📋 Tender Overview
Tracing Language And Population Mixing In The Gansu-Qinghai Area
Studying Language Preservation And Loss In The Gansu-Qinghai Areathe Corridor Between Central And East Asia – The Gansu-Qinghai Area – Is One Of The Most Significant Migration Areas In History. It Is Where Languages And Populations Competed, Mixed And Merged For A Long Time. To Date, However, The Extent Of Mixing Between These Languages And Populations Is Uncertain. Addressing This, The Eu-Funded Tram Project Will Study Language Mixture And Language Replacement Patterns In The Gansu-Qinghai Area Using An Interdisciplinary Approach. In Doing So, It Will Explore The Linguistic Situation Of This Corridor By Focusing On Two Nomadic And A Variety Of Sinitic Languages. The Project Will Draw Upon Molecular Anthropology, History And Archaeology, Among Other Fields.
Funded Under
Excellent Science - European Research Council (Erc)
Total Cost
€ 2 497 850,00
Eu Contribution
€ 2 497 850,00
Coordinated By
Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz
Germany
Objective
Chinese history was co-constructed by Han (Chinese) people, transmitters of farming language and culture, and non-Han people, typically transmitters of nomadic language and culture in North and Northwest China. Governance by non-Han steppe rulers lasted for almost ten centuries (half of the history of imperial China since the First Emperor of Qin) and the Gansu-Qinghai area was the most important migration corridor between Central and East Asia. These languages and populations have competed, mixed and merged for ages. Surprisingly, a cross-linguistically comprehensive portrait of this region is missing in spite of individual language descriptions.
The present Project will study language mixture and language replacement patterns in the Gansu-Qinghai area, which geographically constitutes a natural demarcation between nomadic herders and farmers. In this intense contact area, home to nomadic languages and populations, Sinitic (Han) languages started to resemble non-Han languages, adopting similar syntactic means, while Yugur languages (Western Yugur belongs to Turkic language group and Eastern Yugur belongs to Mongolic language group), spoken by typical nomadic populations, kept their syntax relatively intact. The mixing degree of languages and populations in this area remains unclear, and in-depth research with an interdisciplinary approach is necessary.
The Project will determine the linguistic situation in this anthropological corridor by targeting two nomadic languages (Western and Eastern Yugur) and a variety of Sinitic languages. The analysis of language mixing and language replacement processes will be based on quantified data modeling, part of which will come from molecular anthropology and other fields such as history and archeology. This interdisciplinary approach will offer a global vision of language and population mixing in the Gansu-Qinghai area and a living sample of language preservation or loss due to dif
