Songlin language

Songlin
sɑŋ³¹lin⁵⁵
Native to	China
Region	Shangchayu Town, Zayu County, Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet
Native speakers	1,000 (2019)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (unclassified) Songlin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	song1316

Songlin (Chinese: 松林语) is a divergent, unclassified Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Zayu County, Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet. A linguistic description of Songlin has been published in a monograph by Song (2019).

Names

Songlin speakers refer to their language as sɑŋ³¹lin⁵⁵pu⁵⁵lo³¹ɟe⁵⁵, and to Songlin village as sɑŋ³¹lin⁵⁵ (Song 2019:6).

History of documentation

Jiang Huo (江获) first learned about the existence of Songlin while doing research on Idu during the 2000s, when local Idu people in the Upper Chayu Town area reported that the "Songleng Tuyu" 松冷土语 was spoken nearby. After preliminary data was collected in 2014, intensive field work was conducted during the summers of 2015–2017 by a Chinese research team led by Li Daqin (李大勤) (Song 2019:13). A monograph documenting the Songlin language, Xizang Chayu Songlin yu (西藏察隅松林语), was written by Song Cheng (宋成) and submitted for publication in 2018. The book was released in 2019.

Demographics

The language is spoken in Songlin Village 松林村, Upper Chayu Town 上察隅镇 by approximately 1,000 people. The local lingua franca of the area is the Zayu dialect of Khams Tibetan. Some Songlin speakers can speak Idu and gSerkhu, both of which are also spoken in Upper Chayu Town 上察隅镇.

Songlin village is located on the western banks of the Kangrigarbo Qu (贡日嘎布曲) river, several kilometers to the northwest of the Upper Chayu/Shangchayu Town (ʐoŋ³¹ȶø⁵⁵ in Songlin; located further downstream on the same river). Some nearby villages include Gonggu 巩固, Xiba 西巴 (ɕi⁵⁵tɑ⁵⁵ in Songlin), and Rongyu 荣玉 to the north, and Zongba 宗巴 and Migu 米古 to the south (Song 2019:6).

Classification

Song & Lin (2020) shows that Songlin is not closely related to any of the surrounding Tibeto-Burman languages and cannot be classified as a Tibetic language. A computational phylogenetic study by Jiang (2023) also demonstrates the divergent position of Songlin. Songlin and the Mishmi languages all are spoken in Zayu County, but Songlin is not closely related to any of them.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Songlin is as follows (Song 2019:18–19).

p	t		ȶ	c	k
pʰ	tʰ		ȶʰ	cʰ	kʰ
b	d		ȡ	ɟ	g
m̥	n̥		ȵ̥		ŋ̥
m	n		ȵ		ŋ
	s	ʂ	ɕ			h
	z	ʐ	ʑ
	ts	tʂ	tɕ
	tsʰ	tʂʰ	tɕʰ
	dz	dʐ	dʑ
w				j
	l
	ɬ

Consonant clusters include: nb, nd, nȡ, nɟ, ng, ndz, ndʑ, ndʐ, pʐ, pʰʐ, bʐ, nbʐ, kʐ, kʰʐ, gʐ, nbʐ, ngʐ. /n/- is treated as part of consonant clusters, rather than as part of prenasalized initial consonants.

Note: In Sinology, ȵ is roughly equivalent to [ɲ] or [nʲ], while ȶ and ȡ can typically be transcribed as [tʲ] and [dʲ], respectively, although in practice they can actually be equivalent to [tʃ] or [dʒ] instead, or other similar affricates. Also, ɕ and ʑ often, but not always, correspond to [ʃ] and [ʒ] in IPA transcriptions used by non-Sinologists. For further information, see obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Vowels

There are 12 vowels: i, y, ɯ, u, e, ø, o, ə, ɛ, ɑ, ɿ, ʮ (Song 2019:21–22).

Songlin has 5 diphthongs: ui, ɯi, ou, ie, iɛ.

Note that ɿ [ɨ] is used by Sinologists, as well as ʮ ([ʉ], [ɹ̩ʷ] or [z̩ʷ]), which is a labialized syllabic denti-alveolar approximant used by Sinologists.

