A digital documentation of variations in Dagur

 

Language	Dagur
Depositor	Chenming Gao
Affiliation	Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge
Location	China
Collection ID	0808
Collection Status	Forthcoming
Landing Page Handle	http://hdl.handle.net/2196/6d2a0ed2-4ddf-4ba5-a7a8-f84c339ce5b9

 

Summary of the collection

English: The materials in this deposit are the outcome of a preliminary investigation into Dagur rounding harmony. The fieldwork took place in Kuruqi and Ni’erji between September and November 2022, with the participation of 19 community members. The deposit includes annotations of elicited speech (in both IPA and the pinyin-based Dagur orthography), written notes that detail the elicitation and annotation processes, and audio recordings from two of the consulted speakers. This deposit aims to highlight the richness of inter-speaker variation within the Butha dialect, some of which diverge significantly from earlier grammatical descriptions, such as those in Engkebatu’s 1988 work.

中文：本存档的材料来源于对达斡尔语圆唇和谐现象的初步调查。田野工作于2022年9月至11月在库如齐乡和尼尔基镇进行，19位社区成员积极参与了此次工作。存档内容包括语音标注（使用国际音标和基于拼音的达斡尔语记音符号）、详细说明发音引导和标注过程的书面笔记，以及两位受访顾问的音频记录。本存档旨在展现布特哈方言内部中丰富的差异性，其中一些差异与早期语法描述（如恩和巴图老师1988年的研究）存在显著不同。

 

Group represented

English: The group represented in this deposit are speakers of the Dagur language, a unique and precious Mongolic language. Historically, the Dagur people inhabited the Middle Amur and Zeya basins and later migrated to the Nen (Nonni) River in the 17th century. During the Qing Dynasty, in the course of obliging military duties, the Dagur dispersed across northwest and northeast China, leading to the formation of four distinct dialects: Butha, Qiqiha’er, Xinjiang, and Haila’er.

Culturally, the Dagur people possess a distinctive way of life. While they share some similarities with the Evenki people, their practices of fishing, hunting, and agriculture along rivers showcase a unique cultural essence. The Dagur are renowned for their exquisite traditional craftsmanship, such as constructing large-wheeled carriages (tereg) and creating intricate fishing tools, which demonstrate their remarkable skills. In addition, they have preserved a range of entertainment and sports traditions, including horseback riding, wrestling, traditional hockey games, and unique activities like neck strength competitions and wood striking. These are vital expressions of Dagur cultural identity. The Dagur language carries profound ecological knowledge, including the names and uses of local plants and animals, and encodes significant production techniques and oral histories.

中文：存档中所代表的群体是达斡尔语的使用者，达斡尔语是一种独特而宝贵的蒙古语族语言。历史上，达斡尔族人民曾居住在黑龙江北岸，后来于17世纪迁徙至嫩江流域。在清朝时期，达斡尔族曾被征召到各处驻防，致使其族人分布在中国的西北和东北地区。这个迁徙过程也促成了四大方言的形成：布特哈方言、齐齐哈尔方言、新疆方言和海拉尔方言，每种方言都体现了达斡尔族的文化多样性和语言丰富性。

在文化方面，达斡尔族拥有独具一格的生活方式，与鄂温克族有一些相似之处，但其在河流沿岸的捕鱼、狩猎、农耕等活动中展现出独特的文化特色。达斡尔族人民以他们精湛的传统工艺而享有盛誉，如制作大轮车（特勒格）和复杂的捕鱼工具，都是独到的技艺展现。此外，达斡尔人还保留了丰富多彩的娱乐和体育传统，如骑马、摔跤、传统曲棍球比赛，独具特色的比颈力、击木等游戏。这些活动不仅是娱乐，更是达斡尔人文化身份的重要体现。达斡尔语蕴含着深厚的生态智慧，涉及当地动植物的名称及其用途，承载着重要的生产技艺和代代相传的口头历史，是达斡尔族文化的宝贵遗产，值得珍视与保护。

 

Language information

English: As a Mongolic language, Dagur (also known as ‘Dagur’ or ‘Daghur’) is both archaic and innovative. With probably the earliest separation from Proto-Mongolic, it preserves features that have been lost in all other Mongolic languages. Over centuries, the language was in intense contact with Tungusic languages (primarily Solon and Manchu). This led to the appearance of linguistic innovations which are either absent or not fully developed in the other Mongolic languages.

