Songlin language explained

Songlin
Nativename:sɑŋ³¹lin⁵⁵
States:China
Region:Shangchayu Town, Zayu County, Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet
Speakers:1,000
Date:2019
Familycolor:Sino-Tibetan
Fam2:(unclassified)
Glotto:song1316

Songlin (Chinese: 松林语) is a divergent, unclassified Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Zayu County, Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet. A linguistic description of Songlin has been published in a monograph by Song (2019).[1]

Names

Songlin speakers refer to their language as sɑŋ³¹lin⁵⁵pu⁵⁵lo³¹ɟe⁵⁵, and to Songlin village as sɑŋ³¹lin⁵⁵ (Song 2019:6).[1]

History of documentation

Jiang Huo (江获) first learned about the existence of Songlin while doing research on Idu during the 2000s, when local Idu people in the Upper Chayu Town area reported that the "Songleng Tuyu" 松冷土语 was spoken nearby. After preliminary data was collected in 2014, intensive field work was conducted during the summers of 2015–2017 by a Chinese research team led by Li Daqin (李大勤) (Song 2019:13). A monograph documenting the Songlin language, Xizang Chayu Songlin yu (西藏察隅松林语), was written by Song Cheng (宋成) and submitted for publication in 2018. The book was released in 2019.[1]

Demographics

The language is spoken in Songlin Village 松林村, Upper Chayu Town 上察隅镇 by approximately 1,000 people. The local lingua franca of the area is the Zayu dialect of Khams Tibetan. Some Songlin speakers can speak Idu and gSerkhu, both of which are also spoken in Upper Chayu Town 上察隅镇.

Songlin village is located on the western banks of the Kangrigarbo Qu (贡日嘎布曲) river, several kilometers to the northwest of the Upper Chayu/Shangchayu Town (ʐoŋ³¹ȶø⁵⁵ in Songlin; located further downstream on the same river). Some nearby villages include Gonggu 巩固, Xiba 西巴 (ɕi⁵⁵tɑ⁵⁵ in Songlin), and Rongyu 荣玉 to the north, and Zongba 宗巴 and Migu 米古 to the south (Song 2019:6).

Classification

Song & Lin (2020) shows that Songlin is not closely related to any of the surrounding Tibeto-Burman languages and cannot be classified as a Tibetic language.[2] A computational phylogenetic study by Jiang (2023) also demonstrates the divergent position of Songlin.[3] Songlin and the Mishmi languages all are spoken in Zayu County, but Songlin is not closely related to any of them.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Songlin is as follows (Song 2019:18–19).[1]

p t ȶ c k
ȶʰ
b d ȡ ɟ g
ȵ̥ ŋ̥
m n ȵ ŋ
s ʂ ɕ h
z ʐ ʑ
ts
tsʰ tʂʰ tɕʰ
dz
w j
l
ɬ

Consonant clusters include: nb, nd, nȡ, nɟ, ng, ndz, ndʑ, ndʐ, pʐ, pʰʐ, bʐ, nbʐ, kʐ, kʰʐ, gʐ, nbʐ, ngʐ. /n/- is treated as part of consonant clusters, rather than as part of prenasalized initial consonants.

Note: In Sinology, ȵ is roughly equivalent to [ɲ] or [nʲ], while ȶ and ȡ can typically be transcribed as [tʲ] and [dʲ], respectively, although in practice they can actually be equivalent to [tʃ] or [dʒ] instead, or other similar affricates. Also, ɕ and ʑ often, but not always, correspond to [ʃ] and [ʒ] in IPA transcriptions used by non-Sinologists. For further information, see obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Vowels

There are 12 vowels: i, y, ɯ, u, e, ø, o, ə, ɛ, ɑ, ɿ, ʮ (Song 2019:21–22).

Songlin has 5 diphthongs: ui, ɯi, ou, ie, iɛ.

Note that ɿ [ɨ] is used by Sinologists, as well as ʮ ([ʉ], [ɹ̩ʷ] or [z̩ʷ]), which is a labialized syllabic denti-alveolar approximant used by Sinologists.

Tones

There are three tones in Songlin.

Tone number Pitch value Description
1 /55/ high level (高平)
2 /24/ mid rising (中升)
3 /31/ low falling (低降)

About 50% of all words in Songlin have the high level tone /55/, while the mid rising /24/ and low falling /31/ tones are each found in approximately 25% of all Songlin words (Song 2019:24).

Script

Song (2019:30–32) proposes a pinyin-based script for Songlin.

Consonants! Songlin script !! IPA
a ɑ
b p
c tsʰ
d t
e ə
f f
g k
h h
i i
j
k
l l
m m
n n
o o
p
q tɕʰ
r ʐ
s s
t
u u
v y
w w
x ɕ
y j
z ts
Consonant clusters! Songlin script !! IPA
nbb nb
ndd nd
nddy
nggy
ngg ng
nz ndz
nj ndʑ
nzh ndʐ
br
pr pʰʐ
bbr
gr
kr kʰʐ
ggr
nbbr nbʐ
nggr ngʐ
Vowels! Songlin script !! IPA
a ɑ
e ə
ee e
eee ɛ
i i
ii ɿ
iii ʮ
o o
oo ø
u u
uu ɯ
v y
Rimes! Songlin script !! IPA
in in
ing
eng əŋ
eeen ɛn
an ɑn
ang ɑŋ
uun ɯn
uung ɯŋ
ian iɛn
ong

Tones are transcribed using the numerals 1, 2, and 3 (see the Tones section above):

Tones! Songlin script !! Pitch value
1 /55/ (high level)
2 /24/ (mid rising)
3 /31/ (low falling)

Example phrase (Song 2019:33):

ga1sii1 ga1sii1 dyv1 neng3

'once upon a time'/'a very long time ago' (很久很久以前)

Morphology

Some common prefixes in Songlin are (Song 2019:43):[1]

Some suffixes are:

Reduplication is commonly used to form new nouns (Song 2019:45–46).

