Santa language

The Santa language, also known as Dongxiang, is a Mongolic language spoken by the Dongxiang people in Northwest China.

Dialects
There are no dialects in strict sense, but three local varieties (tuyu) can be found: Suonanba (ca. 50% of all Dongxiang speakers), Wangjiaji (ca. 30% of all Dongxiang speakers) and Sijiaji (ca. 20% of all Dongxiang speakers).

Phonology
Compared to other Mongolic languages, there is no vowel harmony, except for a handful of suffixes. However, the rules governing this phenomenon are by far not as strict as those of Mongolian.

Consonants
Santa has 29 consonants:


 * The aspirated stops, at varying degrees, tend to be affricated before close vowels as respectively:
 * : This has the most noticeable affrication, seen in ghudogvo (knife).
 * : Still commonly affricated, e.g. pixie (belt).
 * : Affrication is salient, but seems to be more apparent with than, as in tiigha  (chicken).
 * : This consonant is the least affricated, but is still attested in kiqie (to lie down).
 * Likewise, before non-close vowels non-aspirated stops do not show affrication e.g. da (to guess), korolon  (footprint), or khalun  (hot).
 * Phonemes are only found in loanwords:
 * is only found in Chinese-derived words, as in cai (vegetable; from Chinese 菜 cài). It is frequently deaffricated to the native.
 * is found within Chinese and Persian borrowings, with Persian زمین zamin (earth) rendered as zemin.
 * in the same way is seen in words of Chinese and Arabic origin, as in renshen (ginseng; Chinese 人參 rénshēn).
 * The nasals assimilate to  before labials, as in unba   (to swim) and banban  (cudgel) respectively.  also has another allophone  before uvulars, cf. zhangha  (walnut).
 * Nasals are commonly deleted in the coda, which is an areal feature around the border between Gansu and Qinghai. Although it is not restricted to word-final situations, it is rarer to find deletion there as the following consonantal onsets somehow reinforce the nasal. It should also be noted that vowels preceding nasal consonants are also nasalized themselves.
 * The central approximants are fricativized  when syllable-initial, mainly before close vowels.  can further be found before front vowels and even low back vowels. An example of fricatization for each is yibai  (one hundred) and weila  (to cry). This phenomenon can also be found in neighboring languages, including Dungan and Monguor.
 * , which is usually realized as a fricative, can be pronounced as an approximant in fast speech.
 * is usually a trill, and length is dependent on the speed of speech; similarly in rapid speech it can become a tap.

Vowels
Dongxiang has 7 vowels. Unlike other neighboring Mongolic languages, it has limited vowel harmony and no distinctions of vowel length.


 * , which is usually a close front vowel, has a backened allophone after retroflex consonants, and a slightly opened one  after alveolar affricates and fricatives. Compare chi  (you [2nd sing.]) with misi  (to fly).
 * Close vowels are devoiced when in an unstressed initial syllable and between voiceless consonants, for example: chighin (ear), sidara  (to catch fire) and khidun  (hard). This is not the case though before a voiced consonant, especially if it is of native Mongolic origin, as evidenced with chila  (to be exhausted) and suma  (arrow).
 * In Chinese loans, devoicing is optional, i.e. chugui (cupboard; from 櫥櫃 chúguì) can be pronounced either or.
 * The mid-central vowel has also been recorded voiceless in the aforementioned environment: pese  (again).
 * Devoicing of can also occur regardless of the following sound and in non-initial syllables, under the condition it occurs after : basi  (tiger) or kewosila  (children). Interestingly, it is not often the case, as in bositu  (pregnant).
 * is always a syllabified as its own, as in ershi (twenty), with the exception of one Arabic loanword with glottal  as the onset: ruhher  (spirit; from رُوح rūḥ).
 * is often pronounced with a considerable degree of labialization, however this can be inconsistent, even in the same utterance; cf. olien (cloud) vs. onghono  (to shout).
 * When stressed, is typically realized as mid-front : enzhegve  (donkey). Before,  is used instead: amen  (rice). Otherwise in unstressed syllables it is mid-central.
 * is typically an open back vowel, e.g. apa (barley), but before alveolar nasals it is fronted to ; an example is dan  (carrying pole with loads). Before velar nasals, as in dan  ([political] party), the back form is used.

Glides
Although true diphthongal sequences (i.e. complex vowel combinations) do not exist in Santa, combinations with the vowels and the glides  do. The glides are phonetically realized as non-syllabic vowels and the vowels have the following phonetic realizations below, regardless of any previous allophonic rules as mentioned above.

Distinct phonetic vowel realizations (note that vowels in other environments take the cardinal form):
 * Before, the vowel is raised to , e.g. khighei (pig), falling somewhere in between  and.
 * If also after, the vowel is optionally dropped, as in ghuilu (to become).
 * After, it is pronounced like stressed ; for instance nie (one) or bierei  (wife).
 * Before, backness is often applied so that it varies between : hotou (maggot).
 * Before, it may be raised, varying from , see bai (to stop), kuaisun  (navel).
 * Before, the vowel is often raised and backed, ranging from in nao  (to hit the mark), oqiao  (old).
 * Before, it may be raised, varying from , see bai (to stop), kuaisun  (navel).
 * Before, the vowel is often raised and backed, ranging from in nao  (to hit the mark), oqiao  (old).

