Gangou language: Difference between revisions

Gangou
Gangou
甘沟话 / 甘溝語
Native to	China
Region	Minhe County, Qinghai
Native speakers	(unclear; 12,000 residents of Gangou township cited 1990)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Mandarin Central Plains Gangou; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	gang1272

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Gangou (Chinese: 甘沟话; pinyin: Gāngōuhuà) is a variety of Mandarin Chinese that has been strongly influenced by Monguor (Mongol) and Amdo (Tibetan). It is representative of Chinese varieties spoken in rural Qinghai that have been influenced by neighboring minority languages.^[1]

Gangou Mandarin is spoken in Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, at the very eastern tip of Qinghai, an area of the Gansu–Qinghai Sprachbund with a large minority population, and where even today Han Chinese were a minority in close contact with their neighbors. Many of the local Han may actually have little Chinese ancestry. The dialect has a number of common words borrowed from Monguor, as well as kinship terms from Monguor and Tibetan. Some syntactic structures, such as an SOV word order and direct objects marked by a postposition, have parallels in Monguor and to a lesser extent Tibetan.

There are also phonological differences from Standard Mandarin, though it is not clear whether these are shared by local Mandarin dialects not so strongly influenced by minority languages. For example, Standard y and w are pronounced [z] and [v], so yi 'one' is [zi] while wu 'five' and wang 'king' are [vu] and [vã]. There is no distinction between final -n and -ng: both are replaced by a nasal vowel. The consonants represented by j, q, x in pinyin do not exist; they are replaced by z, c, s before i^[2] and by g, k, h elsewhere, at least in some cases reflecting their historical origin. Thus 解 jiě 'untie' is pronounced gai, like Cantonese gaai², and 鞋 xié 'shoe' is pronounced hai, like Cantonese haai⁴.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b Feng Lide and Kevin Stuart, "Interethnic cultural contact on the Inner Asian frontier: The Gangou people of Minhe County, Qinghai." Sino-Platonic Papers 33 (1992), pp 4–8.[1]
^ Pronounced as pinyin zi, ci, si.
^ Although all the examples before other vowels correspond to historical forms, not all examples before i do. For example, 鷄 jī 'chicken' is gai¹ in Cantonese, but zi in Gangou dialect. Thus it may be that Feng and Stuart should be taken at face value when they imply that historical *g *k *h and historical *z *c *s both become z c s before i and both become g k h elsewhere.

[Feng-1] Feng Lide and Kevin Stuart, "Interethnic cultural contact on the Inner Asian frontier: The Gangou people of Minhe County, Qinghai." Sino-Platonic Papers 33 (1992), pp 4–8.[1]

[2] Pronounced as pinyin zi, ci, si.

[3] Although all the examples before other vowels correspond to historical forms, not all examples before i do. For example, 鷄 jī 'chicken' is gai¹ in Cantonese, but zi in Gangou dialect. Thus it may be that Feng and Stuart should be taken at face value when they imply that historical *g *k *h and historical *z *c *s both become z c s before i and both become g k h elsewhere.

[1]

[2]

[3]