Dagur’s linguistic structure is rich and complex, with a well-developed system of agglutinative morphology. Its suffixes are shaped by sophisticated processes such as vowel harmony, assimilation, vowel epenthesis, and consonant insertion.

Dagur has been written in Manchu scripts by intellectuals, though from a community-wide perspective, the language is primarily unwritten. A pinyin-based orthography was introduced in 1983, leading to the occurrence of three competing writing subsystems, which handle epenthetic vowels differently. All the writing subsystems have been used for developing dictionaries and pedagogical material, though further promotion is needed to encourage their widespread use within the community.

Dagur is classified as ‘definitely endangered’ on UNESCO’s language endangerment scale and falls at level 7 (‘shifting’) on the EGIDS, indicating the youngest, fluent speakers are the parental generation. The number of speakers is probably c. 72,000 or fewer.

中文：达斡尔语作为一种历史悠久的蒙古语族语言，既古老又富有创新性。作为最早从原始蒙古语中分化出来的语言之一，达斡尔语保留了其他蒙古语言中已经消失的特征，突显了它在保留蒙古语族文化遗产中的独特地位。几个世纪以来，达斡尔语与通古斯语族（尤其是鄂温克语和满语）有着深厚的接触，这促使其发展出其他蒙古语言中较为罕见或未完全形成的语言创新。

达斡尔语的语言结构丰富而复杂，具有高度发达的黏着语形态系统。达斡尔语后缀的形式受到元音和谐、同化、连接元音和辅音插入等复杂过程的调节。

历史上，达斡尔族的知识分子曾使用满文书写达斡尔语，然而在社区范围内，达斡尔语主要以口语形式流传。1983年，拼音化的书写系统被引入，随后发展出了三种不同的书写子系统，每种系统对连接元音的处理方式各有不同。这些书写系统为词典和教育材料的编纂提供了重要的支持，但仍需进一步推广，以促进在整个社区的广泛使用。

尽管达斡尔语在使用和传承中展现出顽强的生命力，该语言在联合国教科文组织的语言濒危等级中被列为“确定濒危”，并在EGIDS（语言活力与濒危指数）中处于第7级（“转移”），表明最年轻的流利使用者已属于父母一代。达斡尔语的使用者数量估计约为72,000人或更少，这也凸显了保护和复兴这一宝贵语言的紧迫性。

 

References

Engkebatu. (1988). Dagur and Mongolian. Inner Mongolia People’s Publishing House.

 

Acknowledgement and citation

English: The collection of the materials has received enormous supports from all the participated speakers and the local authorities in both the Ni’erji Town and the Kuruqi Xiang. I am extremely grateful to Chenmei De, who hosted me during the fieldwork, and Manyong Meng, who offered precious suggestions throughout the fieldwork.

Users of any part of this collection should acknowledge Chenming Gao as the principal investigator. Uses of parts of the corpus should acknowledge by name the people whose words and images are used (see details in the metadata).

中文：本材料的收集得到了尼尔基镇和库如齐乡所有参与者及当地政府的支持，我对此深表感激。特别感谢德老师在田野工作期间的热情接待，以及孟老师在整个过程中提供的宝贵建议和指导。

使用本存档任何部分的用户应承认高辰鸣为主要研究者。使用语料库部分的材料应以姓名致敬那些被引用的个人的言论和图像（具体细节见元数据）。

To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Gao, Chenming. 2024. A digital documentation of variations in Dagur. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/23fdc26c-3ecc-4601-94f9-53383d3fa007. Accessed on [insert date here].