Exploring the historical layers of the Tangwang language
唐汪话历史层次探索
Dan Xu 徐丹
Abstract 摘要
This paper combines written records with concrete material evidence (such as family genealogy, historical monuments, genetic evidence) to revisit the migration history of the Tangwang people. The core part of the Tangwang population came from Han people. Linguistic and genetic data suggest that a significant portion of the Tangwang populations might have come from Northern and Northwestern China. Loanwords from Arabic, Persian and Turkic were introduced via the Dongxiang (Santa) language and through preaching in Muslim mosques, but the proportion of these words is not significant. Loanwords from Dongxiang generally concern everyday life, while loanwords from Turkic, Persian and Arabic are related to religious items or rites. Despite these loanwords, the basic vocabulary (list of 200 words) is 100% Chinese, and the percentage reaches 98.86% when the number attains 2964 words.
Subject Keywords 主题词
The Tangwang language 唐汪话 Layers 层次 Genes 基因 Migrations 移民
Journal of Chinese Linguistics vol.48, no.2 (June 2020): 297-322
Copyright © 2020 Journal of Chinese Linguistics. All rights reserved.