Documenting Kangjia: A Critically Endangered Mongolic Language

Language	Kangjia
Depositor	LI Hao
Affiliation	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Location	China
Collection ID	0793
Grant ID	IPF1010
Funding Body	ELDP
Collection Status	Collection online
Landing Page Handle	http://hdl.handle.net/2196/54236a44-9e7c-4c60-a6e9-b9d0e4e0adbe

 

Summary of the collection

English: This archive is the result of the 2024-2026 project “Documenting Kangjia: A Critically Endangered Mongolic Language,” funded by ELDP. The collected linguistic data will include both natural speech and elicitation materials, recorded in both video and audio formats.The collection data also include materials with transcriptions, translations, and grammatical annotations. All topics and keyword information will be available in both Chinese and English.

文集概述

中文: 该存档为“记录康家语：一个极度濒危的蒙古语族语言”项目的成果 （2024-2026），由ELDP资助。所收集的语言数据将包括自然语料和引导式语料，皆以视频及音频的方式记录。收集的数据还将包括部分转写、翻译及语法标注的材料。所有主题和关键词信息均提供中文和英文版本。

 

Group represented

English: The Kangjia community belongs to Kangyang Town, with the majority of its members being Hui who practice Islam. The community members who speak the Kangjia language are mainly distributed across three villages: Zongzila, Hangdao, and Shalim. Kangyang Town is bordered to the east, south, and west by neighboring towns predominantly inhabited by Tibetans, while to the north, it is separated by a river from Hualong Hui Autonomous County. In addition to the Kangjia language, the people in this area also use Mandarin and Tibetan. There are differing opinions on the origins of the Kangjia Hui people. Some believe they migrated from Bao’an (now the area around Bao’an Town in Tongren City, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture), while others think they came from Guide or Hezhou (now in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture). The customs and traditions of the Kangjia people are generally similar to those of other Hui communities in the Gansu-Qinghai region. Major holidays include Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha; The customs and traditions of the Kangjia people are generally similar to those of other Hui communities in the Gansu-Qinghai region. Major holidays include Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. During the month of Ramadan, they observe fasting, and the five daily prayers are an essential part of their daily lives.

代表群体

中文: 康家属康杨镇，成员主要为回族，信仰伊斯兰教。使用康家语的社区成员主要分布在宗子剌、巷道，沙里木三个村庄。康杨镇东、西、南三面邻近的乡镇多以藏族为主体，北面则与化隆回族自治县隔河相望。除康家语之外，该区域的人群还使用汉语和藏语。关于康家回族的来源，说法不一，有说从保安地方（今天的黄南藏族自治州同仁市保安镇一带）迁移而来，也有人认为从贵德、河州（今天的临夏回族自治州）而来。康家人的风俗习惯与甘青一带其它地方的回族基本一致，主要节日有开斋节和古尔邦节，莱麦丹月需要封斋，且一天五次的礼拜是组成他们日常生活的重要部分。

 

Language information

English: Kangjia, an unwritten language and belongs to the Mongolic language family. The speakers of Kangjia are part of the Hui community of Kangyang town, and primarily dwell in the villages of Shalimu, Zongzila, and Hangdao. According to the World Atlas of Languages of UNESCO, the Kangjia language is classified as severely endangered. However, the endangerment level of Kangjia seems much more critical. Based on the data of the 1990s, there were fewer than 500 speakers of the Kangjia language, with 377 of them being proficient speakers. And the most recent statistical data shows that in a sample of 300 individuals, only 25 can speak Kangjia, and only 5 of them are proficient speakers, all aged 65 or older. Kangjia was severely overlooked in the early research compared with other Mongolic languages. The discovery and discussion concerning this language only began in the late 1980s. Currently, there is only one dedicated grammar book and a few articles.

语言信息

中文: 康家语没有文字，是一种蒙古语族语言。康家语的使用者是康杨镇回族社区的一部分，主要居住在沙里木、宗子剌和巷道这三个村庄。根据联合国教科文组织的《世界语言地图集》，康家语被归类为濒危语言。然而，康家语的情况似乎比一般濒危更加严峻，据上世纪九十年代的数据，康家语使用者不足500人，其中377人是熟练使用者。而最近的统计数据显示，在300人的样本中，只有25人会说康家语，其中只有5人是熟练使用者，且这些人都在65岁以上。与其他蒙古语相比，康家语在早期研究中受重视程度不足，对该语言进行研究和讨论的时间较晚，大约始于上世纪八十年代末。目前，关于该语言，只有一本专门的语法书和少数几篇文章。

 

Collection contents

English: The corpus contains a range of audiovisual and annotated materials on Kangjia, including personal narratives, everyday conversations, and elicited data. It comprises approximately 37 hours of video and parallel audio recordings, 5 hours 42 minutes of transcribed materials (with translations into English and Chinese), and 2 hours of grammatical annotations. In addition, the collection includes 134 photographs of local plants.

中文: 该语料库包含一些列有关康家语的音视频及标注材料，内容涉及个人叙述，日常对话及劝导时材料，包括约37小时的视频及平行录音文件，5小时42分的转写材料（包含英语，中文翻译）以及2小时的语法标注材料。此外还有134张当地植物的照片。

 

Acknowledgement and citation

English: I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the native speakers who generously shared their time, knowledge, and stories for this project. I am deeply thankful to my mentor, Professor Walter Bisang, for his support and guidance, and to Dr. Sangsrgyas Tshering for his companionship and encouragement during the fieldwork. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) for its generous funding and efficient support, which made this project possible.

To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Li, Hao. 2024. Documenting Kangjia: A Critically Endangered Mongolic Language. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/e4538420-8fd0-4467-a6d0-daf996392ec5. Accessed on [insert date here].

 

中文: 我谨向在本项目中慷慨分享时间、知识与故事的母语人老师们致以诚挚的谢意。衷心感谢我的合作导师 Walter Bisang 教授给予的支持与指导，也感谢桑吉次力博士在田野工作中的陪伴与鼓励。最后，感谢濒危语言文献计划（ELDP）的慷慨资助与高效支持，使本项目得以顺利开展。

如需引用本语料库中的任何数据，请按以下格式引用：
Li, Hao. 2024. Documenting Kangjia: A Critically Endangered Mongolic Language. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/e4538420-8fd0-4467-a6d0-daf996392ec5. [访问日期：]