Tones

There are three tones in Songlin.

Tone number	Pitch value	Description
1	/55/	high level (高平)
2	/24/	mid rising (中升)
3	/31/	low falling (低降)

About 50% of all words in Songlin have the high level tone /55/, while the mid rising /24/ and low falling /31/ tones are each found in approximately 25% of all Songlin words (Song 2019:24).

Script

Song (2019:30–32) proposes a pinyin-based script for Songlin.

Consonants

Songlin script	IPA
a	ɑ
b	p
c	tsʰ
d	t
e	ə
f	f
g	k
h	h
i	i
j	tɕ
k	kʰ
l	l
m	m
n	n
o	o
p	pʰ
q	tɕʰ
r	ʐ
s	s
t	tʰ
u	u
v	y
w	w
x	ɕ
y	j
z	ts

Consonant clusters

Songlin script	IPA
nbb	nb
ndd	nd
nddy	nȡ
nggy	nɟ
ngg	ng
nz	ndz
nj	ndʑ
nzh	ndʐ
br	pʐ
pr	pʰʐ
bbr	bʐ
gr	kʐ
kr	kʰʐ
ggr	gʐ
nbbr	nbʐ
nggr	ngʐ

Vowels

Songlin script	IPA
a	ɑ
e	ə
ee	e
eee	ɛ
i	i
ii	ɿ
iii	ʮ
o	o
oo	ø
u	u
uu	ɯ
v	y

Rimes

Songlin script	IPA
in	in
ing	iŋ
eng	əŋ
eeen	ɛn
an	ɑn
ang	ɑŋ
uun	ɯn
uung	ɯŋ
ian	iɛn
ong	oŋ

Tones are transcribed using the numerals 1, 2, and 3 (see the Tones section above):

Tones

Songlin script	Pitch value
1	/55/ (high level)
2	/24/ (mid rising)
3	/31/ (low falling)

Example phrase (Song 2019:33):

ga1sii1 ga1sii1 dyv1 neng3

'once upon a time'/'a very long time ago' (很久很久以前)

Morphology

Some common prefixes in Songlin are (Song 2019:43):

• ɑ³¹-: nominal prefix
• mɑ³¹-: nominal prefix
• kə³¹-: used before some verbs, some body parts, and various nouns

Some suffixes are:

• -pɑ⁵⁵: used with human-related terms, body parts, and others
• -tso⁵⁵: 'son' (儿); masculine/diminutive, used to mark an animate noun (person or animal) as male, juvenile, or small

Reduplication is commonly used to form new nouns (Song 2019:45–46).

Pronouns

The Songlin pronouns are (Song 2019:134):

		singular	dual	plural
1st person	INCL	ŋɑ⁵⁵	ɑ²⁴kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵	ɑ²⁴se⁵⁵
	EXCL		ŋɑ³¹kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵	ŋɑ³¹se⁵⁵
2nd person		nu⁵⁵	nə³¹kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵	nə³¹se⁵⁵
3rd person		pu²⁴	pə³¹kʰə⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵	pə³¹se⁵⁵

Interrogatives

Songlin interrogatives are (Song 2019:140):

Gloss	Songlin
who?	ʃɑŋ³¹ŋɑ⁵⁵
what?; which?	cʰe⁵⁵/hɑ³¹mi⁵⁵
when?	ȵɛn²⁴kʰɑ³¹
where?	hɑ³¹ndɑ⁵⁵
how many?	hɑ³¹ȶi⁵⁵
how?	hɑ³¹nbo⁵⁵

Sentence examples

The following Songlin sentence examples are from Yan (Song 2020:656). Songlin has SOV word order.

ŋɑ⁵⁵

1.SG

tɕi³¹tɕi⁵⁵

water

tɕʰɑŋ⁵⁵

drink

koŋ⁵⁵

PROG

nəŋ³¹

PRT

ŋɑ55 tɕi31tɕi55 tɕʰɑŋ55 koŋ55 nəŋ31

1.SG water drink PROG PRT

I am drinking water.

pin⁵⁵wu⁵⁵

sky

kʰu³¹mu⁵⁵

rain

ju⁵⁵

fall

koŋ⁵⁵

PROG

nəŋ³¹

PRT

pin55wu55 kʰu31mu55 ju55 koŋ55 nəŋ31

sky rain fall PROG PRT

Rain is falling. (lit. ''The sky is falling rain.'')

