The Santa language, also known as Dongxiang (), is a Mongolic language spoken by the Dongxiang people in Northwest China.
Dialects There are no dialects in strict sense, but three local varieties (tuyu) can be found: Suonanba ( of all Dongxiang speakers), Wangjiaji (c. 30% of all Dongxiang speakers) and Sijiaji (c. 20% of all Dongxiang speakers).
Phonology Compared to other Mongolic languages, there is no vowel harmony, except for a handful of suffixes. However, the rules governing this phenomenon are by far not as strict as those of Mongolian.
Consonants Santa has 29 consonants:
LabialAlveolarRetroflexPalatalVelarUvularGlottalPlosiveFricative()Affricate()()NasalApproximantTrill
The aspirated stops , at varying degrees, tend to be affricated before close vowels as respectively: : This has the most noticeable affrication, seen in (knife). : Still commonly affricated, e.g. (belt). : Affrication is salient, but seems to be more apparent with than , as in (chicken). : This consonant is the least affricated, but is still attested in (to lie down). Likewise, before non-close vowels aspirated stops do not show affrication e.g. (to guess), (footprint), or (hot). Phonemes are only found in loanwords: is only found in Chinese-derived words, as in (vegetable; from Chinese ). It is frequently deaffricated to the native . is found within Chinese and Persian borrowings, with Persian (earth) rendered as . in the same way is seen in words of Chinese and Arabic origin, as in (ginseng; Chinese ). The nasals assimilate to before labials, as in (to swim) and (cudgel) respectively. also has another allophone before uvulars, cf. (walnut). Nasals are commonly deleted in the coda, which is an areal feature around the border between Gansu and Qinghai. Although it is not restricted to word-final situations, it is rarer to find deletion there as the following consonantal onsets somehow reinforce the nasal. It should also be noted that vowels preceding nasal consonants are also nasalized themselves. The central approximants are fricativized when syllable-initial, mainly before close vowels. can further be found before front vowels and even low back vowels. An example of fricatization for each is (one hundred) and (to cry). This phenomenon can also be found in neighboring languages, including Dungan and Monguor. , which is usually realized as a fricative, can be pronounced as an approximant in fast speech. is usually a trill, and length is dependent on the speed of speech; similarly in rapid speech it can become a tap .
Vowels Dongxiang has 7 vowels. Unlike other neighboring Mongolic languages, it has limited vowel harmony and no distinctions of vowel length. +FrontCentralBackCloseMidOpen
, which is usually a close front vowel, has a backened allophone after retroflex consonants, and a slightly opened one after alveolar affricates and fricatives. Compare (you [2nd sing.]) with (to fly). Close vowels are devoiced when in an unstressed initial syllable and between voiceless consonants, for example: (ear), (to catch fire) and (hard). This is not the case though before a voiced consonant, especially if it is of native Mongolic origin, as evidenced with (to be exhausted) and (arrow). In Chinese loans, devoicing is optional, i.e. (cupboard; from ) can be pronounced either or . The mid-central vowel has also been recorded voiceless in the aforementioned environment: (again). Devoicing of can also occur regardless of the following sound and in non-initial syllables, under the condition it occurs after : (tiger) or (children). Interestingly, it is not often the case, as in (pregnant). is always a syllabified as its own, as in (twenty), with the exception of one Arabic loanword with glottal as the onset: (spirit; from ). is often pronounced with a considerable degree of labialization , however this can be inconsistent, even in the same utterance; cf. (cloud) vs. (to shout). When stressed, is typically realized as mid-front : (donkey). Before , is used instead: (rice). Otherwise in unstressed syllables it is mid-central . is typically an open back vowel, e.g. (barley), but before alveolar nasals it is fronted to ; an example is (carrying pole with loads). Before velar nasals, as in ([political] party), the back form is used.
Glides Although true diphthongal sequences (i.e. complex vowel combinations) do not exist in Santa, combinations with the vowels and the glides do. The glides are phonetically realized as non-syllabic vowels and the vowels have the following phonetic realizations below, regardless of any previous allophonic rules as mentioned above.
+Glide/vowel combinationsVowel + GlideGlide + VowelAdditional—————————————
Distinct phonetic vowel realizations (note that vowels in other environments take the cardinal form): : Before , the vowel is raised to , e.g. (pig), falling somewhere in between and . If also after , the vowel is optionally dropped, as in (to become). After , it is pronounced like stressed ; for instance (one) or (wife). Before , backness is often applied so that it varies between : (maggot). : Before , it may be raised, varying from , see (to stop), (navel). Before , the vowel is often raised and backed, ranging from in (to hit the mark), (old).
Phonotactics The general syllable template for Santa is (C)(G)V(G/N), where the brackets represent optional phonemes. C represents any consonant apart from or a glide, G is one of the glides , V is a vowel and G/N is either a glide or a nasal (occasionally also ). However, there are further constraints to this scheme:
The obstruents in words of Monogolic origin can only be found at the beginning of words. Also, can occur at any position syllable-initially, but not after nasals of glides. on the other hand can only occur after vowels. It is also possible for to occur after nasals, but not due to the sonorant rule. can occur word-initially but between syllables only after vowels. It is impossible for non-compounded words of Mongolic origin for a sonorant (with the exception of the glide ) to follow a nasal after a syllable boundary. However, three exceptions exist: (forehead), (palate) and (to listen). Words borrowed from Mandarin Chinese do not follow this rule, seen with (people; from ).
