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Article published In:
Asian Languages and Linguistics
Vol. 1:1 (2020) ► pp.168–203

Case markers and language contact in the Gansu-Qinghai linguistic area

| Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

This paper examines the forms and usage of case markers in the Gan-Qing dialects, the Amdo Tibetan and Altaic languages in the Gansu-Qinghai linguistic area (GQLA), including datives, accusatives, absolutives, comitatives, instrumentals, ablatives, locatives, genitives, comparatives and reflexive possessives. We come to two conclusions: (1) most markers in Gan-Qing dialects are widely distributed, but some are narrowly distributed and (2) case markers in Gan-Qing dialects are overwhelmingly from the Chinese inventory rather than direct copied from Amdo Tibetan or Altaic languages. These findings enable us to shed light on the situation of language contact in the GQLA and illustrate that there are two major strata of contact in the GQLA.

Keywords: case markers, language contact, linguistic area
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Datives and accusatives/absolutives
    • 2.1Gan-Qing dialects
    • 2.2Amdo Tibetan
      • 2.2.1Datives
      • 2.2.2Absolutives
    • 2.3Altaic languages
      • 2.3.1Datives
      • 2.3.2Accusatives
    • 2.4Summary
  • 3.Comitatives and instrumentals
    • 3.1Gan-Qing dialects
    • 3.2Amdo Tibetan
      • 3.2.1Comitatives
      • 3.2.2Instrumentals
    • 3.3Altaic languages
  • 4.Ablatives
    • 4.1Gan-Qing dialects
      • 4.1.1-tA
      • 4.1.2-sA
      • 4.1.3-ɕA
      • 4.1.4-l/ra
    • 4.2Amdo Tibetan
    • 4.3Altaic languages
      • 4.3.1Mongolic languages
      • 4.3.2Turkic languages
  • 5.Other markers
    • 5.1Locatives
    • 5.2Genitives
    • 5.3Comparatives
    • 5.4Reflexive possessives
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Widely and narrowly distributed markers
    • 6.2Markers from the Chinese inventory
    • 6.3Different strata of language contact in the GQLA
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 11 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/alal.00006.zho
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