The Dongxiang call themselves Sarta while the name Dongxiang until 1950 had a purely geographical connotation. The region of Linxia which used to be known as Hezhou was divided into four areas: East and West, North and South Villages. The Dongxiang derived their name from the East Village (=dong xiang). Historically they were not considered a proper nationality but were thought to be part of the locally dominating Muslim population (Huihuizu ). Only after 1949 they were granted nationality status. In 1950, the Dongxiang Autonomous Region ( ) was founded which was renamed Autonomous County in 1955.
i e u w o a e^[e^] is a retroflex vowel which frequently forms its own syllable, especially in loan words.
The vowels can form diphtongs.
b p m f d t n l r dz ts s dzh tch ch dsh tsh sh g k x X G q h j wAs in Mongolian, [q] and [k], [G] and [g] form allophonic pairs (examples taken from LIU: p. 2-5 and 109-121):
Dongxiang Mongol meaning qara xar-a black Goni xoni goat kun kümün man gie ger homeThe only consonant in final position is /n/ which results in numerous "lostword endings, e.g.:
Dongxiang Mongol meaning bula bulaG well, fountain mungu mongGol Mongol
Dongxiang meaning a'na mother e'ne this u'su water na'ran sun dara'sun wineThere are only a few words where the position of stress helps to distinguish between otherwise similar words:
shen'dzw shirt (Chinese: shanzi) 'shendzw fan (Chinese: shanzi)Vowels in (Mongol) initial position tend to be dropped in Dongxiang as well as consonants closing syllables, the latter even within words:
Dongxiang Mongol meaning musu- ämüskü to wear mata- martaxu to forget tedzhu tobci button
Dongxiang Mongol meaning xodun 1. ödü feather 2. odu star boro 1. boru brown 2. bögär-ä kidney
Dongxiang Mongol meaning xulan ulaGan red hamura- amuraxu to rest haron arban ten xodun odu star huntura- untaGaxu to sleep xulasun uliyasu willow xon on year fuda uGuta bag fugie ükär cow fudu urtu long xodeu ötög maggot fure üür seed
Dongxiang Mongol Tuzu Bao'an Ea Yugur Dagur meaning mori mori more more moor mori horse niere när-ä nere nare nere ner name nasun nasu nase nason nas nas ageThe Dongxiang language preserves elder Mongolian forms which can be found in the Hua Yi Yi Yu :
Dongxiang Hua Yi Yi Yu Mongol meaning tuma tu'erma luubang carrot mo mo'er zam way
Dongxiang: ene shw xulanni wo. Mongol: ene ulaan (bain-a). English: This is red.Some Chinese words in Dongxiang probably have been borrowed a certain while ago as the sound patterns show; so, modern Chinese [ji-] (like in jiao, etc.) is not palatalized but preserved as [gi-]. For Chinese loans, LIU (p. 22) distinguishes between early and recent borrowings with the limit between the two set to 1949 (jiefang qian/hou). Though this limit may be useful in judging semantic groups of words in is certainly not a good limit for examining sound shifts.
Examples of Chinese words in Dongxiang (taken from LIU: p. 109-121):
Dongxiang Char. Pinyin English kan kang sugar fei fei lung zhenmin renmin people ishun yisheng medical doctor fanfa fangfa method je yao medicine nanfan nanfang south unmo wenmo scholarly educated tshon chuan ship dzhiatshien jiaqian money, price nainiu nainiu milch cow shu shu book inshin yingxiong hero shi xi west golo jiaoluo corner tshien qian thousand tsunmin congming intelligentSome words (like the one above) are borrowed directly; others are followed by an indigenous classifier:
pingo pingguo > pingo alima apple sunshu songshu > sunshu mutun pineBesides the major Chinese influx, words of the following origin can be found in Dongxiang: Persian (e.g. aswman heaven), Arabic (e.g. Guran Quran) and Turkic (e.g. tashw stone).
