Sino-Tibetan language family of peoples. Sino-Tibetan language family

Sino-Tibetan languages.

One of the largest language families in the world. The total number of languages ​​has not been established. Presumably - 200-300, but only 50-60 of them have been studied. The total number of speakers is over 1100 million people. (1989, assessment). Apparently, some Sino-Tibetan languages ​​are not yet known to science, others are known only from random short lists of words. According to the traditional classification, accepted by most researchers at the beginning of the 20th century, the Sino-Tibetan languages ​​were divided into 2 main groups: eastern (Tai-Chinese), which included Chinese And Thai languages, and western ( Tibeto-Burman languages). The Miao-Yao languages ​​and Karen languages ​​were sometimes also included in the eastern group. The main feature that distinguished the groups was the word order: in Eastern languages ​​the object is placed after the verb, in Western languages ​​- before it. It is currently known that the Thai and Miao Yao languages ​​are not part of the Sino-Tibetan family.

In modern linguistics, Sino-Tibetan languages ​​are usually divided into 2 branches, different in the degree of their internal division and in their place on the linguistic map of the world - Chinese and Tibeto-Burman. The first is formed by the Chinese language with its numerous dialects and groups of dialects. It is spoken by over 1050 million people, including about 700 million in the dialects of the northern group. Its main area of ​​distribution is the PRC south of the Gobi and east of Tibet, but there are large Chinese populations in other areas of the country and beyond. The Chinese branch includes Dungan language; The spoken Dungan language is part of the northern group of Chinese dialects. It is possible that the Bai language, or Minjia, in the PRC (Yunnan province, over 1 million speakers) also belongs to this branch, but this has not been proven; this language is usually considered Tibeto-Burman or excluded from the Sino-Tibetan family altogether.

In addition, there are 3 subgroups of northern dialects (called in the Western tradition Mandarin), spoken particularly in cities Nanking, Beijing And Chongqing:

northern, including Beijing dialect;

southern

And central.

These subgroups differ in much the same way as English in England, the United States and Australia, and are often mutually intelligible. Therefore, these dialects are collectively called the language Mandarin.

Common Standard Chinese, or National Language Mandarin, is based on the dialect of Beijing (otherwise Beijing, as, at the insistence of the Chinese, the name of the capital of China began to be reproduced in the West).

The remaining Sino-Tibetan languages, numbering about 60 million speakers, are included in the Tibeto-Burman branch. Peoples speaking these languages ​​inhabit most of Myanmar (formerly Burma), Nepal, Bhutan, large areas of southwestern China and northeastern India. The most important Tibeto-Burman languages ​​or groups of closely related languages: Burmese (up to 30 million speakers) in Myanmar and (over 5.5 million) in Sichuan and Yunnan (PRC); Tibetan (over 5 million) in Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan (PRC), Kashmir (northern India), Nepal, Bhutan; Karen languages ​​(over 3 million) in Myanmar near the border with Thailand: Hani (1.25 million) in Yunnan; Manipuri, or Meithei (over 1 million); Bodo, or Kachari (750 thousand), and Garo (up to 700 thousand) in India; Jingpo, or Kachin (about 600 thousand), in Myanmar and Yunnan; fox (up to 600 thousand) in Yunnan; Tamang (about 550 thousand), Newar (over 450 thousand) and Gurung (about 450 thousand) in Nepal. The Tibeto-Burman branch includes the endangered language of the Tujia people (up to 3 million people) in Hunan (PRC), but by now most of the Tujia have switched to Chinese.

Sino-Tibetan languages ​​are syllabic, isolating languages ​​with a greater or lesser tendency to agglutination. The main phonetic unit is the syllable; the boundaries of syllables, as a rule, are also the boundaries of morphemes or words. The sounds within a syllable are arranged in a strictly defined order. Consonant combinations are not found in all languages ​​and are possible only at the beginning of a syllable[as in Tibetan]. The number of consonants occurring at the end of a syllable is significantly less than the number of possible initial consonants (usually no more than 6-8); some languages ​​only allow open syllables or have only one final nasal consonant. Many languages ​​have tone. In languages ​​whose history is well known, one can observe a gradual simplification of consonantism and a complication of the system of vowels and tones.

In Chinese (Mandarin) there are 4 basic tones, one neutral and an unlimited number of combinations.

A morpheme usually corresponds to a syllable; the root is usually immutable. However, many languages ​​violate these principles. Thus, in the Burmese language it is possible to alternate consonants in the root: phay" "to make a hole", pau" "to be perforated, to have a hole"; in classical Tibetan there were non-syllabic prefixes and suffixes that expressed, in particular, the grammatical categories of the verb: b-kru-s “washed”, khru-d “my”; in Jingpo, many roots consist of two syllables, with the first having a reduced vowel and in combinations can be dropped: ma 1 kui 3 “elephant”, but kui 3 nong 3 “herd of elephants”.

Classes of words (parts of speech) are distinguished by the ability of words to be used as part of certain syntactic constructions and by compatibility with service morphemes. In Chinese, comparing the combinations zhong huar “to plant flowers” ​​and hong huar “red flower”, we can distinguish three classes of words - noun, verb, adjective, differing in the place they can occupy in combinations of this type: a verb can have after itself a noun as an object or other dependent member, an adjective can be a modifier of a noun. In the Burmese language, among the service morphemes, nominal particles are distinguished (for example, tou - an indicator of the plural, and - an indicator of possessiveness) and verbal particles (for example, me - an indicator of the future tense, pyi - an indicator of the perfect); words combined with particles of the first group are names, those of the second group are verbs.

