Erjie

Erjie
迩捷語 (ěrjiéyǔ)
erjie kelu
Pronunciation	[ɚˈʑjɛ ˈkʰəlʊ]
Created by	SJ
Date	2024
Native to	China
Ethnicity	Erjie
Native speakers	2000 (2023)
Language family	Indo-European Tocharian Tocharian B Erjie
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	China Sunan Yugur Autonomous County Menyuan Hui Autonomous County
Erjie is classified as Vulnerable

Erjie is an Indo-European language spoken by the Erjie people, who mainly live in the provinces of Qinghai and Gansu in Northwestern China. It is the sole extant member of the Tocharian branch of Indo-European. The Erjie number about 3200 people, about 2000 (2023) speak the Erjie language; around 800 are primarily monolingual, while many speak Mandarin and/or Amdo Tibetan to a degree of fluency. While a pinyin-based writing system has been devised, Erjie is not often written by speakers and primarily exists as a spoken language.

According to Erjie tradition, the Erjie are the descendants of the Tocharian speaking tribes of the Tarim Basin. During periods of the Uyghur Khaganate and Tang dynasty, these tribesmen migrated from the Tarim Basin and dwelt within China's borders and since then have lived within the Qinghai-Gansu border region. Erjie has considerable influence, both grammatical and lexical, from Mandarin Chinese and Amdo Tibetan. It is also a part of the broader Qinghai-Gansu/Amdo sprachbund, characterized by many features that differ greatly from surrounding languages, such as SOV word order, case marking and a lack of lexical tone.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩		u ⟨u⟩
Mid		ə ⟨e⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩
Open		a ⟨a⟩

Phoneme/Sound	Allophones	Notes
/i/	ɨ	when following alveolar sibilants or affricates
	ɪ	when following labial and alveolar plosives or approximants
	ɨ˞	when following a retroflex consonant
/ə/	ə	in stressed syllables without onset clusters or coda consonants
	ɛ	in a syllable with a palatal onset or palatal coda
	ɘ	in a syllable with a nasal coda consonant
/a/	ɑ	when following a uvular consonant
	æ	when a syllable is closed by an alveolar nasal /n/
	ɛ	when following a palatal onset consonant, and preceding an alveolar nasal /n/
/ɔ/	ɵ	when following retroflex and palatal consonants
/u/	ʊ	when following alveolar and velar consonants
	ʉ	when following retroflex and palatal consonants

Consonants

		Labial	Denti-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Stops	plain	/p/ ⟨b⟩	/t̪/ ⟨d⟩			/k/ ⟨g⟩	/q/ ⟨gh⟩
	aspirated	/pʰ/ ⟨p⟩	/t̪ʰ/ ⟨t⟩			/kʰ/ ⟨k⟩	/qʰ/ ⟨kh⟩
Affricates	plain		/t͡s/ ⟨z⟩	/ʈ͡ʂ/ ⟨zh⟩	/t͡ɕ/ ⟨j⟩
	aspirated		/t͡sʰ/ ⟨c⟩	/ʈ͡ʂʰ/ ⟨ch⟩	/t͡ɕʰ/ ⟨q⟩
Fricatives	voiceless	(f) ⟨f⟩	/s/ ⟨s⟩	/ʂ/ ⟨sh⟩	/ɕ/ ⟨x⟩	/x/ ~ /χ/ ⟨h⟩
	voiced		(z) ⟨z⟩		(ʑ) ⟨j⟩	/ɣ/ ~ /ʁ/ ⟨gh⟩
Nasals		/m/ ⟨m⟩	/n/ ⟨n⟩			/ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩
Approximants		/w/ ⟨w⟩	/l̪/ ⟨l⟩	/ɻ/ ~ /ʐ/ ⟨r⟩	/j/ ⟨y⟩

• /z/ and /ʑ/ are intervocalic allophones of plain affricates /t͡s/ and /t͡ɕ/ respectively.
• all plain plosives are phonetically voiced in intervocalic positions, however /q/ weakens to /ʁ/ rather than expected /ɢ/
• /x/ and /ɣ/ are uvular /χ/ and /ʁ/ before /a/, /ɔ/ and /u/.
• /f/ is only found in Chinese borrowings, alternatively substituted with /pʰ/.
• /j/ and /w/ can have spirantized allophones [ʝ] and [βˠ] typically in stressed, initial syllables.

