A Tentative Study on the Language Maintenance Model of Ewenki Speaking People in China

A Tentative Study on the Language Maintenance Model of Ewenki Speaking People in China

Ding Shiqing

(53rd Annual Meeting of the PIAC, St. Petersburg 2010)

There are more than 30,000 Ewenki people in China now. By the languages they are using we can divide them into three groups. The first group speaks their mother tongue Ewenki and also the languages of Dawur, Chinese and Mongolian etc. The second group uses both Dawur and Chinese. The third group uses only Chinese. This thesis makes an introduction to the language use of the first group of Ewenki people and also gives a tentative study on the language maintenance model of this group.