The Aspectual System of Soviet Dungan
The Aspectual System of Soviet Dungan
24.1.2010
This is a Web version of my article "Salmi, Olli. 1984. The Aspectual System of Soviet Dungan. Folia
Fennistica & Linguistica. Vuosiartikkelit 1984. Tampereen yliopiston Suomen kielen ja yleisen kielitieteen
laitoksen julkaisuja 11. University of Tampere, Tampere." I have scanned it, run it through an Optical
Character Recoginition program and replaced the transliteration with the standard Dungan orthography.
I have corrected obvious mistakes.
Dungan is a minority language spoken in Soviet Kirghizia and Kazakhstan. It is based on North-Western
Chinese dialects, but the written language uses the Cyrillic alphabet and has no connection with the
Chinese written language. The Dungan written language is related to the Chinese dialects of the southern
part of the province of Gansu (Zav'jalova 1979:65).
Dungan grammar differs from Chinese chiefly in the richness of its morphology. There are many more
obligatory grammatical markers in Dungan. In fact, Dragunov (1952) claims that Chinese dialects present a
continuum of development and those in North-Western China represent the latest stage in this
development.
The richness in morphology is most immediately visible in the aspectual system of Soviet Dungan. This
question has been treated before, but the system has been regarded as a system of tenses. Kalimov (1968)
gives a short account of three tenses, while Dragunov (1962) discusses some of the forms in more detail.
Imazov (1982) also mentions all the forms discussed in this paper.
This paper sets out to show that the system is basically aspectual. The terminology is mainly Comrie’s
(1976). Another argument in this paper is the division of clauses into stative and action clause types.
The examples have been taken from the short stories in the Dungan newspaper Шыйүәди Чи and a few
Dungan books. The numbers after the examples represent the date of the issue, or the number of the book
(given in the bibliography) and the page where the example has been found. If this information is not
given, it has not been noted down. No informant has been available. This is unfortunate, since there
are exceptions to the regular features presented here, but they are not numerous enough to enable
treatment.
The transliteration used in this paper is based on Kahla - Kecskeméti (1967), except for a few
changes:
In this Web version a simplified form of this transliteration (without diacritics) is used for names in
the English translation.
ә for ä
e ė
je e
jo ë
These changes ensure better legibility, but Russian words have an unfamiliar appearance (Brježnjev) and
some of them cannot be unambiguously transcribed back into Cyrillic (rajon). In the bibliography only the
first change is implemented.
2. SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Before we embark on the aspects mentioned in the paper some background information is
necessary.
In this paper, the terms sentence and clause refer to different things. Roughly, a sentence is a unit
usually ending in a full stop in the orthography, whereas a clause is a unit containing a predicate. A
sentence consists of one or more clauses.
The clauses preceding the subject are temporal, concessive and other subordinate clauses. The
subject is followed by a predicate or several predicates expressing successive actions.
The aspectual system described in this paper uses suffixes and enclitical particles, which occur in
two slots: first, verbal suffixes after the verb, and secondly, enclitical sentence final particles.
±Modal
±Verbal suffix
±Postverbal ±Aspect particle
±Subject +Verb (aspectual
element particle (aspectual
slot)
slot)
Fig. 2 Structure of the Clause
A very significant fact is that (except for the cases listed below p. 88–89) every sentence ends in an aspect
particle. Subordinate clauses normally end in a particle as well, but non-final predicates do not have a
particle, they can only have a verbal suffix. (Dragunov A. & K. 1936)
There are cases where final particles occur inside the sentence, but in these cases the predicates are co-
ordinate, referring to simultaneous actions performed by one or two subjects. Normally a predicate chain
refers to successive actions performed by the same subject.
It should be noted here that it is not always clear what a suffix is in Dungan. The orthography treats every
neutral tone element as a suffix and writes them together with the preceding word (Salmi 1980:104). Some
of these elements are really enclitics, not being in construction with the immediately preceding word. The
most important of such enclitics are the attributive particle -ди, the copula -сы, and sentence final
particles.
