Descrizione del progetto
Studio su preservazione ed estinzione linguistiche nell’area Gansu-Qinghai
Il corridoio tra l’Asia centrale e quella orientale, l’area Gansu-Qinghai, è una delle zone più significative nella storia delle migrazioni. Si tratta del luogo dove per molto tempo lingue e popoli si sono scontrati, amalgamati e uniti. Ad oggi, non è tuttavia nota la portata dell’eterogeneità di tali lingue e popoli. Per colmare questa lacuna, il progetto TRAM, finanziato dall’UE, studierà la mescolanza linguistica e gli schemi di sostituzione delle lingue nell’area Gansu-Qinghai servendosi di un approccio interdisciplinare. Così facendo, esaminerà la situazione linguistica di questo corridoio concentrandosi su due lingue nomadi e su una varietà di lingue sinitiche. Il progetto attingerà, tra gli altri campi, dall’antropologia molecolare, dalla storia e dall’archeologia.
Obiettivo
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 different lifestyles and cultures.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantIstituzione ospitante
55122 Mainz
Germania