Adjectives are grammatically closer to verbs than to names; sometimes they are included in the verb category as "verbs of quality".

The simplest relationships between words in a sentence are expressed by word order. For example, the Chinese proposal bai ma chi cao"the white horse eats grass" consists only of root words, the relationships between which are determined by their location.

Other grammatical meanings are expressed by service morphemes. The latter are usually easily separated from the word to which they refer, i.e. formulate not a word, but a phrase. Eg. chi cao de ma"horse eating grass" [literally, eat (chi) grass (cao) -such (de) horse (ma)] (de is attached to the phrase chi cao "eat grass" [similar to the postposition -no in Japanese, expressing genitive case or accessory]). Often, under the same conditions, a auxiliary element can either be used or omitted, almost without changing the meaning of the whole. For example, in classical Tibetan sing gi lo-ma And sing-lo (-gi- possessive particle, - ma- noun suffix) “leaves” of the tree are translated in the same way [the first construction is Japanese in type, the second is purely isolating]. Postpositive service morphemes are much more common than prepositive ones.

The predominant method of word formation is the addition of roots. Isolating a word often presents a difficult problem: it is difficult to distinguish a compound word from a phrase, an affix from a function word. The addition of roots within a compound word occurs according to certain structural models. Those. what happens is something like the formation of a phrase that describes a thing or event that has not yet been named, which is a derivative word. In total, there are five types of connections in words formed by root formation.

Conversion is widespread, i.e. the formation of a word belonging to another part of speech often occurs without the help of derivational morphemes, only by changing its use.

However, some nominal roots (a significant number in some languages) require a special affix to become a word. This is the Chinese suffix -z (a syllable with a reduced vowel) in the word fang-z "house", the Tibetan -ra in lag-pa "hand", the prefix a1- in fox a1mo5 "horse". The only purpose of such affixes is to form a complete word from the root; in other cases they form names from verbs.

Chinese writing - hieroglyphics - dates back to the oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty (16-11 centuries BC) with carved stylized images of objects - symbols that replaced words and were used for predictions.

Despite changes in writing materials, Chinese characters have remained virtually the same as they were in ancient times. To read a newspaper you need to know at least 3,000 hieroglyphs, and an educated person knows more than 5,000 hieroglyphs.

Rules for writing hieroglyphs: The horizontal line is written first, followed by the vertical line; first the folding one is written to the left, then the folding one is written to the right; The hieroglyph is written from top to bottom and from left to right; first of all, the outer part of the hieroglyph is written, then what is inside; in such hieroglyphs as, say, “state”, “day, sun”, the elements inside are first written, and finally it is “sealed” from below; First, you should write the element of the hieroglyph that is in the middle, and lastly - the elements on the left and right, respectively.

Suits

In the process of ethnogenesis, about 56 ethnic groups were formed on the territory of the Middle Kingdom. And accordingly, each of them has its own special style of clothing with noticeable distinctive features that are the result of the influence of culture, traditions and the geographical location of the area where the inhabitants live. Taken together, the individual elements of the individual styles of ethnic groups form one completely complete image of a traditional Chinese costume.

Chinese national costumes are traditionally rich in an indescribable variety of materials, colors and cuts used. Their characteristic elements are completely asymmetrical fasteners, unusual trim with braid and piping, kimonos, massive and wide belts called obi, and quite colorful embroidery.

For a long time, the Chinese have preferred various sweaters, robes, pants and hats. The choice of clothes was not at all accidental. After all, a peculiar decoration could become evidence of the social status in society of the person wearing them.

In China, great attention was paid to the colors of costumes. Yellow colors were considered imperial. And naturally, no one else, except those around the head of state, had the right to wear clothes of that color. Red suits were preferred by fairly wealthy people. Oddly enough, white belonged to the mourning colors, for this reason it could only be used for sewing underwear. Other colors and shades were allowed for use by all segments of the population.

Summarizing all of the above, we can say that Chinese national costumes are significantly different in their unique sophistication and charm, which clearly indicates the genuine ability of the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire to be original and unique in everything.

National holidays.

Chinese New Year celebrated on January 1st. This holiday is shrouded in legend: in Ancient China there was a monster that ravaged villages every year. One day a beggar wanderer proved to people that the monster was afraid of the color red, the flames of fire and loud laughter. Since then, Chinese New Year has been celebrated noisily and cheerfully. The Chinese set off firecrackers, dress themselves in red, and decorate their homes with bright red posters and lanterns.

Spring Festival celebrated at the end of winter and is traditionally a family event. On this holiday the whole family gets together. Even relatives living in different parts of the country come to their father’s house, which creates a maximum load on the transport infrastructure during the month before the holiday. Since this holiday lasts three days, you can have time to admire the dances of lions and dragons, performances on stilts and many other public events.

Lantern Festival, widespread already in the 2nd century BC. e., is distinguished by an abundance of pre-made colorful lanterns and lanterns hung along the city streets. Perhaps, in terms of scale, riot of colors and entertainment programs, only the Rio Carnival can compare with this festival! The traditional food of this day is Yuanxiao, a mixture of rice and sweets. A traditional pastime is solving riddles written on lanterns, as well as fireworks. The holiday is rooted in the tradition of Buddhist monks to meditate with lanterns lit in honor of Buddha.