Phonotactics
The general syllable template for Santa is (C)(G)V(G/N), where the brackets represent optional phonemes. C represents any consonant apart from or a glide, G is one of the glides, V is a vowel and G/N is either a glide or a nasal   (occasionally also ). However, there are further constraints to this scheme:


 * The obstruents in words of Monogolic origin can only be found at the beginning of words.
 * Also, can occur at any position syllable-initially, but not after nasals of glides.
 * on the other hand can only occur after vowels. It is also possible for to occur after nasals, but not  due to the sonorant rule.
 * can occur word-initially but between syllables only after vowels.
 * It is impossible for non-compounded words of Mongolic origin for a sonorant (with the exception of the glide ) to follow a nasal after a syllable boundary. However, three exceptions exist: manlou (forehead), danlei  (palate) and chanlie  (to listen).
 * Words borrowed from Mandarin Chinese do not follow this rule, seen with rinmin (people; from 人民 rénmín).

Stress
The majority of words in Santa are stressed on the final syllable. Examples include yawu (to walk), funiegvan  (fox) and agven  (village). Stress also shifts to the suffix when added to a word: funiegvan-ni (fox, genitive case), agven-de  (village, locative case).

However, several exceptions to this rule exist:
 * Certain suffix clitics prevent the stress from shifting to the final syllable, as seen in  (walk!, imperative),   (hammer, instrumental). However, not every clitic follows this rule.
 * The suffixes +jiwo and +senu receive penultimate stress: jawu+jiwo (to walk, progressive) and ire+senu  (as soon as one comes).
 * Similarly, basi (tiger) and bosi  (cloth) are stressed on the initial syllable. There is a minimal pair with bosi where the stress on the final syllable means 'to wake up'.
 * Loanwords may also violate the final stress rule; this is discussed below.

In loanwords
In Chinese loanwords, stress is not predictable; this is likely due to the tonal influence from the original pronunciation. However, these tones are based on the dialects of the Hui people rather than the standard dialect. Examples of non-final stress include hushi (nurse; from 护士 hùshì), daozi  (rice paddy; from 稻子 dàozi) and dadou  (soybean; from 大豆 dàdòu). Minimal pairs, though uncommon, also exist. One example is shizi (persimmon; from 柿子 shìzi) and shizi  (lion; from 狮子 shīzi).

There are a number of Arabic loanwords which also violate ultimate stress; these include aghili (wisdom; from عَقِيْل ʿaqīl), mehheri  (dowry; from مَهْر⁩ mahr), ghalebu  (body, form; from قَالَب⁩ qālab), etc.

Some words with unknown origin may also stress on other syllables, including tonghori (wild goose), dawala  (urinary bladder) and bawa  (great-grandfather).

Plural marking
~oni, eoni-la
 * -la (remaining of nouns)

sheep, sheep(s) o~in, o~in-sla
 * -sla/-sila (certain nouns and pronouns)

girl, girls gajieiau gajieiau-pi
 * -pi (relatives)

brother, brothers

Cases
Santa has 6 cases.

Active verb

 * Type category (mood or modality)


 * Aspect category (manner or state of verb action)

Voice category (relationship between action and its subject)

Numeral: Singular has no suffix, plural suffix is -ndu, the same as Cooperative voice.

Numbers: Singular has no additional component, plural's additional component is -ndu, the same as the additional component for Cooperative voice.

Syntax
In common with other Mongolic languages, Dongxiang is spoken as an SOV language. In Linxia, however, under the influence of the Mandarin Chinese dialects spoken by the neighbouring Hui people, sentences of the SVO type have also been observed.

Writing system
Knowledge of Arabic is widespread among the Sarta and as a result, they often use the Arabic script to write down their language informally (cf. the Xiao'erjing system that was used by Hui people); however, this has been little investigated by scholars. , the official Latin alphabet for Dongxiang, developed on the basis of the Monguor alphabet, remained in the experimental stage:

Numerals
Some numbers in Dongxiang have been heavily influenced by Mandarin. These include 30 (sanshi) and 40 (sishi). Meanwhile, both khorun and ershi  are used for 20.

The Tangwang language
There are about 20,000 people in the north-eastern part Dongxiang County, who self-identify as Dongxiang or Hui people who do not speak Dongxiang, but natively speak a Dongxiang-influenced form of Mandarin Chinese. The linguist Mei W. Lee-Smith calls this the "Tangwang language", based on the names of the two largest villages (Tangjia and Wangjia, parts of Tangwang Town) where it is spoken and argues it is a creolized language. According to Lee-Smith, the Tangwang language uses mostly Mandarin words and morphemes with Dongxiang grammar. Besides Dongxiang loanwords, Tangwang also has a substantial number of Arabic and Persian loanwords.

Like Standard Mandarin, Tangwang is a tonal language, but grammatical particles, which are typically borrowed from Mandarin, but are used in the way Dongxiang morphemes would be used in Dongxiang, do not carry tones.

For example, while the Mandarin plural suffix -men (们) has only very restricted usage (it can be used with personal pronouns and some nouns related to people), Tangwang uses it, in the form -m, universally, the way Dongxiang would use its plural suffix -la. Mandarin pronoun ni (你) can be used in Tangwang as a possessive suffix (meaning "your"). Unlike Mandarin, but like Dongxiang, Tangwang has grammatical cases as well (however only four of them, unlike eight in Dongxiang).