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On some endangered Sinitic languages spoken in Northwestern China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2017

Alain Peyraube
Alain Peyraube*
Affiliation:
Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l’Asie orientale, 105 Boulevard Raspail, F-75006 Paris, France. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper will examine one of the most characteristic syntactic properties of languages, namely the case system for the following three Sinitic languages spoken in Northwestern China: Línxià (or Hézhōu), Tāngwāng, Gāngōu, which have been sometimes viewed as ‘mixed languages’. An answer to the following main questions will be tentatively suggested in the conclusion: do we really have case suffixes in these languages (cases are a morphological notion) or simply thematic roles expressed by postpositions (thematic roles are a semantic notion)? Do we really have a Qinghai-Gansu linguistic area (Sprachbund), as has been suggested? Can these Sinitic languages be characterized as being mixed languages?

Type
Focus: Language Endangerment and Revitalization
Information
European Review , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 130 - 146
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2017 

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References

References and Notes

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