Language Changes in Mongolian Language under the influence of the Chinese Language in Inner Mongolia

Kobayashi Yoko

Language Changes in Mongolian Language under the influence of the Chinese Language in Inner Mongolia

(55th Meeting, 2012)

The Mongolian language in Inner Mongolia has been undergoing under drastic changes by the overwhelming the influence of the Chinese language not only in the vocabulary but also even in grammatical structure. For example, in some dialects, verb phrase structures alien to the Mongolic languages have become in use to a large extent; one of them is connecting inflectional or derivational suffixes directly to the Chinese stems without any intervening elements, such as Mo.ki- ‘do’. Yi Liqi (2010), who did research her native dialect, namely that of Xilinhaote, reported that such expression as “yao dian kaiǰu baina siu.” (He is running a drug store.), “bitegei shen jing-te-ged bai.” (Do not be nervous.) and so on are attested; yao dian kai in the former correspond to Ch. yao dian kai (藥店開) ‘run a drug store’, with Mo. ǰu, a converbal suffix, following and shen jing in the latter is not other than Ch. shen jing (神経) ‘nerve’ , with Mo. –te, a deverbal derivational suffix, directly connected. However, phenomena of this kind cannot be found in all other dialects; furthermore, interviews with students who came from the other districts of Inner Mongolia and now study at my university show that whether and to what extent such structures are admitted is dependent on speakers’ ages, academic careers and social environment in which she or he has grown up. Presented In this paper are presented the result of my research and the prospect of future study.