In the case of the aspectual markers, the verbal suffix is never preceded by anything but the verb and can
consequently be regarded as a suffix, whereas sentence final particles can also follow objects or other
post-verbal elements.
Both the verbal suffix and the aspect particle slot belong to the same system of aspectual oppositions,
because their fillers are mutually dependent. Only one of the slots is filled at the same time, except for the
perfective, where both have to have a filler in the case of a final predicate.
The slot of verbal suffix can also be filled by morphemes that are not part of the aspectual system
discussed here. These morphemes form a class of resultative suffixes roughly corresponding to "phase
complements" in Chinese (Li–Thompson 1981:65, Chao 1968:446).
In Dungan these morphemes have three important characteristics. Firstly, they can be followed by an
object or other postverbal elements. Therefore they can be regarded as suffixes, because the verb can only
be followed by one clause level element in Dungan.
Secondly, they never co-occur with the verbal suffix -ли. This means that they belong to the same
substitution class.
Thirdly, the resultative suffixes co-occur with all the aspectual sentence particles. This is why they are not
part of the aspectual system described here.
Among the most important of these suffixes are -ха 'down' and -дё 'away'. Quite often there is nearly
nothing left of the original meaning and the suffixes merely mean that the action has been completed.
3. ZERO PARTICLE
The most striking difference between Soviet Dungan and Standard Chinese syntax is that in Dungan
aspectual markers are, as a rule, obligatory. In Chinese the speaker seems to have quite a lot of choice in
the use of the particles. This means that in Chinese they are not yet morphological markers.
There are sentences in Dungan without an aspect particle, but these cases can be exclusively listed. Except
for the first case, the absence of the particle (or more exactly zero particle) is formally determined.
In figure 3 are set out the aspectual forms that stand in contrast. The figure is meant to illustrate the
oppositions between the aspects in much the same way as the vowel triangle represents the
oppositions between vowels.
1
habitual past
2 experiential perfect
3 imperfective
4 perfective
5 future
There are several dimensions in the figure. First, the time, expressed by the vertical axis. Second, "internal
temporal constituency" (Comrie 1976:3), expressed by dots and vertical lines. Third, habituality, expressed
by a horizontal line. And last, the relation to the present, expressed by an arrow.
The present time and the time of reference are on the same line in figure 3. This does not mean that they
refer to the same point of time. They often do, but the time of reference can also be the time of the main
clause or the time of the story. On the other. hand, it might be possible to eliminate the present time from
the figure altogether.
The time given after the time of reference is "unreal" in Dungan rather than "future". However, the latter
term will be used because of its greater familiarity.
5. HABITUAL PAST
5.1. Form
There are two variants of the habitual past, -лэ and -дилэ. The distribution of these variants seems to be
conditioned by the type of the clause or predicate.
1 Clauses with -сы 'be' and дон 'work as, be'.
Җысы җын шонвулэ. 3.10.80
It:was exactly noon:HP
It was exactly at noon.
Кәсы хуэйзў жынди бый нян, чян нянди лисышон мәю зыҗиди зымулэ. 14.8.79
but Dungan people’s hundred year thousand year:of history:on has:not own letters:HP
During the hundreds and thousands of years of their history, the Dungan people had no alphabet of their
own.
It is proposed here that Dungan clause types can be divided into two classes, stative and action clause
types. Stative clauses are inherently imperfective and only have a defective range of aspects. There are
four types of stative clauses. First, clauses in the stative form -ди. Secondly, clauses with certain non-
action predicates such as җыдо 'know', ю 'have, there is'. These use the form of the future to express an
imperfective meaning. They never co-occur with the imperfective -дини. They are used in the perfective,
but only with an inchoative meaning. A third type has an adjective as predicate. Adjectives can freely be
used in stative and action clauses. In the first case they take only. the habitual past aspect, in the second
they occur freely with any aspect. The difference between stative and action adjectives is much the same
as between he’s nice and he’s being nice. A fourth type is comprised of sentences with the copula and
nominal predicates.
