| Daur | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in | China | |
| Region | Inner Mongolia, Hailar Prefecture; Heilongjiang Province, Qiqihar Prefecture; Xinjiang, Tacheng Prefecture | |
| Total speakers | 96,085 (as of 1999) | |
| Language family | Altaic[1] (controversial) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | tut | |
| ISO 639-3 | dta | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Daur or Dagur language is a Mongolic language primarily spoken by members of the Daur ethnic group.
Contents |
Distribution
Daur is a Mongolic language consisting of four dialects: Amur Daur in the vinicity of Heihe, the Nonni Daur on the west side of the Nonni River from south of Qiqihaer up to the Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner, Hailar Daur to the south-east of Hailar and far off in Xinjiang in the vinicity of Tacheng.[3] There is no written standard in use, although a Pinyin-based orthography has been devised; instead the Daur make use of Mongolian or Chinese, as most speakers know these languages as well.[4]
Phonology
Daur phonology is peculiar in that it has developed a set of labialized consonants (eg /sʷar/ 'flea' vs. /sar/ 'moon')[5], while it shares palatalized consonants[6] with most Mongolian dialects that have not been developed in the other Mongolic languages. It also has /f/, which is, however, limited to loan words.[7] Word-final short vowels were lost[8] and historically short vowels in non-initial syllables have lost phoneme status.[9] Daur is the only Mongolic language to share this development with Mongolian (ie Mongolian proper, Oirat, Buryat). Due to the merger of /ɔ/ and /ʊ/ with /o/ and /u/, vowel harmony was lost.[10]
Grammar
Daur has a pronominal system that distinguishes between first person plural inclusive /bed/ and exclusive /baː/ and, even more archaic, it distinguishes between third person singular /iːn/ and plural /aːn/.[11] While the phoneme /t͡ʃ/ (<*t͡ʃʰ) has been retained, the second person singular pronoun has become /ʃiː/ nevertheless,[12] resembling a more thorough sound change in the Khorchin dialect. The second person plural is retained as /taː/.[12]
The genitive and accusative have fused in some variants, becoming –ji, and the ablative may assume the form of the instrumental case. The old comitative has been lost, while the innovated comitative is the same as in Mongolian.[13] In addition, several other cases have been innovated that are not shared by Mongolian, including a new allative, -maji. [14]
Daur has a fairly simple tense-aspect system consisting of the nonpast markers -/bəi/ and (marginally) -/n/ and the past forms -/sən/ and (marginally) /la/ and the non-finite imperfective marker -/d͡ʒa/-. These may be inflected for person. The attributive particle forms are limited to –/ɡʷ/ (< Written Mongolian -γ-a) for imperfective aspect and future tense, -sən (< -γsan) for perfective aspect, -/ɡat͡ʃ/ (<-gči) for habituality (instead of -daγ which used to fulfil this function) and -/mar/ for potential and probable actions. It has acquired a highly complex converbal system containing several innovations. Notably, -mar which is a participle in Mongolian serves as a converb as well.[15]
Lexicon
Daur has 50% common Mongolic vocabulary, while it has borrowed 5[16] to 10% of its words from Chinese, 10% of its words from Manchu and also some vocabulary from Evenki and Russian – leaving about 20% vocabulary that is specific to Daur only.[17]
Notes
- ^ Ethnologue report on Daur language
- ^ [1]
- ^ Tsumagari 2003: 129, Sengge 2004: 616
- ^ Tsumagari 2003: 129
- ^ Chuluu 1994: 5
- ^ Sengge 2004a, Tsumagari 2003: 133
- ^ Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983: 66-67, cp. Tsumagari 2003: 131
- ^ Tsumagari 2003: 131
- ^ cp. Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983: 84
- ^ Tsumagari 2003: 131 basically in agreement with Sengge 2004a; in contrast, Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983: 37 give a pretty standard Mongolian vowel harmony system with the pharyngeal vowels /ɑ/, /ɔ/, /ʊ/ contrasting with the non-pharyngeal vowels /ə/, /o/, /u/, while /i/ is neutral.
- ^ Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983: 211-126, cp. Tsumagari 2003: 141
- ^ a b Sengge 2004c: 621
- ^ Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983: 110-121, Sengge 619-620
- ^ Sengge 2004c: 620
- ^ Tsumagari 2003: 144-148 supplemented with Sengge 2004c. The exact form of the plosive in -/ɡat͡ʃ/ is unclear as these two sources and Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983 give different phones.
- ^ Sengge 2004b
- ^ Tsumagari 2003: 151-152
Bibliography
- Ethnologue entry for Daur
- Chuluu, Üjiyediin (1994): Introduction, Grammar, and Sample Sentences for Dagur. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
- Namcarai and Qaserdeni (1983): Daγur kele ba mongγul kelen-ü qaričaγulul. Öbür mongγul-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriy-a.
- Oyunčimeg (ed.) (2004): Mongγul sudulul-un nebterkei toli. Kökeqota: Öbür mongγul-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriy-a.
- Sengge (2004): Daγur kele. In: Oyunčimeg 2004: 616-617.
- Sengge (2004a): Daγur kelen-ü abiy-a. In: Oyunčimeg 2004: 618.
- Sengge (2004b): Daγur kelen-ü üges. In: Oyunčimeg 2004: 619.
- Sengge (2004c): Daγur kelen-ü kele ǰüi. In: Oyunčimeg 2004: 618-622.
- Tsumagari, Toshiro (2003): Dagur. In: Janhunen, Juha (ed.) (2003): The Mongolic languages. London: Routledge: 129-153.
External links
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