Kite Festival held in April and dedicated to one of the original Chinese discoveries. China's traditional art of kite making reveals itself in all its whimsy, ingenuity and majesty on this holiday. After all, where else can you see hundreds of colorful figures floating almost freely in the sky? Throughout the year, the Chinese find time to celebrate a huge number of events. A string of ancient holidays is aimed at strengthening family ties and family relationships.

The languages ​​of East Asia are members of several of the world's largest language families. In first place in terms of the number of speakers is the Sino-Tibetan family of languages ​​that developed in this territory. The Altai family has representatives of all branches here, and the sphere of its formation, although partially, was within East Asia.

Geographically, the distribution of languages ​​in East Asia can be represented as follows: Sino-Tibetan languages ​​almost completely occupy the entire central and southern parts of this territory. Only in two places on the outskirts are foreign components interspersed among them: Mon-Khmer in Yunnan and Malay-Polynesian in Taiwan. The languages ​​of the Altai family surround the entire region under consideration along its northern edge. This belt is closed in the extreme west by the languages ​​of the mountain Tajiks, belonging to the Indo-European family, and in the extreme east by the Ainu language. 1

Sino-Tibetan language family

The divergence in the vocabulary and grammatical structure between the individual branches and languages ​​of the Sino-Tibetan family is much greater than in the other language families mentioned here; words, meaning the degree of kinship, parts of the body, as well as natural phenomena, are often completely different even in the languages ​​of the same branch. On the other hand, the numerals are very close, almost identical in languages ​​even of different branches. Reconstruction of any proto-language for the Sino-Tibetan family is comparatively unlikely. Their similar features can rather be explained by the partial preservation of an area that once existed here with primitive linguistic continuity. Repeated migrations have disrupted this continuity, but traces of it remain in the nature of the differences between languages.

The common features for the entire Sino-Tibetan family are as follows: with very rare exceptions, each primary unit of speech - a root coinciding with a single-root word - represents one syllable. Moreover, any such syllable, taken separately, already gives us, if not in a modern living language, then at least in its ancient meaning, a completely complete word - a part or particle of speech. This gives some linguists a reason to characterize modern Sino-Tibetan languages ​​as monosyllabic, that is, monosyllabic. However, in fact, most concrete words of any living language of this family are polysyllabic, representing a combination of several root syllables. Cornesylations - parts of speech, when combined, give complex words: for example, in the New Chinese language, the root words ho j/c "fire' and che 1$. cart', when combined, give a new word 'hoche train'.

Such two-part words are usually called binomials. Words composed of three or more root syllables can be considered as secondary binomials. Thus, the word “type” in Chinese is expressed by the binomial dazi from the root words da “beat’ and zi” sign 7. The concept “typewriter” consists of three syllables: dazi ji, but this is also essentially a binary of two meanings: dazi “type” and ji “mechanism”.

If in Russian and other Indo-European languages ​​there are relatively few such compound words, then in Sino-Tibetan they make up the majority of the entire vocabulary; Corneslogs are particles of speech and words that have lost their independent semantic meaning, joining other words, at the beginning or end they turn into prefixes or suffixes, which serve for word formation and inflection.

Potentially, syllables in Sino-Tibetan languages ​​fall into three elements: an initial consonant consisting of one or more consonants, a vowel (simple or diphthong, triphthong) and a final consonant. A vowel is the carrier of a certain tone and is called a tonal. Tonal is an obligatory element in a word; So, in Chinese, the root syllable man' f! canopy’ contains an initial simple consonant (initial) m, a simple vowel a (tonal) and a final nъ. The root syllables ma YL sacrifice’, an’ VTs twilight’ and a ppf are also possible interjections. It should be noted that the initials are usually all the consonants found in a given language, and in many languages ​​their combinations. Initials - combinations of consonants - were present, for example, in the ancient Tibetan language. However, Sino-Tibetan languages ​​tend to simplify the composition of initials and to condense combinations of consonants into simple consonants.

Syllable finals can be closed consonants, but not all of them. For example, in modern literary Chinese, only two finals are preserved - n and n. The Yue (Cantonese) dialect retains the finals p, g, k - remnants of the ancient Chinese wider set of finals. The reduction of finals, inherent in the Chinese-Tibetan family as a whole, in a number of cases resulted in their complete disappearance and the transformation of all syllables into open ones.

Since only consonants and their combinations are used in initials, the total number of theoretically possible syllables (and therefore root words) in each language is quite limited. However, this number increases several times due to the presence of tones that are meaningful in nature. Thus, the word ma “sacrifice” mentioned above, like all the words associated with it, is pronounced with a falling tone (the fourth in the Chinese language). The same sound combination ma, pronounced under the first (even) tone, means Sh

"mother", under the second (ascending) - "hemp", under the third (descending-ascending) - "horse". The primary formation of tones is historically in direct connection with the truncation of finals in Chinese-Tibetan languages; sometimes it is also associated with changes in vowel composition.

The number of tones varies in different languages ​​and dialects from two to nine or even more, but the general historical trend rather leads to a simplification of the tonal composition.

The grammar of the Sino-Tibetan languages ​​is analytical at its core. As a rule, person, time, subject-object relations are expressed descriptively and through context. Almost all languages ​​of this family are characterized by an abundance of particle classifiers, which are used to combine numerals and pronouns with nouns and indicate the gender of the latter. For example, in Chinese “two tables” - liang zhang zhuo, where liang two’, zhuo “table”, zhang is a classifier of all flat objects. Many Sino-Tibetan languages ​​are characterized by a tendency to reduce the number of such categories and to use a limited number of universal classifiers.