It is true that all the predicates that occur with -лэ are stative. It is possible that in the example above,
җыдо is used inchoatively ('got to know, learned') and is therefore not regarded as a stative predicate.
Thus it can be regarded as a rule that -лэ is used in stative clauses and -дилэ in non-stative clauses. The
distribution is complementary.
5.3. Meaning
The habitual past is almost exclusively used at the beginning of stories about the past. It very often occurs
with the word нэхур 'at that time', or some expression of the past. Sentences with this aspect provide a
sort of background, a point of departure for the story.
The imperfective also describes background, but it describes events, whereas the habitual past describes
the state of affairs obtaining at the time of the beginning of the story.
6. PERFECTIVE
6.1. Form
There are a few variants of the perfective aspect. The basic variant is Vли Oли, that is, the suffix -ли after
both the predicate and the object (as well as any other postverbal element).
It can happen that the two aspectual slots are next to each ether. In the case of the perfective aspect,
where both slots are filled, the resulting -лили is always simplified to -ли.
Вә лян Рахим лали щян мәли. 1.68
I with Rakhim draw:Pfv idle chat:Pfv
I chatted with Rakhim.
The second case is when the object has a modifier expressing quantity. Quite often the modifier is simple
the enclitic -гә 'a, one'.
Зу нэ йиванщи Мафучын ма филё, ги Салир хўлигә фынзы. 3.106
just that night Mafuchyn not sleep for Salir glue:Pfv:a kite
That night Mafuchyn didn’t sleep, but mode a kite for Salir.
Салир ба хўхади фынзы җучелэ, канли йиҗынзы, манмар надичи, лидо чён гыннили. 3.106
Obj Salir glued kite hold-up look:Pfv one:moment slowly take away erect:to wall root: at:Pfv
Salir held up the glued-up kite, watched it for a while, they slowly took it away and stood it against the
wall.
The negative of the perfective is formed with мә 'not'. There is no -ли.
Сый ду мә нанви, е мә на лёнгә. 3.105
who all not not:be:nice also not take two
No one’s teased me, nor did I fail in the exam.
6.2. Meaning
The perfective aspect has the classical perfective meaning: it describes an event as a single entity without
duration. Occasionally it has an inchoative meaning. It is quite often associated with past time, and that is
why it has been called the past tense.
Колхозди җўщи Вонйингуй зэ кабинет литу зуәдини, җинлэли йиви нянчин жын. 1.3
Kolkhoz:of chairman Vonjinguj in office inside sit:Impfv enter:Pfv one young man
As Vonjinguj, the chairman of the kolkhoz, was sitting in his office, a young man came in.
Хо, вә ба та фужоли.
good I Obj him forgive:Pfv
Alright, I'll forgive him.
Эрзы Хўва лян тади чижын да 1965 нян дашон ги колхоз фонли ёнли. 15.9.78
son Huva with his wife from 1965 year since for kolkhoz herd:Pfv sheep:Pfv
The son Huva and his wife have been herding sheep for the kolkhoz since 1965.
In temporal clauses the perfective indicates an event previous to the main clause.
Фи гунли, лохан ги гуәгуәни щялищер ган мянтёр. 23.1.76
water boil:Pfv old:man for pot:in lower:Pfv:some dry noodles
After the water had started boiling, the old man put some dry noodles in the pot.
6.3. The modal particle -ли.
There is a modal particle, which also has the form -ли. It is here considered to be a modal particle, mainly
because it occurs in negative sentences. As a rule, aspect particles do not occur in negative sentences. That
is why if -ли nevertheless occurs finally in negative sentences, it is regarded as filling the next slot, which
normally is filled by modal particles such as -ма 'question particle', -на 'and what about' and -са 'I
wonder'.
