Taz dialect
| Taz | |
|---|---|
| Tazy khuaiui Tazi huayu Tazi huayuy Ta Zi Hua Yu | |
| Native to | Russia |
| Region | Russian Far East |
| Ethnicity | 274 Taz people[1] (2010 census)[2] |
Native speakers | <10 (2019-2024)[3] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | - |
| Glottolog | None |
Taz is a dialect of Northeastern Mandarin spoken by the Taz people of the Russian Far East.[4] There are a few loanwords from Tungusic languages, but no obvious Tungusic effect on the grammar.[5]
Taz is largely mutually intelligible with Mandarin. In 1992, some Chinese bought Ginseng from the Taz. They spoke Standard Chinese and Taz, respectively, and could understand one other. What they did not understand were mainly names of places and social terms.[5]
History
[edit]The Taz are descendants of the intermarriage of Han Chinese immigrants and local Tungusic peoples. In the early to middle 19th century, Han Chinese from Northeast China moved to the Ussuri River basin and engaged in ginseng harvesting, fishing and hunting. The immigrants were mostly men, and they married the local Udege and Nanai peoples. Their language, while remaining completely Chinese grammatically, adopted some loan words from Nanai and Udege.[4] There is a 400-word dictionary, but the language otherwise has no writing system and is a purely oral language.[6] In 1880, the language was used by a thousand people. By the beginning of the 21st century, only a few elderly people still spoke it. The 2002 All-Russian Census recorded that all Taz people regarded Russian as their mother tongue. The 2010 census found 274 Taz people but no Taz speakers,[2] so the Taz language is likely to be extinct.
Phonology
[edit]Taz is a typical Northeastern Mandarin dialect. There is no retroflex series, but there is erhua. Words with an r initial of Standard Chinese (MSC) have an initial y in Taz, and some words with an initial f in MSC have an initial h in Taz. The MSC finals -ai and -ou are pronounced -ei and -u in Taz, whereas nasal finals are mostly realized as nasal vowels. Taz has the four lexical tones and the neutral tone of MSC and Northeast Mandarin. The yin ping tone (tone 1) is lower than in MSC, and yang ping (tone 2) Wei Jiang Sheng Diao .[clarification needed] The distinction between yang ping and shang tone (tone 3) is not obvious. The pitch drops at the end of a sentence, and can sound like a shang or qu tone.[5]
Vocabulary
[edit]The vocabulary is typical of Northeastern Mandarin, with such characteristic words as An Men for 'we', dei3fan'4 dei3fan4 for 'food' and Ri Tou for 'sun'. There are a few loanwords from Tungusic languages, such as araki ar'aki 'wine', iatsziga yajiga 'daughter' (Udege ajiga), etc. Isima yixima 'rainbow trout' may be from Oroch.[5]
Sample texts
[edit]Listed below are some Taz sentences.[5] They are transcribed in standard Russian Cyrillicized Chinese.
tszier1ge
jierge
nao3khu'.
naohu.
tszier1ge nao3khu'.
jierge naohu.
It's warm today.
tszou4fan4le.
zoufanle.
tszou4fan4le.
zoufanle.
Dinner's ready. lit., (it's) cooked
stakan
stakan
man2sui3
mansui
/
/
gao2duo1sao1sui3.
gaoduosaosui.
stakan man2sui3 / gao2duo1sao1sui3.
stakan mansui / gaoduosaosui.
The glass is full of water / ?How much water to put. (Russian: stakan stakan)
tsze4tsia'4
jieqia
ii1khan
yihan
ni3
ni
tsuan'1de
cuande
da4.
da.
tsze4tsia'4 ii1khan ni3 tsuan'1de da4.
jieqia yihan ni cuande da.
This dress is too big for you. lit., you're wearing it big
lian2tszia4
liangjia
iin3
yin
/
/
lian2tszia4
liangjia
iin3tszia
yinjia
lian2tszia4 iin3 / lian2tszia4 iin3tszia
liangjia yin / liangjia yinjia
Two families.
vo3
wo
tszier4ge
jierge
tsian'2
qian
bu2degou4
budegou
sy3khua'.
sihua.
vo3 tszier4ge tsian'2 bu2degou4 sy3khua'.
wo jierge qian budegou sihua.
I don't have enough money today.
lei2ba,
leiba,
tsuanmeir2ba.
cuangmeirba.
lei2ba, tsuanmeir2ba.
leiba, cuangmeirba.
Come, join us.
tsze1li
jieli
tsi2le
qile
khuo2le.
huole.
tsze1li tsi2le khuo2le.
jieli qile huole.
There was a fire here.
ni2
ni
dei3tsziar4
deijiar
lei2
lei
gan'4
gan
khan2ma.
hanma.
ni3
ni
dan4
dang
vo3
wo
gan'4khuo2.
ganhuo.
ni2 dei3tsziar4 lei2 gan'4 khan2ma. ni3 dan4 vo3 gan'4khuo2.
ni deijiar lei gan hanma. ni dang wo ganhuo.
What are you doing here, you're interrupting my work.
References
[edit]- ^ "Tazy" Tazy. Etnic.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
- ^ a b "Natsionalny sostav naseleniya Rossiyskoy federatsii" Natsional'nyi sostav naseleniia Rossiiskoi federatsii (Table) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2012-04-24. Retrieved 2019-07-06 - via perepis-2010.ru.
- ^ "Tazovskii kitaiskii iazyk | Malye iazyki Rossii". minlang.iling-ran.ru. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
- ^ a b "Tazy" Tazy. Assotsiatsiya korennykh malochislennykh narodov Severa, Sibiri i Dalnego Vostoka Rossiyskoy Federatsii (AKMNSS i DV RF) Assotsiatsiia korennykh malochislennykh narodov Severa, Sibiri i Dal'nego Vostoka Rossiiskoi Federatsii (AKMNSS i DV RF) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
- ^ a b c d e Kazama, Shinjiro Feng Jian Shen Ci Lang ; Podmaskin, V.V. [V.V. Podmaskin] (2002). "Tazu no gengo to bunka" ta-zunoYan Yu toWen Hua . In Irimoto, Takashi Jian Ben Xiao (ed.). Tohoku Ajia sho minzoku no bunka dotai Dong Bei aziaZhu Min Zu noWen Hua Dong Tai (PDF) (in Japanese). Sapporo-shi: Hokkaido Daigaku Toshokankokai. ISBN 4-8329-6241-8.
- ^ "Lingvisty popytayutsya sokhranit yazyk tazov" Lingvisty popytaiutsia sokhranit' iazyk tazov. NTV NTV (in Russian). 2005-10-25. Archived from the original on 2020-08-21. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
Bibliography
[edit]- Belikov, Vladimir and Elena Perexval'skaja. 1994. "Tazov jazyk [The language of the Taz]", in Vladimir Neroznak (ed.) Krasnaja kniga jazykov narodov Rossii. Enciklopediceskij slovar'-spravocnik [The Red Book of languages of Russia. Encyclopedic dictionary]. Moscow: Academia, 50-51.