The Chinese language became known to European linguists earlier than other Sino-Tibetan languages. The monosyllabic nature of the roots, the lack of inflection, and the apparent grammatical amorphism of the Chinese language gave rise to linguists - supporters of the stage theory - to see in it an example of a lower stage in the development of language, a state characteristic of the language almost immediately after its origin and preserved to this day. The historical study of Sino-Tibetan languages ​​refutes this opinion.

The monosyllabic state of the classical Chinese language Wenyan Yie is primary, but is the result of a simplification of the ancient Chinese language, which had elements of agglutination and inflection.

Between classical and modern Chinese there are still centuries of development towards repeated complexity and the emergence of new elements of agglutination.

The unity of the proto-Chinese tribal languages, one of which was the language of the Shang-Yin tribes known to us from the inscriptions on oracle bones (XVI-XI centuries BC), is confirmed by the ease of spread of Yin writing after the 11th century. Due to the hieroglyphic nature of the latter, the phonetic composition of these languages ​​or dialects is difficult to reconstruct. It is possible to reconstruct with sufficient accuracy only the general sound system of the ancient Chinese language.

The development of the Chinese language has continued throughout the centuries-old history of the Chinese people. Two sides of this process are the development and gradual change of language in connection with ethnic history and the gradual formation and then absorption of local dialects.

There are significant differences in the phonetics and semantics of the vocabulary of the Chinese language of different historical periods. For example, the word go, which currently means state, has gone through an interesting path of changing meaning depending on the socio-economic conditions of its existence. It meant, successively, a fence, a fenced place, a city, a possession, a kingdom, a state. The word jia “family” sounds like this in modern literary language; the same word in the south sounds like ka, something like how it sounded in ancient Chinese.

The ancient Chinese language developed until the 3rd century. BC e., the literary language of this time was Guven, coinciding with the colloquial language or close to it; and from the 3rd century. n. e. Ancient Chinese gradually becomes a dead language and the formation of Middle Chinese begins on the basis of Guwen. At this time, ancient Chinese turns into an archaic written Wenyan, different from the spoken one. Then follows a new period - from the 9th century. According to the “May 4, 1919” movement, when Wenyan existed, but the language of the “Yuan drama”, which was already close to the colloquial language, was formed, based on northern dialects. As a result of the struggle for a universally understood Baihua language, Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect, is gradually becoming stronger throughout the country.

The Chinese language includes a number of dialects. Currently, it is customary to distinguish eight main dialects: 1) Beijing, which is spoken by more than half of all Chinese, 2) Jiangnan (i.e., a dialect common in Jiangsu province south of the Yangtze and in Zhejiang province), 3) Guangdong, 4) Hunan , 5) Kejia (or Hakka) dialect, 6) Minnan (i.e. Southern Fujian), 7) Jiangxi 8) Minbei (i.e. Northern Fujian).

The names of the dialects reflect only the main areas of their distribution. Thus, the provinces of Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan are also included in the area of ​​distribution of the Beijing dialect.

Differences in the dialects of modern Chinese are mainly along phonetic lines; there are lexical differences; the differences in grammatical structure are small. In general, the dialects are uniform, although the most widely divergent large dialects of the Chinese language are mutually incomprehensible.

The geographical distribution of dialects and the periodization of language development are in good agreement with the ethnic history of the Chinese. The development of the languages ​​of clans and tribes was undoubtedly associated with its first stage; within the ethnic territory of the Chinese, these languages ​​were linked by a chain of linguistic continuity.

The main modern dialects are obviously relics of local tribal languages ​​that existed in ancient times in different regions of China. In addition, foreign language, non-Chinese substrates, for example Zhuang Tung in the south, could also play some role in the formation of modern dialects. The peoples of the south-eastern coastal strip, who defended their independence for a long time, partially perceived the language of the victors, first as a second language, then as the only one. Yet the features of the local languages ​​of the south have been preserved to this day in the local dialects (or, as they are called, Koine g/, Min and Yue).

A significant influx of immigrants from the central Chinese regions consolidated the process of language adaptation. Already a thousand years later, the population of the coastal strip considered themselves part of the Chinese people.

The process was different in the north- and south-western regions of the country. The assimilation of local languages ​​of non-Chinese peoples was either unopposed or did not occur. The differences between the Chinese dialects of these regions are so small that it would be more accurate to talk about dialects (Tuhua).

The modern colloquial and literary Chinese language (the normative language of the Chinese nation) - Putonghua, which literally means “common language”, is the largest language in the world in terms of the number of speakers.

The Chinese language is polytonal. In Beijing pronunciation, which is accepted as the norm for Putuihua, there are four tones.

Putonghua is characterized by the use of a large number of classifiers, modifiers, modal particles, showing changes in number, type, form, etc. To a large extent, these final auxiliary particles have become suffixes (for example, the plural indicator of animate nouns myn, as in the word

tongzhimyn “comrades’). Modal particles can express a question, emotion, shade in expression.

There is no inflection of names in Chinese. The plural suffix for names denoting persons, myнъ, is used only when the plurality is not clear from the context. Only the verb has somewhat developed inflection, but even here there is no tense or person, but there are forms of aspect and modality. The syntax is structured according to the subject-predicate-object pattern. The definition precedes the defined. Prepositional constructions and postpositions have been preserved from the ancient Chinese language. Thus, in modern language there is a very characteristic construction, which in literal translation reads:

or I take a pencil and write’ (in a literary translation, it’s better to write with a pencil’).