The decision to treat this -ли as a modal particle is somewhat questionable, so its main uses are listed
here. It is used in somewhat restricted contexts. The basic meaning is the same as that of the
corresponding particle in Chinese, that is 'a new situation'.
The most important case where the modal -ли is used is in negative sentences with both мә 'not' and бу
'not'. The meaning of the particle is 'any more'.
Нённён, ни зэ бә кўли.
aunt you again don’t cry:Mod
Auntie, don’t cry any more.
Виса та ги вә бу ще щинли.
Why he for me not write letter:Mod
Why doesn’t he write to me any more?
The second case of -ли 'new situation' is in expressions of duration. In Chinese the corresponding
construction can be viewed as an object. In Dungan the nature of the construction is somewhat different,
mainly because it can appear also in positions typical for adverbs. Consequently, it is best treated as a
separate expression of duration.
Хуэйзу жынди щүәшон кэкэ 50 нянли.
Dungan people’s school open 50 years:Mod
It is 50 years since Dungan schools were opened.
Вә ма лён тянли йизуй мә чы. 7.9.79
My mother two days:Mod one:mouth not eat
My mother hasn’t eaten a mouthful for two days.
Finally, sentence final -ли also occasionally occurs with a quantified object or without the verb having any
suffix. It is not clear though that these sentences describe a new situation. Sentences with a quantified
object probably have a perfect aspect meaning.
Мәбисы вә е шонцун нилима? — Сый фә ни шонцунли вәли! 1.64
can:it:be I also hurt you:Mod:? who say you hurt:Pfv me:Pfv
Can I have hurt you? — Who says you've hurt me!
A noteworthy fact is that modal -ли only occurs when the aspect particle slot is empty – it does not co-
occur with -ли or any of the other aspects. This could be a reason for arguing that it belongs to the system
of aspects.
In any case, two aspects at least ought to be established to account for the modal -ли ("new situation" and
"perfect") and the distribution would be rather limited (in negative sentences, with a quantified object,
and with a suffixless verb).
7. EXPERIENTIAL PERFECT
Dungan shares with Standard Chinese the aspect of experiential perfect. It is expressed by the verbal suffix
-гуә . The use of this aspect in Dungan seems to be exactly the same as it is in Chinese. It refers to an action
that has been experienced at least once. The negative uses мә in addition to the suffix.
Тади дада ба хичёрди җыще хочў фәгуә. 3.108
His father Obj starling’s these advantage say:EP
His father had told him about the good sides of starlings.
8. IMPERFECTIVE
8.1. Form
The basic form of the imperfective is sentence final -дини. The non-final form seems do be -ди, bud this
form only occurs when the verb is rod follower by any other element. Only certain kinds of verb appear
with -ди preceding an object. They are treated below in the chapter for stative form (8.3).
Щёнҗуонниди ваму чын йитянҗя зэ ман хонзыни худи, фон фынзыдини. 3.105
village:in:of children Prep daily in full street:in cry:Impfv let kite: Impfv
The children in the village wеre shouting and flying kites all over the streets.
The negative form of the imperfective is мә V Oди. In contrast to Chinese, -ди (-zhe in Chinese) follows the
object.
Сый е мә фащё ниди, е мә зота ниди. 15.6.79
who also nod laugh you:Impfv also not dread :badly you:Impfv
No one is laughing at you or dreading you badly.
8.2. Meaning
The imperfective is user to describe an action viewed as having a duration. Its function is mainly to
provide background information to the main event line. It is also used to describe generic action.
Тади ляншу Сўмар кәҗя зэ җәр дын тадини. 3.110
his companion Sumar already in here wait him:Impfv
His friend Sumar was already waiting for him here.
It is possible that the negative for generic -дини is simply formed with бу, the basic negative word. The
main reason for this conclusion is the rarity of мә V Oди.