Vocabulary

The following are Songlin words cited from Song (2020).

Chinese gloss	English gloss	Songlin
一	one	tɕi³¹tɑ⁵⁵
二	two	kʰɑ³¹ȵi⁵⁵
三	three	sɯŋ⁵⁵
四	four	ʑi²⁴
五	five	po³¹ŋoŋ²⁴
六	six	tʂʰɯ²⁴
七	seven	ȵ̥in²⁴
八	eight	pu³¹ndʑe²⁴
九	nine	gu²⁴
风	wind	kʐi²⁴
虹	rainbow	zɑ⁵⁵
右	right (side)	tʂoŋ⁵⁵lɑ⁵⁵
外面	outside	pɑ³¹tɕy²⁴
跳蚤	flea	kɑ³¹ji⁵⁵
(牛)角	horn (of cattle)	goŋ²⁴kʰʐɿ⁵⁵
尾巴	tail	ndʑoŋ⁵⁵mɑŋ⁵⁵
脖子	neck	kɑ⁵⁵loŋ⁵⁵
背	back	ci²⁴tsʰɿ⁵⁵
(树)叶子	leaf (of tree)	kʰɑ³¹pɑ²⁴
汗	sweat	tsʰɑ¹³pɑ²⁴
尿	urine	tɕʰi³¹li⁵⁵
官	government official	ngə⁵⁵tʂʰɿ⁵⁵
孙子	grandson	noŋ³¹tɕy⁵⁵
鞋	shoe	ku³¹ȵu⁵⁵
刀子	knife	nba³¹ju⁵⁵
船	boat	tʂɿ³¹dzin⁵⁵
鬼	ghost, spirit	tɕʰo²⁴
走	walk	ci⁵⁵
飞	fly (v.)	ku²⁴
吃	eat	ndzo⁵⁵
烤	roast, bake	pu⁵⁵
拔	pull	pʰʐo²⁴
捆	tie (v.)	pɯi⁵⁵
睡	sleep	ŋoŋ²⁴
敢	dare	pin⁵⁵
他	he	pu²⁴
好	good	ȵe²⁴ȵe⁵⁵
小	small	kɑ³¹tsɛ⁵⁵
旧	old (of things)	bi²⁴
很	very	ʐɛ²⁴
星星	star	kɑ⁵⁵mɑ⁵⁵
地、土	earth, soil	pʐo²⁴
山	mountain	ʐɿ²⁴
金子	gold	sie⁵⁵
水獭	otter	nɑ⁵⁵sɛn⁵⁵
毛	hair (body)	n̥oŋ²⁴
柱子	pillar	kɑ⁵⁵wɑ⁵⁵
针	needle	kʰɛ²⁴
布	cloth	ʐe²⁴
寺	temple (Buddhist)	nɟø⁵⁵nba⁵⁵
镰刀	sickle	ɕin⁵⁵koŋ⁵⁵
锯子	saw (tool)	su⁵⁵li⁵⁵
绳子	rope	nbɑ³¹je²⁴
听	listen	ndʑo⁵⁵
大	big	hɑ⁵⁵ndu⁵⁵
高	high, tall	sen⁵⁵
你	you (sg.)	nu⁵⁵
干净	clean	ɕɑŋ⁵⁵ngʐɑŋ⁵⁵
软的	soft	ȵɛ²⁴ȵɛ²⁴
黄的	yellow	sɛ⁵⁵sɛ⁵⁵
轻的	light (weight)	jɑŋ²⁴jɑŋ⁵⁵
新的	new	ɕi³¹tso²⁴
桥	bridge	dɑŋ²⁴
火柴	firewood	mi³¹tʂʰe⁵⁵
树	tree	tɕʰɑŋ²⁴