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User:Silmarlu/Eastern yugur language

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Eastern Yugur
Native toChina
RegionGansu
Ethnicity6,000 Yugur (2000)[1]
Native speakers
4,000 (2007)[1]
Mongolic
  • Southern Mongolic
    • Eastern Yugur
Language codes
ISO 639-3yuy
Glottologeast2337

Eastern Yugur (Shira Yugur, "Yellow Yugur" [2]) is the Mongolic language spoken within the Yugur nationality in the Gansu Province of China. The other language spoken within the same community is Western Yughur, which is a Turkic language. Both are non-written languages and traditionally indicated by the term Yellow Uygur, from the autonym of the Yugur.[3] There are approximately 4,000 speakers of Eastern Yugur today[4].

Eastern Yugur is a threatened language with an aging population of fluent speakers.[5][6] Language contact with neighboring languages, particularly Chinese, has noticeably affected the language competency of younger speakers.[6] Some younger speakers have also begun to lose their ability to distinguish between different phonetic shades within the language, indicating a weaker language competency.[7]

The first record of Eastern Yugur was made by Grigory Potanin in a glossary of Salar, Western Yugur, and Eastern Yugur in his 1893 book written in Russian, The Tangut-Tibetan Borderlands of China and Central Mongolia.[8][9][10][11][12][13]

Classification

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Eastern Yugur is closely related to Monguor, Baoan, and Dongxian.[3] All four preserve the Common Mongolic initial *h- and preserve Common Mongolic final vowels but possess instability of Common Mongolic non-final vowels.[3]

Loanwords

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Eastern Yugur shares a large common vocabulary with Western Yugur due to the adoption of loanwords not only from each other but also from the Tibetan and Chinese languages.[3] While words from Western Yugur and Tibetan are regarded as native words, Chinese loanwords are still regarded as foreign as the Chinese only moved into Gansu Province in 1958. [2]

Words from the Turkic-Mongolic cognate vocabulary are also present in both languages as in most modern Mongolic and Turkic languages.[3]

Literature

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After the first record of Eastern Yugur was made by Potanin in 1893, more material from Malov's expeditions to Yugur 1909-1911 and 1913-1915 was published in Kotwicz's article.[3] In the 1950s, Sino-Russian research expeditions collected much language material, though these would face a delayed release. [3] Other materials include a grammar with vocabulary and a short article by Juunast, a survey by Tenisev and Todaeva, a collection of texts by Bolculuu and Jalcan, and parts of the Mongolic dictionary by Sun. [3][7]

Culture

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Speakers of Eastern Yugur follow Tibetan Buddhism, in contrast to the shamanistic traditions of speakers of Western Yugur. [14] Both are primarily employed in animal husbandry. [15]

Folksongs

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As an unwritten language, folksongs are important in preserving the Eastern Yugur language and culture. In general, both Eastern and Western Yugur folksongs can be divided into narrative songs, wedding songs, pastoral songs, folk songs, hypnotic songs, toddler songs, funeral songs, yehezhe songs, stacker grass songs, songs of feeding young animals, rowing songs, praising songs and missing songs.[15] Notably, Eastern Yugur folksongs are also sung by speakers of Western Yugurs.

Pastoral Songs

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Pastoral songs can be further divided by type of livestock, with different songs for lambs, horses, cow calves, camel lambs, etc.[15]

Endangerment

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Despite an increasing population of the Yugur nationality, the Eastern Yugur language remains endangered due to an aging population and language contact with neighboring languages. [6]Most fluent speakers of Eastern Yugur are over 60 years old while younger speakers are able to comprehend but not reply back in their mother tongue .[2][6]

Phonology

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Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
plain lateral
Stop voiceless p t k q
aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ qʰ
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡ʃ
aspirated t͡sʰ t͡ʃʰ
Fricative voiceless s ɬ ʃ χ h
voiced β ɣ ʁ
Nasal voiced m n ŋ
voiceless n̥
Trill r
Approximant l j

The phonemes /ç, çʰ, ɕ, ɕʰ, ʂ, ʑ/ appear exclusively in Chinese loanwords.[3]

Vowels[16]
Front Central Back
High i y ʉ u
Mid e ø ə o ɔ
Low ɑ

Vowel length is also distributed.

References

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  1. ^ a b Eastern Yugur at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c Yu, Wonsoo (2011). "A Report on Some Mongolie Languages and Their Dialects Which are Facing the Danger of Disappearing". Central Asiatic Journal. 55 (2): 275–293. ISSN 0008-9192.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i NUGTEREN, HANS; ROOS, MARTI (1996). "Common Vocabulary of the Western and Eastern Yugur Languages: The Turkic and Mongolic Loanwords". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 49 (1/2): 25–91. JSTOR 43391252.
  4. ^ Gerald, Roche (2014). "The vitality of Tibet's minority languages in the twenty-first century". Multiethnica. 35: 18–24.
  5. ^ "Glottolog 4.3 - East Yugur". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  6. ^ a b c d Wu, Han; Jin, Yasheng (January 2017). "Phonetic Changes of Eastern Yugur Language--- Case Study of Vowel / /". Atlantis Press: 745–749. doi:10.2991/icemeet-16.2017.155. ISBN 978-94-6252-288-6. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ a b Wu, Han; Yu, Hongzhi (April 2017). "Features and Changes of Vowels of Eastern Yugur Language". Atlantis Press: 681–685. doi:10.2991/iemss-17.2017.136. ISBN 978-94-6252-314-2. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ Poppe, Nicholas (1953). "Remarks on The Salar Language". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 16 (3/4): 438–477. doi:10.2307/2718250. ISSN 0073-0548. JSTOR 2718250.
  9. ^ http://members.home.nl/marcmarti/yugur/biblio/ROOS_WesternYugurLanguage.pdf
  10. ^ "Yugurology". Archived from the original on October 5, 2003.
  11. ^ Grigoriĭ Nikolaevich Potanin (1893). Tangutsko-Tibetskai͡a okraina Kitai͡a i TSentralnai͡a Mongolii͡a.
  12. ^ Григорий Николаевич Потанин (1893). Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголія: путешествіе Г.Н. Потанина 1884-1886. Том 2. Тип. А.С. Суворина.
  13. ^ Григорий Николаевич Потанин (1893). Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголія: путешествіе Г.Н. Потанина 1884-1886. Тип. А.С. Суворина.
  14. ^ Somfai Kara, David (2016). "The Last Yugur Shaman from Sunan, Gansu (China)". SHAMAN: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR SHAMANISTIC RESEARCH. 24: 113–132.
  15. ^ a b c Zhang, Pengyuan (2020-02-14). "Cultural Value and Connotation of Yugur Folk Songs Heritage*". Atlantis Press: 896–899. doi:10.2991/assehr.k.191217.265. ISBN 978-94-6252-867-3. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. ^ Chuluu (1994)

Bibliography

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  • Chuluu, Üjiyediin (1994). Introduction, grammar and sample sentences for Jegün Yogur. University of Pennsylvania, Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. OCLC 32579233.
  • Zhang, Juan; Stuart, Kevin C. (1996). Blue cloth and pearl deer : Yogur folklore. Sino-Platonic papers, no. 73. Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Pennsylvania. OCLC 41180478.


Category:Agglutinative languages Category:Southern Mongolic languages Category:Languages of China


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