(University of Helsinki)
An overview of Dungan and Altaic language contacts:
Altaicization of a Sinitic variety and its contact layers
68th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Bangkok 2026
This study investigates linguistic contacts of Dungan with Altaic type languages and the outcomes of such contacts. Dungan is a ‘divergent’ and endangered variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Central Asia. In addition to its Sinitic core, the language has been influenced from various directions, most notably by Russian in recent times. While the results of language contact with Russian are ubiquitous, close contacts with Altaic languages have also left various traces in Dungan. A comprehensive study of such Altaic contact outcomes has nevertheless never been conducted before. Against this backdrop, this fieldwork-based study has two key objectives: First it aims to provide an inventory of the major Altaic contact-induced changes and borrowings attested in Dungan. Second, it demonstrates that due to the complex migration history of its speakers, the Altaicization of Dungan has occurred in different layers. By comparing Dungan with other regional languages that have undergone Altaicization and with Altaic languages proper, the study aims to differentiate between such contact layers. The two major layers that emerge are termed older Altaicization and newer Altaicization. The older layer emerged prior to the Dungan westward migrations, characterized by structures, such as the terminative =tʰala (matter borrowing) and the sociative 两个 = ljàŋkə (pattern borrowing). In turn, the newer layer emerged after the Dungans reached their present homelands, and it includes e.g. the adoption of several sentence-final particles. Finally, this study highlights the possibility that some Altaic contact elements of the older contact layer may be eroding away in the speech of some individuals, potentially manifesting incipient steps of limited de-Altaicization. Such a development would not be surprising, since Dungan is currently reorienting itself towards a Russian model, with the result that an earlier Altaic contact model is now being replaced by a Russian one.