Multilingual mixing among Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian in the Qinghai area of China

Abstract

The interactions among languages in the Qinghai Area of China involved the historical migration of those who came into the area at some point in time and settled in. In addition, political driving forces dictated various migratory movements of different ethnic groups to settle into the area throughout history. The Qinghai Area, known as Amdo in the Tibetan cultural world, constitutes a geographical depression in the northeastern end of the Tibetan plateau which is ideal for grazing and farming. The climate of the region is largely monitored by the mega size salt water lake known as the Qinghai Lake. The largest number of mixed cultural areal contact occurs around this lake particularly towards the east. The geographical feature of the area has proved itself as a strategic hub for military expansion at different time in history creating dynamics of interaction in every juncture. As a result, different levels of multilingual influences are observed among of the regional languages of each language groups.

Among the diversified languages flourished in the area, the most prominent language groups are the Sinitic, Bodic and Mongolic languages. Through studies of corpuses, literature and contributions of human participants, the present condition of multilingual mixing among Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian were explored. Within the various phenomena of language mixing and language changes, it is notable that these languages have lost parts of their original features while having gained foreign features as a result of language contacts among these ethnic groups.