Also Known As: Tunghsiang,Tung,Santa
Description:
The Dongxiang language (东乡语), also referred to as the Santa language or Sarta language, is a Mongolic language spoken by the Dongxiang people in northwest China.
Dongxiang has neither vowel harmony nor distinctions of vowel length.
In common with other Mongolic languages, Dongxiang is basically a Subject Object Verb language. In Linxia, however, under the influence of the Mandarin dialects spoken by the neighbouring Hui people, sentences of the Subject Verb Object type have also been observed.
Knowledge of Arabic is widespread among the Sarta, and as a result, they often use the Arabic alphabet to write down their language informally; however, this has been little investigated by scholars. As of 2003, the official Latin orthography for Dongxiang, developed on the basis of the system used for the Monguor language, remained in the experimental stage...... full article at Wikipedia |