Taz dialect

Taz
Taz
Тазы хуаюй; Tazi huayü
Native to	Russia
Region	Russian Far East
Ethnicity	274 Taz people (2010 census)
Native speakers	<10 (2019–2024)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Mandarin Northeastern Taz; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
	Taz

Taz is a dialect of Northeastern Mandarin spoken by the Taz people of the Russian Far East.^[4] There are a few loanwords from Tungusic languages, but no obvious Tungusic effect on the grammar.^[5]

Taz is largely mutually intelligible with Mandarin. In 1992, some Chinese bought ginseng from the Taz. They spoke Standard Chinese and Taz, respectively, and could understand one other. What they did not understand were mainly place names and social terms.^[5]

History

The Taz are descendants of the intermarriage of Han Chinese immigrants and local Tungusic peoples. In the early to middle 19th century, Han Chinese from Northeast China moved to the Ussuri River basin and engaged in ginseng harvesting, fishing and hunting. The immigrants were mostly men, and they married the local Udege and Nanai peoples. Their language, while remaining completely Chinese grammatically, adopted some loan words from Nanai and Udege.^[4] There is a 400-word dictionary, but the language otherwise has no writing system and is a purely oral language.^[6] In 1880, the language was used by a thousand people. By the beginning of the 21st century, only a few elderly people still spoke it. The 2002 All-Russian Census recorded that all Taz people regarded Russian as their mother tongue. The 2010 census found 274 Taz people but no Taz speakers,^[2] so the Taz language is likely to be extinct.

Phonology

Taz is a typical Northeastern Mandarin dialect. There is no retroflex series, but there is erhua. Words with an r initial of Standard Chinese (MSC) have an initial y in Taz, and some words with an initial f in MSC have an initial h in Taz. The MSC finals -ai and -ou are pronounced -ei and -u in Taz, whereas nasal finals are mostly realized as nasal vowels. Taz has the four lexical tones and the neutral tone of MSC and Northeast Mandarin. The yin ping tone (tone 1) is lower than in MSC, and yang ping (tone 2) 为降升调.^{[clarification needed]} The distinction between yang ping and shang tone (tone 3) is not obvious. The pitch drops at the end of a sentence, and can sound like a shang or qu tone.^[5]

Vocabulary

The vocabulary is typical of Northeastern Mandarin, with such characteristic words as 俺們 for 'we', дэй3фань4 dei3fan4 for 'food' and 日頭 for 'sun'. There are a few loanwords from Tungusic languages, such as араки ar'aki 'wine', яцзига yajiga 'daughter' (Udege ajiga), etc. Исима yixima 'rainbow trout' may be from Oroch.^[5]

Sample texts

Listed below are some Taz sentences.^[5] They are transcribed in standard Russian Cyrillicized Chinese.

1

цзиэр1гэ

jiērge

нао3хуъ.

nǎohu.

It's warm today.

2

цзоу4фан4лэ.

zòufànle.

Dinner's ready. lit., (it's) cooked

3

стакан

stakan

ман2суй3

mánsuǐ

/

гао2дуо1сао1суй3.

gáoduōsāosuǐ.

The glass is full of water / ?How much water to put. (Russian: стакан stakan)

4

цзе4цяъ4

jièqià

йи1хан

yīhan

ни3

nǐ

цуань1дэ

cuānde

да4.

dà.

This dress is too big for you. lit., you're wearing it big

5

лян2цзя4

liángjià

йин3

yǐn

/

лян2цзя4

liángjià

йин3цзя

yǐnjia

Two families.

6

во3

wǒ

цзиэр4гэ

jièrge

цянь2

qián

бу2дэгоу4

búdegòu

сы3хуаъ.

sǐhua.

I don't have enough money today.

7

лэй2ба,

léiba,

цуанмэйр2ба.

cuangméirba.

Come, join us.

8

цзе1ли

jiēli

ци2лэ

qíle

хуо2лэ.

huóle.

There was a fire here.

9

ни2

ní

дэй3цзяр4

děijiàr

лэй2

léi

ганъ4

gàn

хан2ма.

hánma.

ни3

nǐ

дан4

dàng

во3

wǒ

гань4хуо2.

gànhuó.

What are you doing here, you're interrupting my work.

References

^ "Tazy" Тазы. Etnic.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
^ ^a ^b "Natsionalny sostav naseleniya Rossiyskoy federatsii" Национальный состав населения Российской федерации (Table) (in Russian). Archived from the original (XLS) on 2012-04-24. Retrieved 2019-07-06 – via perepis-2010.ru.
^ "Тазовский китайский язык | Малые языки России". minlang.iling-ran.ru. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
^ ^a ^b "Tazy" Тазы. Assotsiatsiya korennykh malochislennykh narodov Severa, Sibiri i Dalnego Vostoka Rossiyskoy Federatsii (AKMNSS i DV RF) Ассоциация коренных малочисленных народов Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока Российской Федерации (АКМНСС и ДВ РФ) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Kazama, Shinjiro 風間伸次郎; Podmaskin, V.V. [В.В. Подмаскин] (2002). "Tāzu no gengo to bunka" ターズの言語と文化. In Irimoto, Takashi 煎本孝 (ed.). Tōhoku Ajia sho minzoku no bunka dōtai 東北アジア諸民族の文化動態 (PDF) (in Japanese). Sapporo-shi: Hokkaidō Daigaku Toshokankōkai. ISBN 4-8329-6241-8.
^ "Lingvisty popytayutsya sokhranit yazyk tazov" Лингвисты попытаются сохранить язык тазов. NTV НТВ (in Russian). 2005-10-25. Archived from the original on 2020-08-21. Retrieved 2020-04-04.

Bibliography

Belikov, Vladimir and Elena Perexval’skaja. 1994. "Tazov jazyk [The language of the Taz]", in Vladimir Neroznak (ed.) Krasnaja kniga jazykov narodov Rossii. Enciklopedičeskij slovar’-spravočnik [The Red Book of languages of Russia. Encyclopedic dictionary]. Moscow: Academia, 50–51.

[1] "Tazy" Тазы. Etnic.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2018-10-12.

[2010census-2] "Natsionalny sostav naseleniya Rossiyskoy federatsii" Национальный состав населения Российской федерации (Table) (in Russian). Archived from the original (XLS) on 2012-04-24. Retrieved 2019-07-06 – via perepis-2010.ru.

[3] "Тазовский китайский язык | Малые языки России". minlang.iling-ran.ru. Retrieved 2024-09-07.

[:0-4] "Tazy" Тазы. Assotsiatsiya korennykh malochislennykh narodov Severa, Sibiri i Dalnego Vostoka Rossiyskoy Federatsii (AKMNSS i DV RF) Ассоциация коренных малочисленных народов Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока Российской Федерации (АКМНСС и ДВ РФ) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2018-10-12.

[MM-5] Kazama, Shinjiro 風間伸次郎; Podmaskin, V.V. [В.В. Подмаскин] (2002). "Tāzu no gengo to bunka" ターズの言語と文化. In Irimoto, Takashi 煎本孝 (ed.). Tōhoku Ajia sho minzoku no bunka dōtai 東北アジア諸民族の文化動態 (PDF) (in Japanese). Sapporo-shi: Hokkaidō Daigaku Toshokankōkai. ISBN 4-8329-6241-8.

[NTV-6] "Lingvisty popytayutsya sokhranit yazyk tazov" Лингвисты попытаются сохранить язык тазов. NTV НТВ (in Russian). 2005-10-25. Archived from the original on 2020-08-21. Retrieved 2020-04-04.

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