Mishmi languages all are spoken in Zayu County, but Songlin is not closely related to any of them.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonant inventory of Songlin is as follows (Song 2019:18–19).[1]
| p | t | ȶ | c | k | ||
| pʰ | tʰ | ȶʰ | cʰ | kʰ | ||
| b | d | ȡ | ɟ | g | ||
| m̥ | n̥ | ȵ̥ | ŋ̥ | |||
| m | n | ȵ | ŋ | |||
| s | ʂ | ɕ | h | |||
| z | ʐ | ʑ | ||||
| ts | tʂ | tɕ | ||||
| tsʰ | tʂʰ | tɕʰ | ||||
| dz | dʐ | dʑ | ||||
| w | j | |||||
| l | ||||||
| ɬ |
Consonant clusters include: nb, nd, nȡ, nɟ, ng, ndz, ndʑ, ndʐ, pʐ, pʰʐ, bʐ, nbʐ, kʐ, kʰʐ, gʐ, nbʐ, ngʐ. /n/- is treated as part of consonant clusters, rather than as part of prenasalized initial consonants.
Note: In Sinology, ȵ is roughly equivalent to [ɲ] or [nʲ], while ȶ and ȡ can typically be transcribed as [tʲ] and [dʲ], respectively, although in practice they can actually be equivalent to [tʃ] or [dʒ] instead, or other similar affricates. Also, ɕ and ʑ often, but not always, correspond to [ʃ] and [ʒ] in IPA transcriptions used by non-Sinologists. For further information, see obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Vowels
There are 12 vowels: i, y, ɯ, u, e, ø, o, ə, ɛ, ɑ, ɿ, ʮ (Song 2019:21–22).
Songlin has 5 diphthongs: ui, ɯi, ou, ie, iɛ.
Note that ɿ [ɨ] is used by Sinologists, as well as ʮ ([ʉ], [ɹ̩ʷ] or [z̩ʷ]), which is a labialized syllabic denti-alveolar approximant used by Sinologists.
Tones
There are three tones in Songlin.
| Tone number | Pitch value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | /55/ | high level (高平) |
| 2 | /24/ | mid rising (中升) |
| 3 | /31/ | low falling (低降) |
About 50% of all words in Songlin have the high level tone /55/, while the mid rising /24/ and low falling /31/ tones are each found in approximately 25% of all Songlin words (Song 2019:24).
Script
Song (2019:30–32) proposes a pinyin-based script for Songlin.
|
|
Tones are transcribed using the numerals 1, 2, and 3 (see the Tones section above):
| Songlin script | Pitch value |
|---|---|
| 1 | /55/ (high level) |
| 2 | /24/ (mid rising) |
| 3 | /31/ (low falling) |
Example phrase (Song 2019:33):
- ga1sii1 ga1sii1 dyv1 neng3
- 'once upon a time'/'a very long time ago' (很久很久以前)
Morphology
Some common prefixes in Songlin are (Song 2019:43):[1]
- ɑ³¹-: nominal prefix
- mɑ³¹-: nominal prefix
- kə³¹-: used before some verbs, some body parts, and various nouns
Some suffixes are:
- -pɑ⁵⁵: used with human-related terms, body parts, and others
- -tso⁵⁵: 'son' (儿); masculine/diminutive, used to mark an animate noun (person or animal) as male, juvenile, or small
Reduplication is commonly used to form new nouns (Song 2019:45–46).
Pronouns
The Songlin pronouns are (Song 2019:134):[1]
| singular | dual | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ŋɑ⁵⁵ | ɑ²⁴kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵ | ɑ²⁴se⁵⁵ | |
| ŋɑ³¹kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵ | ŋɑ³¹se⁵⁵ | |||
| 2nd person | nu⁵⁵ | nə³¹kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵ | nə³¹se⁵⁵ | |
| 3rd person | pu²⁴ | pə³¹kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵ | pə³¹se⁵⁵ | |
Interrogatives
Songlin interrogatives are (Song 2019:140):[1]
| Gloss | Songlin |
|---|---|
| who? | ʃɑŋ³¹ŋɑ⁵⁵ |
| what?; which? | cʰe⁵⁵/hɑ³¹mi⁵⁵ |
| when? | ȵɛn²⁴kʰɑ³¹ |
| where? | hɑ³¹ndɑ⁵⁵ |
| how many? | hɑ³¹ȶi⁵⁵ |
| how? | hɑ³¹nbo⁵⁵ |
Sentence examples
The following Songlin sentence examples are from Yan (Song 2020:656). Songlin has SOV word order.[3]
Script error: No such module "Interlinear".
Script error: No such module "Interlinear".
