Wutun
Native toChina
RegionQinghai province, mainly in Tongren County
EthnicityTibetans
Native speakers
4,000 (2016)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3wuh
Glottologwutu1241
ELPWutunhua

The Wutun language (Chinese: 五屯话; pinyin: Wǔtúnhuà) is a Mandarin–Amdo–Bonan creole language. It is spoken by about 4,000 people, most of whom are classified as Monguor (Tu) by the Chinese government. Wutun speakers reside in two villages (Upper Wutun 上五屯 and Lower Wutun 下五屯) of Tongren County, eastern Qinghai province, China.[2][3] It is also known as the Ngandehua language.[4]

The two Wutun villages, as well as other villages in the area, were under the control of a Mongol banner for several centuries, and have long been regarded by governments as members of a Mongol ethnic group. However, they self-identify as Tibetans.[3]

Phonology

The following table shows the consonants of Wutun.[5]

Wutun Consonants
Labial Dental Retroflex Alveo-palatal Palatal Velar
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩ ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive aspirated pʰ ⟨p⟩ tʰ ⟨t⟩ kʰ ⟨k⟩
voiceless p ⟨b⟩ t ⟨d⟩ k ⟨g⟩
voiced b ⟨bb⟩ d ⟨dd⟩ g ⟨gg⟩
Affricate aspirated t͡sʰ ⟨c⟩ ʈ͡ʂʰ ⟨ch⟩ t͡ɕʰ ⟨q⟩ c͡çʰ ⟨qh⟩
voiceless t͡s ⟨z⟩ ʈ͡ʂ ⟨zh⟩ t͡ɕ ⟨j⟩ c͡ç ⟨jh⟩
voiced d͡z ⟨zz⟩ ɖ͡ʐ ⟨zzh⟩ d͡ʑ ⟨jj⟩ ɟ͡ʝ ⟨jjh⟩
Fricative voiceless f ⟨f⟩ sʰ ⟨s⟩ ʂʰ ⟨sh⟩ ɕ ⟨x⟩ x ~ h ⟨h⟩
voiced z ⟨ss⟩ ʑ ⟨xx⟩ ɣ ~ ʁ ⟨gh⟩
Liquid voiceless ɬ ⟨lh⟩
voiced l ⟨l⟩ ɻ ⟨r⟩
Glide w ⟨w⟩ j ⟨y⟩ ɧ ⟨xh⟩

Wutun consists of six basic vowels, /a e i o u ə/ which are influenced to some extent by their consonantal environment.[5] For instance, vowels are velarized [ˠ] before "k", as in "ek" [əˠ] 'two' or "maidok" [metoˠ] 'flower'.

Wutun Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i ⟨i⟩ u ⟨u⟩
Long iː ⟨ii⟩ uː ⟨uu⟩
Close-Mid e ⟨ai⟩ ə ⟨e⟩ o ⟨o⟩
Open a ~ ɑ ⟨a⟩

Vocabulary

The greatest portion of Wutun lexical items is Chinese (but with their tones lost); a smaller one, from Amdo Tibetan, the local lingua franca; and an even smaller element comes from the Bonan Mongolian language.[3]

Grammar

The Wutun grammar derives from Amdo Tibetan. There is also a Bonan influence.[3]

History

A number of theories have been proposed about the origin of the Wutun villagers, and their peculiar dialect. The Chinese linguist Chen Naixiong infers from the vowel distribution of the Chinese lexical items in Wutun speech that their ancestors may have spoken an old Nanjing dialect. Others think that they may have been a group of Hui people (Chinese-speaking Muslims) from Sichuan who, for reasons unknown, converted to Tibetan Buddhism and moved to eastern Qinghai. In any event, historical documents as old as 1585 attest to the existence of the Wutun community.[3]

Today's Wutun villagers do not speak Chinese, but the knowledge of Tibetan is common both in Wutun and in Tongren County in general, as the Tibetan language is the lingua franca of this multiethnic region, which is populated by Tibetans and Hui people, as well as some Han Chinese and Mongols.[3]

Erika Sandman said Wutun speakers most likely descend from Mongol and Tibetan women marrying newly settled Chinese soldiers in the 14th century.[6][7][8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Sandman, Erika (2016). A Grammar of Wutun (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Helsinki. hdl:10138/168427. ISBN 978-951-51-2633-7.
  2. ↑ Lee-Smith, Mei W.; Wurm, Stephen A. (1996), Wurm, Stephen A.; Mühlhäusler, Peter; Tyron, Darrell T. (eds.), Atlas of languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Volume 2, Part 1. (Volume 13 of Trends in Linguistics, Documentation Series), Walter de Gruyter, pp. 820, 883, ISBN 3-11-013417-9, retrieved 12 November 2013, International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, North China: Intercultural communications involving languages other than Chinese
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lee-Smith, Mei W.; Wurm, Stephen A. (1996), "The Wutun language", in Wurm, Stephen A.; Mühlhäusler, Peter; Tyron, Darrell T. (eds.), Atlas of languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Volume 2, Part 1. (Volume 13 of Trends in Linguistics, Documentation Series), Walter de Gruyter, p. 883, ISBN 3-11-013417-9, retrieved 10 October 2013, International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, North China: Intercultural communications involving languages other than Chinese
  4. ↑ Asian Highlands Perspectives 36: Mapping the Monguor. Asian Highlands Perspectives. 2016. p. 276. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  5. 1 2 Sandman, Erika (26 November 2016). "A Grammar of Wutun" (PDF). Helsinki.
  6. ↑ Erika Sandman, Camille Simon. Tibetan as a “model language” in the Amdo Sprachbund: evidence from Salar and Wutun. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 2016, 3, �10.1515/jsall- 2016-0003�. �hal-03427697
  7. ↑ Sandman, Erika; Simon, Camille (23 October 2023). "Tibetan as a "model language" in the Amdo Sprachbund: Evidence from Salar and Wutun". Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics. 3 (1): 85. doi:10.1515/jsall-2016-0003. S2CID 146919944.
  8. ↑ University of Helsinki. A Grammar of Wutun. PhD Thesis. Department of World Cultures. Erika Sandman. ACADEMIC DISSERTATION. p. 15.

Further reading

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