Writing System

Erjie does not have on official script and mainly exists as a spoken language. However, young Erjie speakers have increasingly started to use a writing system based on Mandarin pinyin. It is primarily used among Erjie for writing their language on the internet and in digital environments.

Pinyin-based Latin Script

Pinyin	IPA	Notes
b	/p/	Unaspirated p, like in English spa.
p	/pʰ/	Strongly aspirated p, like in English pay.
m	/m/	Like the m in English may.
f	/f/	Like the f in English fair.
d	/t̪/	Unaspirated dental t, similar to English stop.
t	/t̪ʰ/	Strongly aspirated dental t, similar to English take.
n	/n/	Like the n in English nay.
l	/l̪/	Dental l, similar to English lay.
g	/k/	Unaspirated k, like in English skill.
k	/kʰ/	Strongly aspirated k, like in English kiss.
gh	/q~ʁ~ɣ/	No English equivalent. Occurs as [q] in onset and when voiceless but as [ɣ~ʁ] intervocalically.
kh	/qʰ/	No English equivalent. Often strongly spirantized to [qχ(ʰ)] and even [χ(ʰ)]
h	/x~χ/	Like the ch in Scottish English loch.
j	/tɕ~(d)ʑ/	Alveolo-palatal, unaspirated. No direct equivalent in English. Occurs as [tɕ] in onset and when voiceless but as [dʑ~ʑ] intervocalically.
q	/tɕʰ/	Alveolo-palatal, aspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the ch in English punchy.
x	/ɕ/	Alveolo-palatal, unaspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the sh in English push.
zh	/ʈʂ/	Retroflex, unaspirated. Similar to j in English jack.
ch	/ʈʂʰ/	Retroflex, aspirated. Similar to the ch in English church.
sh	/ʂ/	Retroflex, unaspirated. Similar to sh in shirt.
r	/ɻ~ʐ/	Retroflex. No direct equivalent in English, but somewhat similar to the r in English reduce.
z	/ts~(d)z/	Unaspirated. Like the zz in English pizza. Occurs as [ts] in onset and when voiceless but as [dz~z] intervocalically
c	/tsʰ/	Aspirated. Like the ts in English bats.
s	/s/	Like the s in English say.
w	/w~β/	Like the w in English water. Occasionally pronounced [β], like a v but using both lips.
y	/j~ʝ/	Like the y in English yes.
yu	/ɥ/	Like the hu in French huit.
a	/a~ɑ~æ/	Like the a in English back.
i	/i~ɪ~ɨ/	Like the ee in English feed.
u	/u~ʊ~ʉ/	Like the oo in English good.
o	/ɔ~ɵ/	Like the o in English fog.
e	/ə~ɛ/	Varies between the o in English lemon and the e in bet.
ai	/aj/	Like the y in English fly.
au	/aw/	Similar to the ou in some dialects of English loud.
ei	/ej/	Like the ay in English may.
ou	/ow/	No exact English equivalent, but similar to the oa in coat.
ie	/jɛ/	No English equivalent. Like the ie in Spanish tiempo.
uo	/wɔ/	No English equivalent.

Grammar

Morphology

Erjie is agglutinative and mainly suffixing, although there are a small number of prefixes. Erjie has lost a significant portion of its inflectional morphology which was present in the Tocharian languages, likely due to contact-induced leveling. For example, verbs no longer conjugate for person or the subjunctive, gender in nouns has been lost, and thus adjectives no longer inflect for gender or even case. That being said, Erjie has innovated certain morphological features, such as a future tense suffix and verbal negative suffix which were not present in Tocharian. Lexical stress is phonemic, although it is in the process of being replaced by a pitch-accent system, especially among younger speakers.

