Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages - Volume 38, Issue 1, 2023

Abstract

China is ethnically and linguistically diverse. There are 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in the country, including the majority Han, with a 1.2 billion-strong population and Tatar, the smallest minority group with only 3,556 people residing in Xinjiang, according to the 2010 Population Census of the People’s Republic of China, the latest census data available on the government’s website (www.stats.gov.cn). The Han accounts for 91.6% of the population, with the minorities taking up the balance of 8.4%. Most ethnic groups have their own languages, which fall into typologically distinct language families, the largest being Altaic and Sino-Tibetan. Ethnologue lists 299 languages in China and rates the country 0.521 in linguistic diversity, compared with 0.035 for Japan and 0.010 for South Korea (Simons & Fennig 2017). A few ethnic groups, such as the Hui (Chinese Muslims) and the Manchus, who founded the last imperial dynasty of Qing (1644–1912), have lost their indigenous languages over the centuries. They speak the language of the Han majority.

Linguistic diversity in China is manifested in two ways: across the ethnic groups and within the Han majority. In what follows, we give a schematic description of the languages and briefly summarize the papers in this issue that offer a snapshot of language contact in China.

Abstract

This article discusses the semantic and syntactic properties of converb markers =Shi, =Zhe, and =Tala in Sinitic varieties in the Qīnghǎi-Gānsù Linguistic Area (qgla), and defines them as converb enclitics rather than conjunctions, modal particles, or other functional words. =Shi is a conditional converb enclitic while =Tala is a terminative converb enclitic; both enclitics derive their respective properties from Altaic languages. The enclitic =Zhe expresses the coordinative and narrative functions, derived from its Altaic source, and the conjunctional function, which is an innovation. The productive use of the converbs coincides with the sharp decline of serial verbs in Sinitic varieties in qgla, and such a phenomenon emerges through intense contact among the Altaic, Sinitic and Tibetan languages in the area.

Abstract

In this paper I discuss the various functions of nominalization in Wutun, a mixed Sinitic language spoken by ca. 4000 people in Qinghai Province, Northwest China. Nominalization in Wutun is expressed by the multi-purpose marker -de (cognate to Standard Mandarin de 的), which functions on both the lexical and clausal levels. Lexical nominalization takes the verb as its domain to derive nouns or adjectives, while clausal nominalization takes the entire clause as its domain and allows the clause to be treated as a noun phrase. Clausal nominalization in Wutun is used to form nominal complement clauses, relative clauses and adverbial subordinate clauses. In addition, the multi-purpose marker -de in Wutun has functions that go beyond nominalization, including pronominal function, pre-nominal modification and stand-alone usage, which is related to aspect and emphasis and plays an important role in stance-taking.

Abstract

This paper, based on Chinese and Uyghur language contact data collected through fieldwork, discusses in detail Uyghur speakers’ acquisition of Mandarin tones. Uyghur speakers map the three native pitch accents from the Uyghur prosodic system, i.e. level, rise, and fall, to the four Mandarin tones. Initially, this mapping is random. As Chinese proficiency improves, the accent-tone mapping becomes stable. The pace, however, is not uniform for the four tones, due to competition among the three accents to map unto a given Mandarin tone. After accent-tone mapping becomes stable, the mapped accents will gradually approximate towards their target tones in pitch value, again at an uneven pace. This quantitative study reveals a two-step process in the emergence of Uyghur Chinese tones: (1) the phonological step of accent-tone mapping involving tonal categories, (2) the phonetic approximation to tonal target. A Uyghur accent does not map directly to a superficially similar tone based on pitch value.

Abstract

The Modern Uyghur language has a large number of lexemes copied from Chinese in different periods of Uyghur. Amongst them, there is a special group of lexemes globally copied from Chinese first into the Old Uyghur literary language which is documented in the texts written in various scripts from the 8th to the 14th centuries. Some of these global lexical copies were transmitted to the next stages of Uyghur and are established in Modern Uyghur as part of its lexicon. This paper discusses aspects of this special group of lexemes from the four points, semantic reinterpretation, fusion in form and meaning, multiple copying of the same lexeme, and additions to the lexicon. The aim is to illustrate some important aspects of the historical Sino-Uyghur linguistic and cultural contact reflected in these copies and to provide Uyghur examples to understand aspects of diachronic development of copied lexemes in the recipient language.

Abstract

The Ei language (or Wu-se) is a mixed language derived from Chinese and the Kam-Tai languages. This paper focuses on the status of Ei and its formation process. The ancestors of the Ei people were soldiers and their families from different ethnic groups, who were sent to the Patrol Division of E’jing Town, Rong County, Guangxi Province in the Ming Dynasty, some 600 years ago. They are a multi-ethnic fusion of Chinese, Zhuang, Kam, and Sui peoples. The Ei language resulted from contact between Chinese and Kam-Tai languages. Its core words are mainly Kam-Tai, and the commonly-used words are mainly Chinese. The word order is basically the same as Chinese, and its voiceless sonorants are consistent with Kam-Sui phonology. The root causes of its formation are the Ei speakers’ ethnic identity as well as their stable and relatively closed life circles.

Abstract

The Mandarin dialects spoken in former garrison towns and the surrounding Southern Min and Cantonese dialects in the island of Hainan are affected by the voiced implosive initials of the local indigenous Kra-Dai languages in different ways. The garrison dialects with low social status developed the implosives, like the Southern Min and Cantonese dialects that pre-dated the establishment of the garrison towns. The garrison dialects with high social status did not develop the implosives, blocking the Chinese dialects that arrived later from getting them. The prestigious garrison dialects also serve as the source of loanwords for the regional Southern Min and Cantonese dialects.

Abstract

Penang Hokkien was spoken by the early Hokkien settlers as a heritage language in a Malay dominant environment before it became a lingua franca of the Chinese communities in present-day Penang and its neighboring states in Northern Malaysia. Over two centuries, Penang Hokkien has assimilated Malay words and structures. This article discusses the forms and functions of pún and tio̍h, which have assimilated Malay elements as response strategies to two key triggers for deviation from the baseline Southern Min dialect: ambiguity and complex structure. Through a detailed study of pún and tio̍h, this article contributes to a better understanding of the development of a Malay-dominant heritage language that is based on a Chinese dialect spoken in the Malay peninsula.

This article reviews Dicionário do Crioulo de Macau: Escrita de Adé em Patuá

This article reviews Amazonian Spanish: Language contact and evolution

This article reviews Variation and change in Abui: The impact of Alor Malay on an indigenous language of Indonesia978-94-6093-345-5

This article reviews The Lingua Franca: Contact-Induced Language Change in the Mediterranean9781316518311GBP 85