In temporal clauses the imperfective refers to an action simultaneous to the main clause. If simultaneity is
stressed, -са is attached to -дини:
Та җын кўдиниса, тади лёнгә гәзы луәдо җязышонли. 4.45
he just cry:Impfv:Sa his two pigeon descend rack:on:Pfv
He was just crying when his two pigeons sat onto the rack.
Ваму щүан ёнди сычиндини, да йүанчўр йигә гўнён чиди ма җочў вәму лэдини. 1.13 - 14
we talk sheep:of business:Impfv from distance one girl riding horse towards we come:Impfv
As we were talking about the sheep, a girl came riding towards us from a distance.
The imperfective is also used with verbs that have a resultative suffix. From the point of view of Chinese
this is very surprising, because resultative suffixes usually require the equivalent of -ли in Chinese (Chao
1968:438). In Dungan, resultative suffix + -дини are used to describe a continuing situation resulting from
the action. It usually carries the connotation that the object of the action is ready to be used in some way.
Чынва ба пё мэхадини. 1.17
Chynva Obj ticket buy:Res:Impfv
Chynva has bought the ticket (and it is ready for use).
Вә мучин е дабаншондини. 31.10.78
my mother also dress:Res:Impfv
My mother had also dressed up (and was ready to go).
A very disturbing thing is that the combination -лидини also exists. All but one recorded example have an
embedded clause with дон or донсы 'think erroneously' as the main verb. In the one exceptional example
-ли could be treated as a verbal suffix.
М. Сўшонло 1961 няншон щехади фушон ба Быйянхўди лисы е щелидини.
M. Sushonlo 1961 year:on written book:on Obj history also write:X
Byjjanhu’s history is also written in M. Sushonlo’s book in 1961.
This solution, however, is impossible for the one example where -лидини does not immediately follow the
verb. It seems to fill the aspect particle slot.
Ба та хади, хан донсы тади нанчун да лунлурни фичўчи, доли вэтулидини. 18.7.78
Obj he frighten even think his partridge from cage:in fly:out arrive:Pfv outside :X
He got so frightened that he even thought his partridge had flown out of the cage (and got outside).
According to Imazov (1982:105) this form expresses the recent past. He gives no examples of its use. The
available examples are more suitable for a perfect of result. It is possible that in the final analysis, a perfect
of result has to be set up, but because of the paucity of examples with -лидини this question is left open in
this paper.
8.3. Stative form
There is a very problematic verbal form in Dungan. According to Dragunov (1952:153) the impirfective has
developed from the Chinese form Vzhe One. The intransitive variant (with no intervening object) has been
generalised. The trouble with this explanation is that Dungan also has the construction Vди O. This form is
here called the stative form, because it is used in inherently stative clause types.
1 Verbs of riding and driving: ё 'drive', зуә 'travel in', чи 'ride'.
2 Verbs of holding: бо 'hold in arms', ти 'lift', дэ 'have along', на 'hold', чуан 'wear', пый 'wear over
shoulders'.
3 Verbs of calling and regarding: суан 'regard as', чынхў 'call', дон 'work as', җё 'to be called'.
8 Another case where an object does not follow is that of polite imperatives. The verb is in-transitive.
— Зуәди, зуәди. Вә куэзу лэни, - 5.47
sit:St sit:St I soon come:Fut
– You just sit there. I'll be there in a minute.
Imazov (1982:104) regards the stative form as a variant of the present tense (i.e.. imperfective), expressing
protracted action (durative present). It is, however, best to regard it as a special verbal form, partly
because it co-occurs with the habitual past. The clauses with the stative form are inherently imperfective
in the same way as the other stative clause types. If it is necessary to express a perfective meaning, the
form of the verb has to be changed.
It is not surprising that stative clauses have no perfective (Comrie 1976:50). What is somewhat unusual is
its being a clause level feature. In Dungan aspect has to be considered a clause level feature, because aspect
is expressed by both a verbal suffix and a sentence particle.
