Limitaciones del estudio

The second, more recent stage of language contact affecting the dialect involves the strong influence of Standard Mandarin (Putonghua). This influence is evident not only upon the Xining Mandarin dialect, but across the languages in the region. For instance, in the Baonan (Mongolic) language spoken in Gansu province, approximately half of the vocabulary is Chinese in origin (Dwyer 1992: 11, after Li 1989). On the one hand, the influence of Putonghua is due to the policy of mass Han immigration into the area initiated by the post- 1949 Beijing central government for the purpose of industrializing and modernizing the nation. The state-sponsored resettlement saw immigrants arriving from all over the country, but a majority probably came from northern parts of China (Dede 1999a: 17, note 17). The sheer number of immigrants is a factor leading to the emergence of what Dede (1999a) calls the ‘New Xining dialect’, modelled on Standard Mandarin. In this modern phase of language contact, Standard Mandarin is the prestige language. The ‘Old Xining dialect’ created over the preceding centuries through substrate interference is often viewed as a marker of backwardness, and all the more so because Xining – and Qinghai in general – is a poor and relatively underdeveloped region in comparison to the affluence of Eastern China (cf. Dede 2003: 341-2). The scale of this wave of immigration can be seen in the fact that from the 1940s until the present, the Han population has multiplied dramatically. There were 344,000 Han in Qinghai in 1947 (Ma 2011: 49, after Ma Hetian 1947: 215), but the 2010 census records the population of the province as 5,626,722, of which 53% are Han (QSIN 2012b). The society in which the 20th century immigrants arrived was in many ways culturally – and linguistically – foreign to them, notwithstanding the existing Han Chinese population which had arrived over the previous centuries. Immigrants interviewed by Rohlf (2016: 121), reported that they initially had problems understanding the local Mandarin dialect

(unsurprisingly, given its non-Sinitic morphosyntax). In September 1956, an article in the Qinghai Daily News sought to encourage the new arrivals adjusting to life in the borderland. Liu Xucheng, a laborer in a construction firm, reported the problems he encountered as follows:

‘Qinghai is just so backward… Although Xining is a provincial capital, it doesn’t measure up to our county towns back home… some of the things people say I can’t understand, and it is hard to buy some things, too.’ (cited from Rohlf 2016: 3) The effects of 20th century contact-induced change resulting from this wave of immigration can be illustrated with a concrete example. Dede (1999a) conducted a quantitative

investigation of a change in progress for one syntactic variable, an ablative postposition associated with the Old Xining dialect which is disappearing in favour of a prepositional form on the model of Standard Mandarin. The ablative postposition, shown in (5), can be dated to the first phase of language contact that arose in Qinghai as a result of large-scale immigration into the region by the Han Chinese people during the early Ming dynasty (discussed above) (Dede 1999a, 2003).

jia zuotian Beijing tɕia lai le 3SG yesterday Beijing ABL come ASP

'Yesterday he came from Beijing.' (Dede 1999a: 2, my gloss and transliteration)

Dede argues that as a consequence of this period of contact with the local languages, and particularly with Monguor (Mongolic) which possesses the ablative postposition sa, Sinitic prepositional syntax gave way to the postpositional structure. Initially, this transition involved a hybrid stage where both a preposition and the ablative postposition were used together ((6), below).

jia yelaigoer cong neidi li tɕia lai le 3SG yesterday from interior LOC ABL come ASP

‘He came back from the interior yesterday.’ (Dede 1999a: 2 my gloss and transliteration)

With time, the purely postpositional structure shown in (5) became the standard pattern in the dialect. However, in modern times the growing influence of Standard Mandarin (Putonghua) is leading to the loss of this historic postpositional pattern. Thus the two principal stages of language contact (an early stage involving contact with non-Sinitic, head-final languages, and a recent stage characterized by the influence of Standard Mandarin) are represented in the following diagram, as they pertain to the ablative postposition, along with the intermediate hybrid stages (Dede 1999a: 11):

Figure 2-4 Historical development of the ablative pattern (reproduced from Dede 1999a: 11) The two phase model is, I think, a helpful way of understanding change in Xining Mandarin across the range of features which differ in the old Xining dialect and the new Xining dialect, which at its most extreme is simply Standard Mandarin spoken in the regional accent

(Qingpuhua, a blend of Qinghaihua ‘Qinghai dialect’ and Putonghua ‘Standard Mandarin’). 2.6.1 Modern day language shift

Following language shift during the Qing dynasty, shift occurred again during the communist era. In terms of language policy, the period from 1958-1977 is termed the ‘Chinese

monopolistic stage’ by Zhou (2003), during which minority languages were seen as an

obstacle to the ideal of a united, homogeneous society. As such, during the cultural revolution under Mao Zedong, this language policy was part of the so-called attack on the Four Olds (old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits).

