The Santa language, also known as Dongxiang, is a Mongolic language spoken by the Dongxiang people in Northwest China.

Dialects

There are no dialects in strict sense, but three local varieties (tuyu) can be found: Suonanba (ca. 50% of all Dongxiang speakers), Wangjiaji (ca. 30% of all Dongxiang speakers) and Sijiaji (ca. 20% of all Dongxiang speakers).

Phonology

Compared to other Mongolic languages, there is no vowel harmony, except for a handful of suffixes. However, the rules governing this phenomenon are by far not as strict as those of Mongolian.

Consonants

Santa has 29 consonants:

Vowels

Dongxiang has 7 vowels. Unlike other neighboring Mongolic languages, it has limited vowel harmony and no distinctions of vowel length.

Glides

Although true diphthongal sequences (i.e. complex vowel combinations) do not exist in Santa, combinations with the vowels and the glides do. The glides are phonetically realized as non-syllabic vowels and the vowels have the following phonetic realizations below, regardless of any previous allophonic rules as mentioned above. Distinct phonetic vowel realizations (note that vowels in other environments take the cardinal form):

Phonotactics

The general syllable template for Santa is (C)(G)V(G/N), where the brackets represent optional phonemes. C represents any consonant apart from or a glide, G is one of the glides, V is a vowel and G/N is either a glide or a nasal (occasionally also ). However, there are further constraints to this scheme:

Stress

The majority of words in Santa are stressed on the final syllable. Examples include yawu (to walk), funiegvan (fox) and agven (village). Stress also shifts to the suffix when added to a word: funiegvan-ni (fox, genitive case), agven-de (village, locative case). However, several exceptions to this rule exist:

In loanwords

In Chinese loanwords, stress is not predictable; this is likely due to the tonal influence from the original pronunciation. However, these tones are based on the dialects of the Hui people rather than the standard dialect. Examples of non-final stress include hushi (nurse; from 护士 hùshì), daozi (rice paddy; from 稻子 dàozi) and dadou (soybean; from 大豆 dàdòu). Minimal pairs, though uncommon, also exist. One example is shizi (persimmon; from 柿子 shìzi) and shizi (lion; from 狮子 shīzi). There are a number of Arabic loanwords which also violate ultimate stress; these include aghili (wisdom; from عَقِيْل ʿaqīl), mehheri (dowry; from مَهْر⁩ mahr), ghalebu (body, form; from قَالَب⁩ qālab), etc. Some words with unknown origin may also stress on other syllables, including tonghori (wild goose), dawala (urinary bladder) and bawa (great-grandfather).

Grammar

Morphology

Plural marking

oni, eoni-la sheep, sheep(s) oin, o~in-sla girl, girls gajieiau gajieiau-pi brother, brothers

Cases

Santa has 6 cases.

Possessive

Pronoun

Reflexive

Pronoun declension

1st person

2nd person

3rd person

Verb suffix

Active verb

Voice category (relationship between action and its subject) Numeral: Singular has no suffix, plural suffix is -ndu, the same as Cooperative voice. Numbers: Singular has no additional component, plural's additional component is -ndu, the same as the additional component for Cooperative voice.

Adverbial verb

Stative verb

Existential verbs bi and wi

Syntax

In common with other Mongolic languages, Dongxiang is spoken as an SOV language. In Linxia, however, under the influence of the Mandarin Chinese dialects spoken by the neighbouring Hui people, sentences of the SVO type have also been observed.

Writing system

Knowledge of Arabic is widespread among the Sarta and as a result, they often use the Arabic script to write down their language informally (cf. the Xiao'erjing system that was used by Hui people); however, this has been little investigated by scholars. , the official Latin alphabet for Dongxiang, developed on the basis of the Monguor alphabet, remained in the experimental stage:

Numerals

Some numbers in Dongxiang have been heavily influenced by Mandarin. These include 30 (sanshi) and 40 (sishi). Meanwhile, both khorun and ershi are used for 20.

The Tangwang language

There are about 20,000 people in the north-eastern part Dongxiang County, who self-identify as Dongxiang or Hui people who do not speak Dongxiang, but natively speak a Dongxiang-influenced form of Mandarin Chinese. The linguist Mei W. Lee-Smith calls this the "Tangwang language", based on the names of the two largest villages (Tangjia and Wangjia, parts of Tangwang Town) where it is spoken and argues it is a creolized language. According to Lee-Smith, the Tangwang language uses mostly Mandarin words and morphemes with Dongxiang grammar. Besides Dongxiang loanwords, Tangwang also has a substantial number of Arabic and Persian loanwords. Like Standard Mandarin, Tangwang is a tonal language, but grammatical particles, which are typically borrowed from Mandarin, but are used in the way Dongxiang morphemes would be used in Dongxiang, do not carry tones. For example, while the Mandarin plural suffix -men (们) has only very restricted usage (it can be used with personal pronouns and some nouns related to people), Tangwang uses it, in the form -m, universally, the way Dongxiang would use its plural suffix -la. Mandarin pronoun ni (你) can be used in Tangwang as a possessive suffix (meaning "your"). Unlike Mandarin, but like Dongxiang, Tangwang has grammatical cases as well (however only four of them, unlike eight in Dongxiang).