9. FUTURE
For want of a better term the form with -ни is called the future. This is probably not a prospective aspect
(Comrie 1976:64), because it does not necessarily relate a state to a subsequent situation. On the other
hand, it is not a pure tense, because it can also refer to unreal situations.
Again there is no particle in non-final and negative clauses. The basic use of the future is to express an
action that has not yet taken place.
Җисы җё ёнмони? 1.13
when cut wool:Fut
When are the sheep going to be shorn?
Җе фәчи, Мамары дада са хуә ду хуэй зўни, са җичи ду хуэй кэни. 30.10.79
short say Mamar father what work all know:how do:Fut what machine all can drive:Fut
In short, Mamar’s father can do any work and can drive any machine.
There is a special class of non-action verbs that take the future with de imperfective meaning. These verbs
include at least җыдо 'know', ю 'have, there is', зэ '(somewhere) is' and хэпа 'be afraid' (which also occurs
with -дини). These verbs manifest the predicate in one type of stative clause.
Щёнҗуонниди йиче жын ду җыдони, Маданзы лохан ба сунзы на гункў тёёндини. 24.8.76
village’s all people all know:Fut Madanzy old:man Obj grandson with labour educate:Impfv
Everyone in the village knows that old Madanzy educates his grandson with the help of work.
The first main argument in this paper is that Soviet Dungan has a system that is basically aspectual and
not a tense system. The core of the system is the typically aspectual opposition between the perfective and
the imperfective.
The second main argument is that clauses can be divided into stative and action types. The stative clause
types are characterized by not having the full range of aspects and by being inherently imperfective. The
postulation of stative clauses simplifies the description of the aspectual system, because exceptions to the
basic system can be explained by the inherent imperfectivity of stative clauses.
Dungan aspects have throughout been regarded as a clause level feature. This is because the system
utilizes two slots, a verbal suffix and a sentence final particle.
ABBREVIATIONS
Att. attributive particle
EP experiential past
Fur future
HP habitual past
Impfv imperfective
Mod modal particle
O object
Obj object marker
Pfv perfective
Prep preposition
Res resultative suffix
St stative form
V verb
? question particle
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1= Хасанов, Махмуд 1973. Ганҗин щин. Фрунзе: «Кыргызстан»
3= Хасанов, Якуб 1975. Хэчэрди минйүн. Фрунзе: Издательство «Мектеп».
4= Имазов, М. 1976. Янҗир. Фрунзе: Издательство «Мектеп».
Шыйүәди Чи. A biweekly newspaper. Фрунзе.
Chao, Yuan Ren 1968. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Imazov 1982= Имазов М. Х 1982. Очерки по морфологии дунганского яазука. Фрунзе: Издательство
«Илим».
Kalimov 1968= Калимов А. 1968. Дунганский язык. Языки народов СССР, т. V. Монгольские, тунгусо-
манчьжурские и палеоазиатские языки. Ленинград.
Salmi, Olli 1980. Tone and Stress in Soviet Dungan. In: Hurme, P. (ed) Voice, Speech and Language: Reports
and Reviews. Papers in Speech Research, 2, 89–105. Publications from tie Institute of Finnish Language and
Communication, 19. University of Jyväskylä.
1 Artikkelin englanninkielisen asun on tarkistanut lehtori Roger O. Luke. Esitän hänelle parhaat kiitokset.
POSTSCRIPT
There are some points where I have changed my opinion.
1. I would use the term irrealis instead of future.
2. I have presented particles like -дини and -лидини as unit morphemes, but they may be treated as
compounds. However, I am not sure what benefits that would have.
3. At the time of writing I believed that what I call stative form is -ди 着, but it is quite likely that it is
actually -ди< -дисы 的是, which occurs in the Shaanxi dialect of Dungan.