Eastern Yugur language

Summary

Eastern Yugur is the Mongolic language spoken within the Yugur nationality. The other language spoken within the same community is Western Yughur, which is a Turkic language. The terms may also indicate the speakers of these languages, which are both unwritten.[2] Traditionally, both languages are indicated by the term Yellow Uygur, from the autonym of the Yugur. Eastern Yugur speakers are said to have passive bilingualism with Inner Mongolian, the standard spoken in China.[3]

Eastern Yugur
Native toChina
RegionGansu
Ethnicity6,000 Yugur (2000)[1]
Native speakers
4,000 (2007)[1]
Mongolic
  • Southern Mongolic
    • Eastern Yugur
Language codes
ISO 639-3yuy
Glottologeast2337
ELPEast Yugur

Eastern Yugur is a threatened language with an aging population of fluent speakers.[4][5] Language contact with neighbouring languages, particularly Chinese, has noticeably affected the language competency of younger speakers.[5] Some younger speakers have also begun to lose their ability to distinguish between different phonetic shades within the language, indicating declining language competency.[6]

Grigory Potanin recorded a glossary of Salar, Western Yugur, and Eastern Yugur in his 1893 book written in Russian, The Tangut-Tibetan Borderlands of China and Central Mongolia.[7][8][9][10][11][12]

Phonology edit

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
plain lateral
Stop voiceless p t k q
aspirated
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡ʃ
aspirated t͡sʰ t͡ʃʰ
Fricative voiceless s ɬ ʃ χ h
voiced β ɣ ʁ
Nasal voiced m n ŋ
voiceless
Trill r
Approximant l j

The phonemes /ç, çʰ, ɕ, ɕʰ, ʂ, ʑ/ appear exclusively in Chinese loanwords.[2]

Vowels[13]
Front Central Back
High i y ʉ u
Mid e ø ə o ɔ
Low ɑ

Vowel length is also distributed.

References edit

  1. ^ a b Eastern Yugur at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b Nugteren, Hans; Roos, Marti (1996). "Common Vocabulary of the Western and Eastern Yugur Languages: The Turkic and Mongolic Loanwords". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 49 (1/2): 25–91. JSTOR 43391252.
  3. ^ Wurm, Stephen Adolphe; Mühlhäusler, Peter; Tyron, Darrell T., eds. (1996). Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Volume 2, Part 1. Walter de Gruyter. p. 822. ISBN 978-3-11-013417-9.
  4. ^ "East Yugur". Glottolog. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  5. ^ a b Wu, Han; Jin, Yasheng (2017). "Phonetic Changes of Eastern Yugur Language: Case Study of Vowel /ɐ/". Proceedings of the 2016 2nd International Conference on Economics, Management Engineering and Education Technology (ICEMEET 2016). Atlantis Press. pp. 745–749. doi:10.2991/icemeet-16.2017.155. ISBN 978-94-6252-288-6.
  6. ^ Wu, Han; Yu, Hongzhi (2017). "Features and Changes of Vowels of Eastern Yugur Language". Proceedings of the 2017 International Conference on Innovations in Economic Management and Social Science (IEMSS 2017). Atlantis Press. pp. 681–685. doi:10.2991/iemss-17.2017.136. ISBN 978-94-6252-314-2.
  7. ^ Poppe, Nicholas (1953). "Remarks on The Salar Language". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 16 (3/4): 438–477. doi:10.2307/2718250. JSTOR 2718250.
  8. ^ Roos, Martina Erica (2000). The Western Yugur (Yellow Uygur) Language: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary (PDF) (Doctoral thesis). Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04.
  9. ^ "Yugurology". The Western Yugur Steppe. Archived from the original on October 5, 2003.
  10. ^ Potanin, Grigory Nikolayevich (Григорий Николаевич Потанин) (1893). Tangutsko-Tibetskaya okraina Kitaya i Tsentralnaya Mongoliya: puteshestvie G.N. Potanina 1884–1886 Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголія: путешествіе Г.Н. Потанина 1884–1886 (in Russian). Typ. A. S. Suvoryna.
  11. ^ Potanin, Grigory Nikolayevich (Григорий Николаевич Потанин) (1893). Tangutsko-Tibetskaya okraina Kitaya i Tsentralnaya Mongoliya: puteshestvie G.N. Potanina 1884–1886 Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголія: путешествіе Г.Н. Потанина 1884–1886 (in Russian). Vol. 2. Typ. A. S. Suvoryna.
  12. ^ Potanin, Grigory Nikolayevich (Григорий Николаевич Потанин) (1893). Tangutsko-Tibetskaya okraina Kitaya i Tsentralnaya Mongoliya: puteshestvie G.N. Potanina 1884–1886 Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголія: путешествіе Г.Н. Потанина 1884–1886 (in Russian). Typ. A. S. Suvoryna.
  13. ^ Chuluu (1994)

Further reading edit

  • 保朝鲁; 贾拉森 (1991). Dōngbù yùgù yǔ hé ménggǔ yǔ 东部裕固语和蒙古语 [Eastern Yugur and Mongolian] (in Chinese). Huhehaote: Neimenggu renmin chubanshe. ISBN 978-7-204-01401-9. OCLC 299469024.
  • Chuluu, Üjiyediin (Chaolu Wu) (1994). Introduction, Grammar and Sample Sentences for Jegün Yogur (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 54. Philadelphia, PA: Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania. OCLC 32579233.
  • Stuart, Kevin C., ed. (1996). Blue Cloth and Pearl Deer: Yogur Folklore (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 73. Translated by Zhang, Juan. Philadelphia, PA: Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania. OCLC 41180478.