In:Increased Empiricism: Recent advances in Chinese Linguistics
Edited by Zhuo Jing-Schmidt
[Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse 2] 2013
► pp. 73–100
The origins of Sinitic
Published online: 18 December 2013
https://doi.org/10.1075/scld.2.04del
https://doi.org/10.1075/scld.2.04del
A persistent problem in Sino-Tibetan linguistics is that Chinese is characterized by a mix of lexical, phonological, and syntactic features, some of which link it to the Tibeto-Burman languages, others to the Tai-Kadai, Hmong-Mien, and Mon-Khmer families of Southeast Asia. It has always been recognized that this must reflect intense language contact. This paper develops a hypothesis about the nature of that contact. The language of Shang was a highly-creolized lingua franca based on languages of the Southeast Asian type. Sinitic is a result of the imposition of the Sino-Tibetan language of the Zhou on a population speaking this lingua franca, resulting in a language with substantially Sino-Tibetan lexicon and relict morphology, but Southeast Asian basic syntax.
Keywords: Chinese, language contact, Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman
Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Fiddler, Michael
Yang, Xiaozhao Yousef
Jacques, Guillaume
2021. Antipassive derivations in Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan and their
sources. In Antipassive [Typological Studies in Language, 130], ► pp. 427 ff.
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