The Tibeto-Burman languages ​​have a different syntax from other languages ​​of the Sino-Tibetan family, where there is a rigid subject-object-predicate pattern.

Only in cases where there is a subject indicator and an object indicator, as for example in the Naxi language, the order of their relative positions can be changed.

Usually the definition precedes the defined (in Tibetan it can also come after the defined). Additions are introduced by postpositions. The verb has tense, participial and participial forms. It is interesting to note that all these features are also present in the Altai family, the probable zone of formation of which is geographically adjacent to the zone of formation of the Tibeto-Burman languages ​​- for the former it is mainly the Altai-Sayan Plateau and the steppes of Mongolia, for the latter - the provinces of the PRC - Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai. It is possible that the Altaic languages ​​influenced the westward-spreading branches of the Sino-Tibetan languages, the initial center of which most likely was the Great Chinese Plain and the Loess Plateau to the west of it.

In a number of respects, the languages ​​of the Tibeto-Burman branch appear to be more archaic than other Sino-Tibetan languages. So, for example, in them, especially in Jiazhong and a number of dialects of Tibetan, traces of former polysyllabicity, clusters of consonants in initials and finals, a smaller number of tones and a smaller proportion of their meaningful role are preserved; in some languages ​​- Tibetan and Jingpo - classifiers are rarely used. In a number of languages ​​of the Izu group, on the contrary, they are close to merging with the numeral. The position of classifiers in the syntactic structure also differs from that accepted in the Chinese language. Instead of the Chinese scheme of numeral (or demonstrative pronoun)-classifier-noun, the construction noun-numeral-classifier is used in the Tibeto-Burman languages.

Many Tibeto-Burman languages ​​are characterized by the presence of suffixes.

The Tibeto-Burman branch of languages ​​within East Asia falls into three groups: Tibetan, Izu and Jingpo. 2

In the Tibetan group one can distinguish the languages ​​Tibetan, Jiazhong, Qiang, Xifan, Dulong, well; however, the last two languages ​​occupy a special position, and they can be divided into a separate subgroup, calling it the eastern, and the remaining Tibetan languages ​​- the western subgroup. The languages ​​of the eastern subgroup are close to another group of the Tibeto-Burman branch, namely the Itzu group, which includes the Itzu, Lisu, Nasi, Lahu, Hani, Achan, and Bai languages. The Jingpo language alone forms a special group, which, however, sometimes gets closer and even merges with Burmese, and on the other hand, was influenced by the languages ​​of the Itzu group.

Many of the listed languages ​​fall into dialects, sometimes very numerous and so very different from one another that the scale of these differences is close to the differences between individual languages. This especially applies to the Tibetan, Izu, Hani, and Jingpo languages.

The Zhuang Tung languages ​​constitute the third branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, which in Western European linguistics is usually called Thai. It is divided into three groups - Zhuang-Tai, Dong Shui and Li group. The first includes the Zhuang languages, which are extremely close to it, especially to its northern dialects, the Bui language and the Tai language. The Dong Shui language includes the Dong, Mulao, Maonan, and Shui languages. The Li language with its dialects is the only representative of the third group. It should be noted that, with the exception of the peculiar Li language, dialect differences in the languages ​​of the Zhuang Tung branch are not very great and, as a rule, mutual understanding is possible even between speakers of different languages ​​within the same group.

Usually, speakers of neighboring dialects and languages ​​understand each other better. There is a greater difference between the languages ​​of peoples separated by large distances. The nature of the relationship between the Zhuang-Tung languages ​​apparently makes it possible to talk about their origin from a single language.

In modern Chinese linguistics, * this branch has been given the name Zhuang Tung branch, after the names of the most important languages ​​included here, widespread in China. The vocabulary of the Thai, or Zhuang Tung, languages ​​is partially similar to Chinese. This especially applies to numerals, which are generally similar in Chinese, Tibeto-Burman, and Zhuang Tung languages. The sentence is constructed according to the “subject-predicate-object” scheme. The method of definition is sharply different from that adopted in the Tibeto-Burmese and Chinese languages, namely, the definition always follows the defined. So, in the Bui language, a young man’ sounds r’i sa: i literally a young man’; “old man’-r” and 1ai literally old man’. Classifier words are close to becoming prefix articles and are included in the dictionary form of nouns. In the same language buoys tu - animal classifier; tu- ma horse', tu- pa "fish'; zwak - bird classifier: zwak- la: in "sparrow', zwak- kau miau “horned owl.” In numeral constructions, the “noun-numeral-classifier” scheme is common, but with demonstrative pronouns and the numeral “one” the “noun-classifier-pronoun” construction is used.

The fourth branch - the Miao-Yao languages ​​differ in their vocabulary from both the Chinese language and the Zhuang-Tung languages ​​more than these branches of languages ​​differ from each other, although there are undoubtedly some common features between the vocabulary of the Miao-Yao and Chinese languages or Zhuang Tung. However, in the field of grammar, the Miao-Yao languages ​​occupy rather an intermediate position between the Chinese and Zhuangdong languages. There are several tones in the Miao-Yao languages ​​- from five to eight. The structure of the phrase “subject-predicate-object” coincides with the Zhuang Tung model. As for the relative position of the definition and the defined, the most common scheme is “defined-definition”. So, in the Miao language “short clothes” sounds like<аэ1е "одежда короткая’. Однако некоторые наиболее употребительные прилагательные ставятся перед определяемым словом, например, mien d^ u ^big gate’, uh sa “good song”, as well as pronominal definitions, which brings the Miao-Yao syntax closer to Chinese.