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+{{Short description|Mandarin Chinese dialect of Qinghai, China}}
 {{Infobox language
-|name=Gangou dialect
+|name=Gangou
 |nativename=甘沟话 / 甘溝語
 |pronunciation=
 |states=[[China]]
 |region=[[Minhe County]], [[Qinghai]]
+|speakers=unclear; {{sigfig|12,380|2}} residents of Gangou township
-|speakers=?
+|date=1990
-|familycolor=Sino-Tibetan
+|ref=<ref name="Feng" />
+|familycolor=Sino-Tibetan
 |fam2=[[Sinitic languages|Sinitic]]
-|fam3=[[Chinese languages|Chinese]]
+|fam3=[[Chinese language|Chinese]]
-|fam4=[[Mandarin language|Mandarin]]
+|fam4=[[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]]
-|fam5=[[Zhongyuan Mandarin|Zhongyuan]]
+|fam5=[[Central Plains Mandarin|Central Plains]]
+|iso3=none
-|isoexception=dialect
+|glotto=gang1272
+|glottorefname=Gangou
 }}
-'''Gangou dialect''' is a variety of [[Mandarin Chinese]] that has been strongly influenced by [[Monguor language|Monguor]] and [[Tibetan language|Tibetan]].  It is representative of Chinese varieties spoken in rural [[Qinghai]] that have been influenced by neighboring minority languages.<ref>Feng Lide and Kevin Stuart, "Interethnic cultural contact on the Inner Asian frontier: The Gangou people of Minhe County, Qinghai." ''Sino-Platonic Papers'' 33 (1992), pp 4–8.[http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp033_gangou_qinghai.pdf]</ref>
+'''Gangou''' ({{lang-zh|s=甘沟话|p=Gāngōuhuà}}) is a variety of [[Mandarin Chinese]] that has been strongly influenced by [[Monguor language|Monguor]] (Mongol) and [[Amdo Tibetan language|Amdo]] (Tibetan).  It is representative of [[varieties of Chinese|Chinese varieties]] spoken in rural [[Qinghai]] that have been influenced by neighboring minority languages.<ref name=Feng>Feng Lide and Kevin Stuart, "Interethnic cultural contact on the Inner Asian frontier: The Gangou people of Minhe County, Qinghai." ''Sino-Platonic Papers'' 33 (1992), pp 4–8.[http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp033_gangou_qinghai.pdf]</ref>
-Gangou Mandarin is spoken in [[Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County]], at the very eastern tip of Qinghai, an area with a large minority population, and where until recently Han Chinese were also a minority in close contact with their neighbors.  Many of the local Han may actually have little Chinese ancestry.  The dialect has a number of common words borrowed from Monguor, as well as kinship terms from Monguor and Tibetan.  Some syntactic structures, such as an [[SOV word order]] and direct objects marked by a [[postposition]], have parallels in Monguor and to a lesser extinct Tibetan.
+Gangou Mandarin is spoken in [[Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County]], at the very eastern tip of Qinghai, an area of the [[Gansu–Qinghai Sprachbund]] with a large minority population, and where even today Han Chinese were a minority in close contact with their neighbors.  Many of the local Han may actually have little Chinese ancestry.  The dialect has a number of common words borrowed from Monguor, as well as kinship terms from Monguor and Tibetan.  Some syntactic structures, such as an [[SOV word order]] and direct objects marked by a [[postposition]], have parallels in Monguor and to a lesser extent Tibetan.
-There are also phonological differences from [[Standard Mandarin]], though it is not clear whether these are shared by local Mandarin dialects not so strongly influenced by minority languages.  For example, Standard ''y'' and ''w'' are pronounced ''z'' and ''v'', so ''yi'' 'one' is ''zi'',<ref>It is not clear from the reference whether this is {{IPA|[zi]}} or like the Pinyin syllable ''zi''.</ref> while ''wu'' 'five' and ''wang'' 'king' are pronounced ''vu'' and ''van (vã)''.  There is no distinction between final ''-n'' and ''-ng'': both are replaced by a nasal vowel.  The consonants spelling ''j, q, x'' in pinyin do not exist; they are replaced by ''z, c, s'' before ''i''<ref>Pronounced as pinyin ''zi, ci, si''.</ref> and by ''g, k, h'' elsewhere, reflecting their historical origin.  Thus 解 ''jiě'' 'untie' is pronounced ''gai'', not unlike [[Cantonese dialect|Cantonese]] ''gaai²'', and 鞋 ''xié'' 'shoe' is pronounced ''hai'', like Cantonese ''haai⁴''.
+There are also phonological differences from [[Standard Mandarin]], though it is not clear whether these are shared by local Mandarin dialects not so strongly influenced by minority languages.  For example, Standard ''y'' and ''w'' are pronounced {{IPA|[z]}} and {{IPA|[v]}}, so ''yi'' 'one' is {{IPA|[zi]}} while ''wu'' 'five' and ''wang'' 'king' are {{IPA|[vu]}} and {{IPA|[vã]}}.  There is no distinction between final ''-n'' and ''-ng'': both are replaced by a nasal vowel.  The consonants represented by ''j, q, x'' in pinyin do not exist; they are replaced by ''z, c, s'' before ''i''<ref>Pronounced as pinyin ''zi, ci, si''.</ref> and by ''g, k, h'' elsewhere, at least in some cases reflecting their historical origin.  Thus 解 ''jiě'' 'untie' is pronounced ''gai'', like [[Cantonese dialect|Cantonese]] ''gaai²'', and 鞋 ''xié'' 'shoe' is pronounced ''hai'', like Cantonese ''haai⁴''.<ref>Although all the examples before other vowels correspond to historical forms, not all examples before ''i'' do. For example, 鷄 ''jī'' 'chicken' is ''gai¹'' in Cantonese, but ''zi'' in Gangou dialect.  Thus it may be that Feng and Stuart should be taken at face value when they imply that historical *g *k *h and historical *z *c *s both become ''z c s'' before ''i'' and both become ''g k h'' elsewhere.</ref>
 ==References==
 {{Reflist}}
+{{Sino-Tibetan languages}}
 {{Chinese language}}