With regard to Qinghai, modern day language shift connected to this policy is well illustrated by the Jiaxifan, Tibetans located in the Yellow river basin area (Huangshui he liuyu) who no longer speak Tibetan but speak Chinese instead, and who to a large extent have assimilated into Chinese culture (S.-C. Wang 2007). Culturally, the Jiaxifan are now a distinct entity (distinct from farmer Tibetans elsewhere in Qinghai), exhibiting an amalgamation of aspects of the cultures of the surrounding peoples. S.-C. Wang (2007: 27) reports that prior to the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, many such Tibetans in the eastern part of the province spoke Tibetan, but now they cannot. Similarly, Li (2013: 131) also places the shift within the last century.

Regarding the etymology of the term jiaxifan, xifan is Chinese, and was used in Song dynasty Chinese documents to refer to the area controlled by the Tsong kha tribal confederation (Horlemann 2005: 31). Xifan is derived from the Chinese word xi ‘west’ (since the Tsong kha Tibetan clans were located to the West of the Han Chinese), and the latter syllable fan is from the earlier Chinese term Tufan, which appears in documents as early as the Tang dynasty and

15th Century Chinese Pr-NP-VP Interference from Monguor Pr-NP-Po-VP Reduced Xining dialect pattern NP-Po-VP New Xining dialect Pr-NP-VP Contact with Standard Chinese Pr-NP-Po-VP

denotes the ancient Tibetan dynasty (Tibet as a whole) (Horlemann 2005: 31; S.-C. Wang 2007: 25 for discussion). Meanwhile, concerning the origin of the term jia, the majority view, from S.-C. Wang (2007), is that jia derives from the similar-sounding Tibetan word rgra, meaning ‘Han Chinese nationality/language’, such that jiaxifan means ‘Chinese Tibetans', 'Sinicized Tibetans’.

In terms of the degree of modern language shift, consider the situation reported for the six Tibetan clans of Kumbum (Ch: Taersi) monastery, which epitimize the Jiaxifan

phenomenon.7 Tibetan has been to a large extent displaced by Xining Mandarin as the language used by the Kumbum clans, and in some places, this shift is almost total. H.-Y. Zhang's (2009: 75) study of Sanhe village (Pingan county) and Shangsi village (Huangzhong county), based on the results from 94 questionnaires, found that all respondents there use Qinghai Mandarin as the exclusive language of communication in the home, with other villagers and with people of other ethnicities.8 In general, however, H.-Y. Zhang (2009: 76) reports variation in language use according to location. In the Chuanshui area (Pingan county), Qinghai Mandarin is more or less the only language used in the home and to communicate with other ethnic minorities. Meanwhile, in the Qianshan area (Huangzhong county) a small minority (with older family members who speak Tibetan) use Tibetan in these scenarios, whilst the majority use Qinghai Mandarin. Finally, in the naoshan area (Pingan county), H.-Y. Zhang reports relatively more usage of Tibetan than in the former two areas, but notes that speakers are bilingual, also using Qinghai Mandarin.

Nevertheless, it is important to add that although language shift has occurred in the modern period as well as in the 18th century (cf. Section 2.5.4.6), there are important differences between these shifts in terms of their effects on the Xining dialect. In modern times access to the target language, Chinese, is much more widely available to the non-Han peoples, with much larger numbers of Han Chinese immigrants in the area than arrived throughout the earlier period. In addition, Standard Mandarin (Putonghua) is being widely promoted with great efficiency through formal instruction in schools and in the media. As such, modern day shift is not a source of (another layer of) structural interference in the same way as the earlier

7_{The names of the six clans are Xina, Shenzhong, Longben, Qijia, Mina, Xueba. For a detailed breakdown of the} location of these clans, which are now spread across Huangzhong, Pingan and Datong counties, see H.-Y. Zhang (2009: 71-2).

8 _{H.-Y. Zhang (2009: 75) qualifies these results by adding that in these villages, older family members (e.g.}

grandparents) who can still speak Tibetan may use some Tibetan in the home, which indicates a passive knowledge of Tibetan among the younger family members. Also, these older Tibetan speakers may use Tibetan when communicating with other older Tibetan villagers.

Qing dynasty shift would have been with respect to the contact variety which had emerged over the preceding Ming period. This is because the non-Han children growing up in modern times as monolingual speakers of Chinese have adequate access to Chinese, enabling

successful convergence upon Standard Mandarin syntax. As such, despite shift in the modern period, the basic two phase model of contact for the Xining dialect, proposed by Slater (2003) and Dede (2003), retains validity: the pre-modern period contributed substrate interference, and the modern period is characterized by the loss of those features and increasing

convergence upon the model of Standard Mandarin. In the next section, some information is provided about the data used in the present study, situating the Xining dialect in relation to other Mandarin dialects in Qinghai.