Stress The majority of words in Santa are stressed on the final syllable. Examples include (to walk), (fox) and (village). Stress also shifts to the suffix when added to a word: (fox, genitive case), (village, locative case).
However, several exceptions to this rule exist: Certain enclitics fall outside the domain of word-level stress. When they attach, the stress remains on the final syllable of the root rather than shifting to the absolute end of the word, as seen in (will walk/walks, imperfective) and (hammer, instrumental). However, not every clitic follows this rule. When the disyllabic suffixes and are added, they attract stress to their initial syllable, resulting in penultimate stress for the word as a whole: (to walk, progressive) and (as soon as one comes). Similarly, (tiger) and (cloth) are stressed on the initial syllable. There is a minimal pair with , where the stress on the final syllable (i.e., ) means 'to wake up'. Loanwords may also violate the final stress rule; this is discussed below.
In loanwords In Chinese loanwords, stress is not predictable; this is likely due to the tonal influence from the original pronunciation. However, these tones are based on the dialects of the Hui people rather than the standard dialect. Examples of non-final stress include (nurse; from ), (rice paddy; from ) and (soybean; from ). Minimal pairs, though uncommon, also exist. One example is (persimmon; from ) and (lion; from ).
There are a number of Arabic loanwords which also violate ultimate stress; these include (wisdom; from ), (dowry; from ), (body, form; from ), etc.
Some words with unknown origin may also stress on other syllables, including (wild goose), (urinary bladder) and (great-grandfather).
Grammar DIR:directional SIM:simultaneous
Morphology Santa is an agglutinative, strictly suffixing language.
Plural marking Plurality is primarily marked on human and animate nouns. There are three primary plural suffixes, conditioned by the lexical class of the noun: Marker Class Example General plural for nouns and pronouns / Restricted to certain nouns and pronouns Restricted to kinship terms
Noun phrase Cases Santa nominals inflect for six primary cases. In addition to these six core cases, certain directional and locational enclitics (like the aspectual and locative–prosecutive ) frequently attach to nouns to express spatial relationships.
Marker Case Example Marker Case Example Nominative Comitative (rarely ) Genitive–Accusative / Sociative–Instrumental Dative–Locative–Benefactive Directional (Aspectual) Ablative–Comparative Locative–Prosecutive
Possession and reflexivity Possession between two noun phrases is expressed by placing the possessor in the genitive case () before the possessed head noun. Santa also features postposed possessive pronoun clitics and dedicated reflexive/possessive markers.
Word Alternative forms Meaning , My horse , Our (inclusive) horse , Our (exclusive) horse , Your horse (also , ) Your (plural) horse — His/her/their horse
The reflexive markers and are affixed to the possessed noun to indicate that the possessor is the subject of the clause (e.g., "you call your [own] elder brother").
Pronoun declension Santa pronouns differentiate between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural, a feature retained despite heavy contact with Mandarin.
+ 1st person Case Singular Plural Exclusive Inclusive Nominative / (quotation) / (quotation) Genitive-Accusative / / Dative-Locative / Ablative-Comparative / Comitative / Sociative-Instrumental
+ 2nd person Case Singular Plural Nominative / Genitive-Accusative Dative-Locative Ablative-Comparative / Comitative Sociative-Instrumental
+ 3rd person Case Singular Plural Nominative Genitive-Accusative Dative-Locative Ablative-Comparative / Comitative Sociative-Instrumental
Verbal complex The Santa verbal complex distinguishes between finite and non-finite verbs. Finite verbs must occur in sentence-final position and are obligatorily marked for aspect or mood. Non-finite (medial) verbs participate in clause chaining and take switch-event (converbial) markers indicating their temporal, semantic or participant relationship to the main finite verb.
Voice Voice marking alters the valency or participant relationship of the verb stem. Santa lacks a morphological active/passive voice distinction, relying instead on causatives and reciprocals.
Particle Voice Example Active Causative Collective/reciprocal
Finite verbs (Aspect and Mood) Finite verbs mark the absolute endpoint of a sentence and denote aspect instead of tense.
Particle Category Example Perfective aspect Imperfective aspect (also ) Progressive aspect Imperative mood / Desiderative mood
Non-finite verbs (Switch-events / Converbs) Medial verbs are used extensively in clause chaining. These suffixes denote whether the subsequent clause represents a simultaneous, sequential, or conditional event.
Particle Function Example Simultaneous (same subject) () Sequential (different event) Purposive Conditional Terminative (limit) Concessive
Deverbal nominalizers Verbs can be nominalized to function as relative clauses or noun phrase arguments. Particle Tense/Aspect focus Example () Perfective nominalizer / Imperfective nominalizer Progressive nominalizer
Existential and copula verbs Santa features two existential/locative verbs ( and ) and the native copula . Due to intensive contact, the Mandarin Chinese copula (spelled in Santa) has been borrowed and is frequently used alongside or in hybrid equational constructions with the native .
Form Active Past nominalizer Future nominalizer Present nominalizer Speculative — Recollective —
Syntax