Pronouns

The Songlin pronouns are (Song 2019:134):[1]

singular dual plural
1st personŋɑ⁵⁵ɑ²⁴kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵ɑ²⁴se⁵⁵
ŋɑ³¹kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵ ŋɑ³¹se⁵⁵
2nd personnu⁵⁵ nə³¹kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵ nə³¹se⁵⁵
3rd personpu²⁴ pə³¹kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵ pə³¹se⁵⁵

Interrogatives

Songlin interrogatives are (Song 2019:140):[1]

Gloss Songlin
who? ʃɑŋ³¹ŋɑ⁵⁵
what?; which? cʰe⁵⁵/hɑ³¹mi⁵⁵
when? ȵɛn²⁴kʰɑ³¹
where? hɑ³¹ndɑ⁵⁵
how many? hɑ³¹ȶi⁵⁵
how? hɑ³¹nbo⁵⁵

Sentence examples

The following Songlin sentence examples are from Yan (Song 2020:656). Songlin has SOV word order.[2]

Vocabulary

The following are Songlin words cited from Song (2020).[2]

Chinese gloss English gloss Songlin
one tɕi³¹tɑ⁵⁵
two kʰɑ³¹ȵi⁵⁵
three sɯŋ⁵⁵
four ʑi²⁴
five po³¹ŋoŋ²⁴
six tʂʰɯ²⁴
seven ȵ̥in²⁴
eight pu³¹ndʑe²⁴
nine gu²⁴
wind kʐi²⁴
rainbow zɑ⁵⁵
right (side) tʂoŋ⁵⁵lɑ⁵⁵
外面 outside pɑ³¹tɕy²⁴
跳蚤 flea kɑ³¹ji⁵⁵
(牛)角 horn (of cattle) goŋ²⁴kʰʐɿ⁵⁵
尾巴 tail ndʑoŋ⁵⁵mɑŋ⁵⁵
脖子 neck kɑ⁵⁵loŋ⁵⁵
back ci²⁴tsʰɿ⁵⁵
(树)叶子 leaf (of tree) kʰɑ³¹pɑ²⁴
sweat tsʰɑ¹³pɑ²⁴
尿 urine tɕʰi³¹li⁵⁵
government official ngə⁵⁵tʂʰɿ⁵⁵
孙子 grandson noŋ³¹tɕy⁵⁵
shoe ku³¹ȵu⁵⁵
刀子 knife nba³¹ju⁵⁵
boat tʂɿ³¹dzin⁵⁵
ghost, spirit tɕʰo²⁴
walk ci⁵⁵
fly (v.) ku²⁴
eat ndzo⁵⁵
roast, bake pu⁵⁵
pull pʰʐo²⁴
tie (v.) pɯi⁵⁵
sleep ŋoŋ²⁴
dare pin⁵⁵
he pu²⁴
good ȵe²⁴ȵe⁵⁵
small kɑ³¹tsɛ⁵⁵
old (of things) bi²⁴
very ʐɛ²⁴
星星 star kɑ⁵⁵mɑ⁵⁵
地、土 earth, soil pʐo²⁴
mountain ʐɿ²⁴
金子 gold sie⁵⁵
水獭 otter nɑ⁵⁵sɛn⁵⁵
hair (body) n̥oŋ²⁴
柱子 pillar kɑ⁵⁵wɑ⁵⁵
needle kʰɛ²⁴
cloth ʐe²⁴
temple (Buddhist) nɟø⁵⁵nba⁵⁵
镰刀 sickle ɕin⁵⁵koŋ⁵⁵
锯子 saw (tool) su⁵⁵li⁵⁵
绳子 rope nbɑ³¹je²⁴
listen ndʑo⁵⁵
big hɑ⁵⁵ndu⁵⁵
high, tall sen⁵⁵
you (sg.) nu⁵⁵
干净 clean ɕɑŋ⁵⁵ngʐɑŋ⁵⁵
软的 soft ȵɛ²⁴ȵɛ²⁴
黄的 yellow sɛ⁵⁵sɛ⁵⁵
轻的 light (weight) jɑŋ²⁴jɑŋ⁵⁵
新的 new ɕi³¹tso²⁴
bridge dɑŋ²⁴
火柴 firewood mi³¹tʂʰe⁵⁵
tree tɕʰɑŋ²⁴

Notes and References

  1. Book: Song, Cheng 宋成 . 2019 . Xizang Chayu Songlin yu 西藏察隅松林语 . Beijing . . 9787100175234 . 1152175771.
  2. Song . Cheng 宋成 . Lin . Xin 林鑫 . 2020 . On Songlin Language Status from the Chatacterisitics of Tibetic Branch 从藏语支语言的特点看松林语的语言地位 . Linguistic Sciences 语言科学 . 19 . 6 . 649–659 . 1671-9484 . 10.7509/j.linsci . 2023-03-16.
  3. Web site: Linguistic diversity and classification in Tibet 西藏的语言多样性及其分类. Jiang . Huo 江荻 . Chinese Tibetology Center 中国藏学研究中心. 2023-02-28. 2023-03-16.