Nouns in dictionary form usually appear together with their classifiers, although in a phrase the latter may be omitted; So in the Miao-Yao language the classifier of kinship terms is a: a-ra ‘father’,<a- mi mother’, a-r’eu grandfather’.

The composition of numerals in the Miao-Yao languages ​​is very different from the Chinese, Zhuang Tung and Tibeto-Burman set of numerals, but the developed system of counting words brings them closer to Chinese. As for the demonstrative-pronominal construction, the order “classifier-noun-pronoun” is adopted in the Miao language, and “pronoun-classifier-noun” in the Yao language.

In the Miao-Yao branch, one can distinguish the Miao group (the Miao language with its dialects)^ the Yao group (Yao and She languages); The Gelao language, which stands somewhat apart, can be classified into the third group. The dialects of the Yao and especially Miao languages ​​are so different from each other that mutual understanding between speakers of different dialects is often impossible.

It seems that these dialects go back to tribal languages ​​and are now only in the process of consolidation into national languages. At the same time, individual groups calling themselves Miao, for example on the island. Hainan speak dialects very close to Yao, and even a number of distinctly Miao dialects, such as Mabu Miao, have some Yao-like features. It can be assumed that the differentiation of the Miao-Yao dialects into two groups can be approximately dated to the turn of our era.

However, it is hardly possible to talk about a single proto-language of Miao-Yao. Rather, there was a single area of ​​existence of dialects that were in a state of primitive linguistic continuity. Perhaps some ancient stage of it is recorded in Chinese sources as San-Miao. One must think that the Gelao language emerged from it earlier than others. At the same time, one should remember about the possibility of the presence in the San-Miao of the ancestors of the Zhuangtung peoples, later called Yue (Lo-Yue, Nan-Yue, etc.). It is natural to assume that the languages ​​of the ancient Miao and Yue strongly influenced each other, which was manifested in the specific, somewhat intermediate character of the Gelao and Li languages.

While the closeness of Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages ​​was generally not seriously disputed, the classification of the Thai (Zhuang Tung) languages ​​and the Miao-Yao languages ​​was controversial. Thus, in Benedict's work, the Thai languages ​​are separated from the Sino-Tibetan family and are considered as belonging to one large community along with the Malayo-Polynesian languages. A relic of their common proto-language was the Kadai group constructed by Benedict, which included the Li language and the Gelao language, which, indeed, of all the Miao-Yao languages, is closest to the Zhuangdong languages.

Davis's work, which greatly influenced the views of European linguists on this issue, included the Miao-Yao languages ​​in the Mon-Khmer family of languages. There are other points of view, but in general the battle of opinions was conducted mainly on the issue of the relationship of the Zhuang-Tung and Miao-Yao languages ​​with the Sino-Tibetan languages, as well as with the Mon-Khmer and Malay-Polynesian languages. Indeed, in the syntax of the Zhuang-Tung and partly Miao-Yao languages, and in their vocabulary, one can notice shifts towards convergence with the languages ​​of the Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian families, which are the closest neighbors.

The Vietnamese language is not considered separately here, since it is spoken mainly outside the study area and is spoken by only a small number of Vietnamese living in the border areas of China. However, the formation of the Vietnamese language is obviously closely connected, just like the formation of the Zhuang-tung languages, with the Luo-Yue dialects that existed in Southern China, in Guangxi and adjacent areas. The vocabulary fund brings the Vietnamese language closer to the Mon-Khmer family, but its structural characteristics make it equally similar to most languages ​​of the Sino-Tibetan family.