Nouns and Case Marking

Erjie has seven cases: nominative (unmarked), genitive-accusative, dative-locative, ablative, comitative, allative and perlative-instrumental. Direct objects are typically marked in the genitive-accusative if they are definite, while if they are indefinite they are marked in the nominative combined with the indefinite article she. In addition to case, numerous postpositions exist which may govern any number of cases. There are also limited prepositions which typically exclusively govern the nominative.

Erjie noun cases

Case	Suffix	English preposition	Example	Translation
nominative	–	–	yeghu	horse
genitive-accusative	-ze	(direct object); of	yeghuze	the horse (as direct object); of (the) horse/(the) horse's
dative-locative	-ne	at, in, on, to	yeghune	on/in (the) horse; to (the) horse (as a recipient/indirect object)
ablative	-men	from	yeghumen	from (the) horse
comitative	-ba	with	yeghuba	with (e.g. alongside the) horse
allative	-xi	to, toward, into, onto	yeghuxi	toward/onto (the) horse
perlative-instrumental	-za	through, with, via, using, by, over	yeghuza	with (e.g. by means of the) horse; by horse

Nominative case

The nominative generally marks the subject of a verb and the predicate of a copular construction. It is also used to mark the direct object of a sentence if that object is indirect. The nominative is unmarked in Erjie.

Genitive-Accusative case

This case governs two main uses: marking the definite direct object of a verb and indicating possession. As a genitive, it is generally only used to indicate the possession of animate possessors such as people and animals, although certain self-actuating celestial bodies and geological features such as rivers and oceans may also apply (especially in a religious or spiritual sense). In the accusative sense, words in this case tend to like to occur directly before the verb, as if it were to precede a noun phrase it may be confused for its genitive function.

Dative-Locative case

The dative-locative is used to indicate a location such as in, on, at or by, as well as to indicate the recipient or indirect object of a verb. Another important use of this case is what is typically called the possessive dative, in which it marks what would typically be, in English, the subject of a transitive verb, e.g. Toughane xuer xameixgela lie – literally "(there) are four kids to/at/by Tougha", this construction is typically found with a copula and translates as "Tougha has four kids".

Plurals

Plurals are typically marked by way of the suffix -la which occurs after the root and before any case markers. While -la is the most common plural suffix, there are numerous irregular plurals which may be unpredictable, and there are some nouns that do not mark plurality at all. With that said, plural marking is not mandatory especially if it is obvious by context. It is also common for plurality not to be marked after numerals. Younger speakers are increasingly trending towards less use of the plural as a whole, and its usage is much more pervasive in older speakers and may be a social marker for age and authority. Reduplication has also been seen among younger speakers as a trendy way to produce plurals, although it is typically used to represent a particularly large quantity, e.g. keli keli tegha ba! – "There was tons of bread!".

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

		Nominative	Genitive-Accusative
1st person	singular	yix	yi
	plural	wer	weji
2nd person	singular	qi	qen
	plural	yer	yeji
3rd person	singular masculine	qao	qui
	singular feminine	tou	tei
	singular inanimate	tu	tuze
	plural	qim	qimze

Numerals

Numeral	Erjie	IPA	Tocharian A	Tocharian B	Proto-Indo-European
1	she	[ʂə]	sas	ṣe	*sem-
2	wi	[wɪ]	wu	wi	*dwóh₁
3	chei	[ʈʂʰej]	tre	trai	*tréyes
4	xuer	[ɕɥɚ]	śtwar	śtwer	*kʷetwṓr
5	pix	[pʰɪɕ]	päñ	piś	*pénkʷe
6	shges	[ʂkəs]	ṣäk	ṣkas	*swéḱs
7	shuk	[ʂʉk̚]	ṣpät	ṣukt	*septḿ̥
8	wuk	[βuk̚]	okät	okt	*h₁oḱtṓ(w)
9	yuk	[ʝyk̚]	ñu	ñu	*(h₁)néwn̥
10	xek	[ɕɛk̚]	śäk	śak	*déḱm̥t

Syntax

Erjie has a primarily SOV word order, although it is relatively flexible and may be modified to add emphasis or topic focus.