Singular Plural meaning kun kun-la man mori mori-la horse mutun mutun-la treeThe system of personal pronouns is fairly complex since a clear distinction is made between inclusive plural forms and exclusive plural forms for the first person.
1st 2nd 3rd Singular bi tshw tere exclusive bidzhien Plural < ta terela inclusive matan
This book contains oral transcripts of 20 situational dialogues, over 20 folk tales and riddles, all recorded from about 10 different Dongxiang speakers. The material is presented in three lines, the first being Chinese, the second being the phonetic transcript, the third being an approximation in written Mongol. Whenever a Dongxiang word is without proper Mongol equivalent, hints to the meaning are given in brackets.
Bükä nar nayiraGulba: Düngsiyang kälän-ü ügäs. MongGol töröl-ün kälä ayalGun-u sudulul-un cuburil 008. Öbür MongGol-un arad-un käbläl-ün xoriy-a käblägülbä. 1983 (Buhe deng bian Dongxiangyu Cihui Nei Menggu Renmin Chubanshe 1983). 192 p. This book contains a Dongxiang glossary comprising well over 4,000 entries arranged in phonetical order. For each entry the authors attempt to indicate the etymological origin and if appropriate, the Mongol or Chinese root is stated, too. In addition, also roots of Uighur, Tibetan, Persian and Arabian origin are mentioned, as well as words which can be found in the Secret History of the Mongols and the Hua Yi Yi Yu .
Bükä nayiraGulun zokiyaba. Coyizungzab kinan üzäbä: Düngsiyang kälä ba mongGol kälä. (Buhe bianzhu, Quejingzhabu jiaoyue : Dongxiangyu he Mengguyu ) MongGol töröl-ün kälä ayalGun-u sudulul-un cuburil 007. Öbür MongGol-un arad-un käbläl-ün xoriy-a käblägülbä. 1986. 265 p. Mongolian cover, Chinese text.
The author makes a thorough comparison of Dongxiang and Mongol in the fields of sounds, parts of speech, syntax and vocabulary. In the first section (sounds) the author uses many statistical data. References to other Mongol languages (e.g. Oirat) and historical sources (Hua Yi Yi Yu , Secret History of the Mongols ) are widely exploited.
Liu Zhaoxiong bianzhu: Dongxiangyu Jianzhi . Zhongguo Shaoshu Minzu yuyan Jianzhi Congshu . Minzu Chubanshe 1981. 122 p.
Liu's data (notably on population figures, etc.) are sometimes a bit outdated which is understandable when the history of this book is regarded more closely. The first draft was written in 1964, but it was not until 1977 that the author could review his manuscript on location in Linxia.
Ma Zixiang zhu : Dongxiangzu . Minzu Zhishi Congshu . Minzu Chubanshe 1987. 82 p.
The author is of Dongxiang nationality.
Manduxu ämkidgän Galiglazu tayilburilaba: mongGol i üi toli bicig. Menggu Yi Yu Cidian. . ündüsün-ü käbläl-ün xoriy-a 1995. Minzu Chubanshe 1995.
This book is the fruit of an exhaustive attempt to annotate and translate the Mongolian portions of a whole collection of titles bundled under the category of "Barbarians' Glossaries" as the dictionaries for the languages of the Non-Han nationalities were dubbed. It serves as a good source for matching those older words which have only survived in languages like Dongxiang but are not found in any of the "modern" Mongol dialects any more, e.g. Chakhar and Khalkha.
Sun Zhu zhubian , Zhaonasutu Chen Naixiong Wu Junfeng Li Keyu bian Menggu yuzu yuyan cidian . Qinghai Renmin Chubanshe 1990. 844 p. About 3,000 entries. Compares in tabular manner 11 Mongol dialects ( Barin West Banner Old Bargha Buryat Darxan Xarqin East Sunid Alashan ) Dagur Eastern Yugur Tuzu Dongxiang Bao'an and Cyrillic, followed by English and Chinese glossae. With Mongol, Chinese and English Index.