Vocabulary
The following are Songlin words cited from Song (2020).[3]
| Chinese gloss | English gloss | Songlin |
|---|---|---|
| 一 | one | tɕi³¹tɑ⁵⁵ |
| 二 | two | kʰɑ³¹ȵi⁵⁵ |
| 三 | three | sɯŋ⁵⁵ |
| 四 | four | ʑi²⁴ |
| 五 | five | po³¹ŋoŋ²⁴ |
| 六 | six | tʂʰɯ²⁴ |
| 七 | seven | ȵ̥in²⁴ |
| 八 | eight | pu³¹ndʑe²⁴ |
| 九 | nine | gu²⁴ |
| 风 | wind | kʐi²⁴ |
| 虹 | rainbow | zɑ⁵⁵ |
| 右 | right (side) | tʂoŋ⁵⁵lɑ⁵⁵ |
| 外面 | outside | pɑ³¹tɕy²⁴ |
| 跳蚤 | flea | kɑ³¹ji⁵⁵ |
| (牛)角 | horn (of cattle) | goŋ²⁴kʰʐɿ⁵⁵ |
| 尾巴 | tail | ndʑoŋ⁵⁵mɑŋ⁵⁵ |
| 脖子 | neck | kɑ⁵⁵loŋ⁵⁵ |
| 背 | back | ci²⁴tsʰɿ⁵⁵ |
| (树)叶子 | leaf (of tree) | kʰɑ³¹pɑ²⁴ |
| 汗 | sweat | tsʰɑ¹³pɑ²⁴ |
| 尿 | urine | tɕʰi³¹li⁵⁵ |
| 官 | government official | ngə⁵⁵tʂʰɿ⁵⁵ |
| 孙子 | grandson | noŋ³¹tɕy⁵⁵ |
| 鞋 | shoe | ku³¹ȵu⁵⁵ |
| 刀子 | knife | nba³¹ju⁵⁵ |
| 船 | boat | tʂɿ³¹dzin⁵⁵ |
| 鬼 | ghost, spirit | tɕʰo²⁴ |
| 走 | walk | ci⁵⁵ |
| 飞 | fly (v.) | ku²⁴ |
| 吃 | eat | ndzo⁵⁵ |
| 烤 | roast, bake | pu⁵⁵ |
| 拔 | pull | pʰʐo²⁴ |
| 捆 | tie (v.) | pɯi⁵⁵ |
| 睡 | sleep | ŋoŋ²⁴ |
| 敢 | dare | pin⁵⁵ |
| 他 | he | pu²⁴ |
| 好 | good | ȵe²⁴ȵe⁵⁵ |
| 小 | small | kɑ³¹tsɛ⁵⁵ |
| 旧 | old (of things) | bi²⁴ |
| 很 | very | ʐɛ²⁴ |
| 星星 | star | kɑ⁵⁵mɑ⁵⁵ |
| 地、土 | earth, soil | pʐo²⁴ |
| 山 | mountain | ʐɿ²⁴ |
| 金子 | gold | sie⁵⁵ |
| 水獭 | otter | nɑ⁵⁵sɛn⁵⁵ |
| 毛 | hair (body) | n̥oŋ²⁴ |
| 柱子 | pillar | kɑ⁵⁵wɑ⁵⁵ |
| 针 | needle | kʰɛ²⁴ |
| 布 | cloth | ʐe²⁴ |
| 寺 | temple (Buddhist) | nɟø⁵⁵nba⁵⁵ |
| 镰刀 | sickle | ɕin⁵⁵koŋ⁵⁵ |
| 锯子 | saw (tool) | su⁵⁵li⁵⁵ |
| 绳子 | rope | nbɑ³¹je²⁴ |
| 听 | listen | ndʑo⁵⁵ |
| 大 | big | hɑ⁵⁵ndu⁵⁵ |
| 高 | high, tall | sen⁵⁵ |
| 你 | you (sg.) | nu⁵⁵ |
| 干净 | clean | ɕɑŋ⁵⁵ngʐɑŋ⁵⁵ |
| 软的 | soft | ȵɛ²⁴ȵɛ²⁴ |
| 黄的 | yellow | sɛ⁵⁵sɛ⁵⁵ |
| 轻的 | light (weight) | jɑŋ²⁴jɑŋ⁵⁵ |
| 新的 | new | ɕi³¹tso²⁴ |
| 桥 | bridge | dɑŋ²⁴ |
| 火柴 | firewood | mi³¹tʂʰe⁵⁵ |
| 树 | tree | tɕʰɑŋ²⁴ |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Song, Cheng 宋成 (2019). Xizang Chayu Songlin yu 西藏察隅松林语. Beijing: The Commercial Press. ISBN 9787100175234. OCLC 1152175771.
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/song1316.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Song, Cheng 宋成; Lin, Xin 林鑫 (2020). "On Songlin Language Status from the Chatacterisitics of Tibetic Branch 从藏语支语言的特点看松林语的语言地位". Linguistic Sciences 语言科学 19 (6): 649–659. doi:10.7509/j.linsci. ISSN 1671-9484. http://journal15.magtechjournal.com/Jwk_yykx/EN/10.7509/j.linsci.202010.034481. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ Jiang, Huo 江荻 (2023-02-28). "Linguistic diversity and classification in Tibet 西藏的语言多样性及其分类". Chinese Tibetology Center 中国藏学研究中心. http://www.tibetology.ac.cn/2023-02/28/content_42276501.htm.
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