Sino-Tibetan (aka Sino-Tibetan) family ranks second in the world in terms of the number of speakers after Indo-European. About 300 Sino-Tibetan languages ​​are spoken in East and South Asia. The total number of speakers is estimated at 1.3 billion people, incl. in Chinese - 1.1 billion.
Sino-Tibetan languages ​​are divided into Chinese branch, consisting of Chinese and Dungan languages, and Tibeto-Burman branch(all other languages).
The Chinese language is actually a group of dialects that have diverged so much that if not for the presence in China of a supra-dialectal written norm and a unified statehood, they should be considered independent languages. Dungan, widespread in addition to the PRC in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, is the only Chinese “dialect” for which the status of a separate language is recognized.
Along with these 2 branches, an independent Karen group is distinguished within the family.
Lolo-Burmese group– the most studied in the Tibeto-Burman branch, for which there are reconstructions of the proto-language (J. Matisoff). The languages ​​of this group are spoken mainly in Myanmar and southern China, with several languages ​​also in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. In addition to Burmese, the Lolo-Burmese group includes relatively large languages: Hani in the Chinese province of Yunnan and neighboring countries (the number of “official nationalities” is 1.3 million people; the number of speakers of Hani proper is smaller); the Akha language, closely related to the previous one (400,000 people in the same area); The languages ​​Lahu (which has two very different dialects: the “Black Lahu” dialect – 600,000 speakers, and the “Yellow Lahu” – 15,000 speakers) and Lisu (the number of which is estimated at 700,000) are widespread at the junction of China, Myanmar and Thailand.
Bodo-Garo group includes about a dozen languages ​​spoken in eastern India and Bangladesh, in particular the Bodo languages ​​proper (1 million speakers) and Garo (700,000). For Bodo-Garo there is a reconstruction of the phonetics of the parent language, published in 1959 by R. Burling.
Cookie-chin group(about 40 languages), mainly in India and Burma, which includes the languages ​​Meithei, or Manipuri (serves as a lingua franca and is spoken by 1.3 million people in almost all states in eastern India), Lushi (at least half a million people in eastern India and partly in Myanmar) and Rong, or Lepcha (70,000, mainly in India and Bhutan; sometimes classified as a separate group).
The languages ​​of the Naga peoples living in northeast India (the states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, the union territory of Arunachal Pradesh) and in neighboring regions of Myanmar are genetically distributed between these 2 groups. The southern Nagas (about 15 tribes, each with their own language: the largest are Angami, Lhota (aka Lotha), Sema, Rengma) speak languages ​​close to Kuki-Chin, and about the same number of tribes in the north of this area speak the so-called . cognac languages ​​(the largest are AO and cognac proper, each with about 100,000 speakers). Kuki-Chin languages ​​merge with Southern Naga languages ​​in Naga-Kuki group, and the Bodo-Garo languages ​​with the Konyak languages ​​are in cognac-bodo-garo group. The latter is sometimes combined with Kachin group, which includes one Kachin language, also known as Jingpo (700,000 speakers in Myanmar and China), in the Baric subbranch.
The most controversial are the existing classifications of the languages ​​of the northwestern part of the Tibeto-Burman area - Tibeto-Himalayan, widespread in northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and China (in Tibet). Sometimes they are combined under the name Bodic (Bodic - from the self-name of Tibet). Stands out here Tibetan a group that includes about 30 languages, incl. Tibetan itself with a number of closely related languages ​​(according to other interpretations - dialects), the speakers of which are officially included in the “Tibetan nationality”; Amdo (800,000 people in the autonomous regions of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan; the language is sometimes considered an archaic Tibetan dialect); the Sherpa language, well known for extralinguistic reasons (40,000 people); Ladakhi language (100,000 people in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir), etc. This group, naturally, includes the classical Tibetan language.
Also highlighted gurung group(in Nepal), which includes the fairly large languages ​​Gurung (2 very different dialects, 200,000 people) and Tamang (4 very different dialects, 1 million people: Tamang is spoken by the Gurkhas, famous for their service in the British army); some "Himalayan" groups with a fairly large number of languages ​​included in them, among which the most significant is Newari (800,000 people in Nepal); as well as a number of smaller groups.
In addition to the listed living languages, the Tangut language, which was part of the Tibeto-Burman branch, is well known, and was the official language of the Xi Xia state (X-XIII centuries), destroyed by the Mongol conquerors. The language was reconstructed as a result of deciphering the monuments discovered by the expedition of P.K. Kozlov in the dead city of Khara-Khoto in 1908–09. In texts of the 6th–12th centuries. the now dead Pyu language survives in Myanmar.
The Sino-Tibetan family included the Thai and Miao-Yao languages ​​for quite a long time. The question of whether the Bai language, or Minjia, in the Chinese province of Yunnan belongs to this family remains controversial (0.9 million speakers out of 1.6 million ethnic Bai; Chinese borrowings in the Bai vocabulary reach up to 70%).
Chinese is actually a standard syllabary isolating language. A syllable in languages ​​of this type is the basic phonetic unit, the structure of which is subject to strict laws: at the beginning of the syllable there is a noisy consonant, then a sonant, intermediate and main vowels and a final consonant, with all elements except the main consonant being optional. The number of possible final consonants is less than the number of initial ones, and in a number of languages ​​only open syllables are generally allowed. Many languages ​​have several different tones.
Whether all Sino-Tibetan languages ​​have always been structured this way is unclear. Data from the Tibetan language, for which from the 7th century. There is a syllabary writing system, in principle capable of accurately conveying the sound composition of a word, which leads one to suspect that, at least in this language, at the time of the creation of writing, the structure of the syllable was significantly more complex. If we assume that all signs of the Tibetan script were used to denote sounds (there are arguments in favor of this point of view, in particular data from the Amdo language), then we have to assume that Tibetan had numerous structures such as brgyad "nine" or bslabs "he studied science" . Subsequently, the initial and final combinations of consonants were greatly simplified, and the repertoire of vowels expanded and tones appeared. Typologically, this is similar to what happened in the history of English or French, where the distance between spelling and pronunciation is also great, and there are much more vowel phonemes than the special letters denoting them. In some respects (the specific way the smooth r and l influence the preceding vowel) in Tibetan there is even a material similarity with the processes that took place in the history of the English language.
The morpheme, and often the word, in the “ideal” Sino-Tibetan language is usually equal to the syllable. There is no inflection (declension, conjugation), and to express syntactic relationships, function words and the order of words within phrases and sentences are used. Classes of words (parts of speech) are distinguished solely on syntactic grounds. At the same time, conversion is widespread. Service morphemes are often postpositive and can form not only words, but also phrases.
In reality, many Sino-Tibetan languages ​​differ from this standard to one degree or another - they exhibit elements of inflection (in classical Tibetan, for example, several stems were distinguished in the verb, for the formation of which non-syllabic prefixes and therefore obviously included in the stem syllable were used and suffixes).
Syntax of Sino-Tibetan languages quite varied. Many of them are characterized by the construction of sentences not in accordance with the “subject-predicate” structure, but in accordance with the “topic-commentary” structure (“topic-rheme”): a word that occupies a syntactically highlighted first position in a sentence can be found in completely different semantic (so-called role: action producer, addressee, sufferer, etc.) relationships to the predicate verb; It is important that this word names the subject of speech and thereby limits the scope of applicability of what will be said next.

