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Languages and Genes in Northwestern China and Adjacent Regions pp 121–139Cite as

The Case System in Three Sinitic Languages of the Qinghai-Gansu Linguistic Area

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Abstract

The Qinghai-Gansu border region in China contains several languages descended from at least four different language taxa: Sinitic, Tibeto-Burman (Amdo Tibetan), Turkic, and Mongolic. This article will examine the case system (one of the most characteristic syntactic properties) of three Sinitic languages that have sometimes been viewed as ‘mixed languages’: Hézhōu [or Línxià], Tángwāng, Gāngōu. An answer to the following main questions will be tentatively suggested in the conclusion: Do we really have case suffixes in these languages or simply thematic roles expressed by postpositions? Do we really have a Qinghai-Gansu linguistic area (Sprachbund)? Can these Sinitic languages be characterized as ‘mixed’ languages?

This paper is an abbreviated and modified version of Peyraube (2015). The research has received funding from the Agence nationale de la recherche (Project Tysomin—Anr-11-ish2-001-01).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Corbett (2008) who summarizes the ‘long-running and still vital debate’ concerning the way in which one can determine the number of cases (case values) in one language and who pointed out that ‘The debate on case has a distinguished earlier history, including among others Hjemslev (1935–1937), Jakobson (1936, 1958), and Kuriłowicz (1949).’

  2. 2.

    The transcriptions are given here in the Chinese official system pinyin for Standard Mandarin, as Línxià is undoubtedly a Sinitic language belonging to the one of the large Mandarin subgroup. Consequently, no transcription has ever been proposed for it. It goes without saying, however, that the initials, finals and tones in Línxià are quite different from Standard Mandarin.

  3. 3.

    Baonan, not mutually intelligible with Standard Mongolian (also known as Khalkha), is one of the ten recognized Mongolic languages, along with Khalkha, Buriat, Oirat, Kalmyk, Moghol, Dagur, Monguor, Santa, Eastern Yugur. See Poppe (1955).

  4. 4.

    For a good description of the cases in Middle Mongolian (13th–16th CE), including a historical overview, see Gruntov (2013, no date).

  5. 5.

    For the notions of ‘transfer’, ‘model language’, ‘replica language’ in contact-induced change, see Heine and Kuteva (2005) and Wu (2013) for Chinese.

  6. 6.

    See Xu et al. (2012) for more details on the Santa (Dongxiang) language.

  7. 7.

    The transcriptions also use Mandarin pinyin for Tangwang. For the differences between the initials, finals and tones in Tangwang and in Standard Mandarin, see Xu (2015b).

  8. 8.

    See Feng and Stuart (1992).

  9. 9.

    The examples, the transcriptions and the literal English translation are taken from Zhu et al. (1997). The Chinese characters and most of the glosses are mine.

  10. 10.

    Dryer (1989: 266), however, admits the possibility of ‘remote genetic relationships’: ‘ By linguistic area, I intend an area in which at least one linguistic property is shared more often than elsewhere in the world to an extent which is unlikely to be due to chance, but which is probably due either to contact or remote genetic relationships.’

Abbreviations

1sg :

1st personal pronoun singular

1pl :

1st personal pronoun plural

2sg :

2nd personal pronoun singular

2pl :

2nd personal pronoun plural

3sg :

3rd personal pronoun singular

3pl :

3rd personal pronoun plural

caus :

Causative

cl :

Classifier

dir :

Directional

dur :

Durative

gen :

Genitive

neg :

Negation

part :

Particle

perf :

Perfective

prog :

Progressive

res :

Resultative

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  1. Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l’asie orientale, CRLAO (CNRS), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, France

    Alain Peyraube

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  1. Département Chine, INALCO Département Chine, Paris Cedex, Paris, France

    Dan Xu

  2. School of Life Sciences, Fudan University School of Life Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Hui Li

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Peyraube, A. (2017). The Case System in Three Sinitic Languages of the Qinghai-Gansu Linguistic Area. In: Xu, D., Li, H. (eds) Languages and Genes in Northwestern China and Adjacent Regions. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4169-3_8

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