Mangghuer

Mangghuer
Spoken in	China
speaker	approx. 42,000
Linguistic ; classification	Mongolian languages South Mongolian languages; Mangghuer ;
Official status
Official language in	-
Language codes
ISO 639 -1	-
ISO 639 -2	-
ISO 639-3	mjg

The Mangghuer , also called Monguor (out of date Mongorian ), Monghuol , Tu or Tuzuyu ( Chinese 土族语 ), is a Mongolian language . It is spoken in the Chinese provinces of Gansu and Qinghai .

Sociolinguistic situation

Mangghuer is still spoken by about a quarter of the Monguor or Tu population. The name Tu, which comes from Chinese, is perceived by the speakers themselves as pejorative. There are very few monolingual speakers. Mainly Amdo, Tibetan and Chinese are learned as second languages . Due to the strong language contact, the language has inherited many characteristics from the (in the broadest sense) surrounding Tibetan , Sinitic and Turkish languages.

Mangghuer belongs to the Qinghai Gansu language union . The language can be divided into the Huzhu dialect and the Minhe dialect. The dialects differ mainly in their phonology.

Phonology and Orthography

With his phoneme inventory and the simple syllable structure (maximum CCVC) Mangghuer is very similar to the surrounding Sinitic languages. Therefore, the pinyin inscription developed for the Chinese could be adapted well for the Mangghuer. The developers were Zhu Yongzhong, Wang Xianzhen, Hu Ping and Hu Jun (all native speakers of Mangghuer).

There are only a small number of consonant groups that can appear at the beginning of a syllable and only a few consonants that appear at the end of a syllable. The syllable structure can be simplified as follows:

(a)	if the beginning of the syllable consists of two consonants (C ₁ C ₂ ), then C ₂ / y, w /, C ₁ is not identical to C ₂ , C ₁ is not / ng / [⁠ ŋ ⁠]
(b)	if the beginning of the syllable contains only one consonant (C ₂ ), then C _{2 is} not / ng / [⁠ ŋ ⁠]
(c)	as syllabic closing consonants only / r ng ( [⁠ ŋ ⁠] ), n, y, w / before.

Vowel harmony as a common feature of Mongolian languages does not exist in Mangghuer. Despite the strong Sinitic influence, it is also not a tonal language . The stress is predictable, originally Mongolian words are usually stressed on the last syllable. In words with Chinese roots, however, there is a trend towards phonemic differences in the emphasis, i. e. to observe tone when they carry high tones on syllables that are not at the end of the word.

Morphosyntax

General

Mangghuer is an SOV language: subject and objects come before the verb, nominal modifiers ( adjectives , participles , genitive phrases and relative clauses ) come before the noun, and there are postpositions . There are only suffixes and enclitics (trailing clitics ). Klitika are affixes that do not specialize in a particular category of words, but appear at the end of phrases, i.e. H. Noun phrases, postpositional phrases, or nominalized sentences. In contrast to post positions, however, they are phonologically not separate words, which can be seen in the Mangghuer from the fact that they belong to the domain of the word stress rule. Klitika in Mangghuer mark case and possession:

= ni	Accusative / genitive / possessive
= la	Instrumental / comitive
= tai	Comitative
= you	dative
= sa	ablative
= ji	Directive
= nang	Reflexive-possessive

Parts of speech

In addition to simple nouns, there are also derived, nominalized nouns, for example agent nouns with the suffix - qin , as in kerliqin “beggar” from kerli “ask”. There are also compounds such as B. kuer wang "footprint". Adjectives can also be used as nouns.

The pronoun - paradigm characterized by numerous suppletive of forms. For example, other stems are used in the plural in addition to plural suffixes. There also seem to be regional differences and differences in the selected register of the language.

Adjectives are characterized by the fact that they can take the comparative suffix - her , and can be modified by hudu "very", as in hudu zaihang xujun "very beautiful daughter". An alternative construction for noun phrases modified by adjectives is with a genitive on the adjective, which is probably also due to Chinese influence.

Verbs are inflected according to tense , aspect , mode and person , and according to the speaker's involvement / perspective on the action. The last category, which expresses the extent to which the speaker is affected or involved in the action being expressed, is very similar to the evidential system of the Tibetan languages.

There are different verbalizers. The most common are - la and - ke for nouns, and - tu for adjectives. Examples would be burerla “calving” from burer “calf”, and shuguotu “ growing up” from - shuguo “big”.

Valence-changing constructions

Verbs with different valences

Some verbs have different valence frames . In example (1) it is the same verb which has the meaning of both “to feed” and “to feed”. In (1a) the direct object is the recipient (recipient), in (1b) it is the patient (direct object). In (2) it is the difference between German “riding something” and “riding on something”. You can see the difference in valence on the dative object in (b).

(1a)

bi	asi-si = nang	tiejie-ni
I	Vieh.PL = REFLPOSS	feed subject. Future tense
"I will feed my cattle."

(1b)

kebeghe = nang	bi	mori = you = nang	tiejie-ni
Wheat = REFLPOSS	I	Horse = dative = REFLPOSS	feed-subject.Future
"I will feed my wheat to my horses."

(2a)

mori-si = nang	wuni
Horse plural = REFLPOSS	horse riding
"He rode his horses."

(2 B)

tingsa	qi	muni	tiemie = you	wuni	sao	a
then	you	my	camel = dative	horse riding	sit	preterite
"Then you can ride my camel."

Causative

A causative is formed with the suffix -gha :

Intransitive to transitive:

(3a)

gan = ni	aguer = ni	bieqin	ber-jiang
er = genitive	Daughter = genitive	illness	become object. Perfective
"His daughter's illness got better / eased."

(3b)

qi	gan = ni	aguer = ni	ber-gha-lang
you	er = genitive	Daughter = accusative	become-causative-object. Imperfect
"You (can) make his daughter well."

Transitive to ditransitive:

In the case of causatives of transitive actions, the original subject (NOM) becomes the causation and receives the dative case, the causative agent A1 receives the nominative. The patient remains in the accusative. (Hierarchy: NOM → AKK → DAT)

(4a)

qi	muni	mugha = ni	bao	di
you	my	Fleisch = accusative	Prohibitive	eat
"Don't eat my meat."

(4b)

tasi	muni	songziwer = ni	nangda	di-gha-ji?
her	my	Grandchildren = accusative	me	eat-causative-imperfect
"Why did you make me eat my grandson?" (From a legend)

The case assignment depends on the valence of the verb, not on the number of arguments actually present:

(5)

Laoye	gan = you	ge	ji-gha-jiang	bai
living Buddha	er = dative	once	see-causative-object.perfective	emphatic particles
"The Living Buddha let him see."

Other thematic roles covered by the dative (also in causative constructions) are locative and beneficial . The context makes it clear whether it is an A2 of the causative construction or a locative / beneficial object.

(6)

Jie = ni	aguer = you	tuosi	kaker	di-gha-ku	ger = you	sao-gha-lang
self = genitive	Daughter = dative	oil	cake	eat-causative-imperfect	House = dative	sit-causative-object.Imperfective
"(The stepmother) made her own daughter eat oil cake and sit at home."

further remarks

(i) There is no passive in Mangghuer, the function of a passive (emphasizing the object in the discourse) is established by placing the object in front of it.
(ii) Reflexive actions are expressed through pronouns.
(iii) There are auxiliary verbs that interact with the valence but do not change it. They can emphasize the transitivity of an action or the recipient's concern with an event. However, their use depends on discourse-specific requirements, i. H. at the speaker's discretion.

literature

Keith Slater: A Grammar of Mangghuer . Routledge Curzon, London 2003.

Web links

emeld.org