Sino-Tibetan languages ​​(Sino-Tibetan languages) are one of the largest language families in the world. Includes over 100, according to other sources, several hundred languages, from tribal to national. The total number of speakers is over 1100 million people.

In modern linguistics, the Sino-Tibetan languages ​​are usually divided into 2 branches, different in the degree of their internal division and in their place on the linguistic map of the world - Chinese and Tibeto-Burman. The first is formed by the Chinese language with its numerous dialects and groups of dialects. It is spoken by over 1050 million people, including about 700 million in the dialects of the northern group. The main area of ​​its distribution is the PRC south of the Gobi and east of Tibet.

The remaining Sino-Tibetan languages, numbering about 60 million speakers, are included in the Tibeto-Burman branch. Peoples speaking these languages ​​inhabit most of Myanmar (formerly Burma), Nepal, Bhutan, large areas of southwestern China and northeastern India. The most important Tibeto-Burman languages ​​or groups of closely related languages: Burmese (up to 30 million speakers) in Myanmar and (over 5.5 million) in Sichuan and Yunnan (PRC); Tibetan (over 5 million) in Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan (PRC), Kashmir (northern India), Nepal, Bhutan; Karen languages ​​(over 3 million) in Myanmar near the border with Thailand: Hani (1.25 million) in Yunnan; Manipuri, or Meithei (over 1 million); Bodo, or Kachari (750 thousand), and Garo (up to 700 thousand) in India; Jingpo, or Kachin (about 600 thousand), in Myanmar and Yunnan; fox (up to 600 thousand) in Yunnan; Tamang (about 550 thousand), Newar (over 450 thousand) and Gurung (about 450 thousand) in Nepal. The Tibeto-Burman branch includes the endangered language of the Tujia people (up to 3 million people) in Hunan (PRC), but by now most of the Tujia have switched to Chinese.

Sino-Tibetan languages ​​are syllabic, isolating languages ​​with a greater or lesser tendency to agglutination. The basic phonetic unit is the syllable, and the boundaries of syllables, as a rule, are also the boundaries of morphemes or words. The sounds within a syllable are arranged in a strictly defined order (usually a noisy consonant, sonant, intermediate vowel, main vowel, consonant; all elements except the main vowel may be absent). Combinations of consonants are not found in all languages ​​and are possible only at the beginning of a syllable. The number of consonants occurring at the end of a syllable is significantly less than the number of possible initial consonants (usually no more than 6-8); some languages ​​only allow open syllables or have only one final nasal consonant. Many languages ​​have tone. In languages ​​whose history is well known, one can observe a gradual simplification of consonantism and a complication of the system of vowels and tones.

A morpheme usually corresponds to a syllable; the root is usually immutable. However, many languages ​​violate these principles. Thus, in the Burmese language it is possible to alternate consonants in the root; in classical Tibetan there were non-syllabic prefixes and suffixes that expressed, in particular, the grammatical categories of the verb. The predominant method of word formation is the addition of roots. Isolating a word often presents a difficult problem: it is difficult to distinguish a compound word from a phrase, an affix from a function word. Adjectives in Sino-Tibetan languages ​​are grammatically closer to verbs than to names; sometimes they are included as part of the verb category as "verbs of quality". Conversion is widespread.

Actually Chinese (Han). China is a vast historical and ethnographic region. The peoples whose languages ​​belong to the Sino-Tibetan family live in one state - the People's Republic of China. China is a multinational country. Scientists identify 56 peoples here. Actually, the Chinese are their self-name han- make up 93.5% of the total population. This is the most numerous people not only in China, but throughout the world. There is not a single province or autonomous region in China where Han Chinese do not form a majority. In terms of culture, the Han people are very close to the Dungans, who are distinguished by their religious affiliation: they profess Islam. Ethnologists highlight

several large historical and cultural (or ethnographic) regions, the population of which has its own regional linguistic and cultural characteristics. These features are determined by the history of the settlement of various territories of the People's Republic of China by the Han people.

For two thousand years, China has been and remains the most populated country on the globe. Experts believe that by the beginning of our era, the population of China was approaching 90 million people. Nowadays, the number of Han Chinese in the PRC, not counting the Chinese living in other countries, is more than 1 billion people. The rapid growth of the PRC population creates many difficulties for the government and residents of the country. The population is distributed very unevenly throughout China. 80% of its inhabitants are concentrated on 1/10 of the state’s territory. In some places, for example, on the Great Chinese Plain and in the southeast of the country, the population density reaches 700 people per 1 sq. km. It must be remembered that China is a “rural” country: the urban population does not exceed a fifth of the total number of its inhabitants. In general, the distribution of land used in China is quite remarkable. Arable land occupies 1/10, forest – 1/8 and pastures – 1/3 of the country’s territory. The most “plowed” part of the PRC is the Great Plain. In total, 9/10 of arable land is concentrated in eastern China.

The main distinctive feature of Chinese agriculture is careful cultivation of the soil and selection

tional work on breeding the most productive plant varieties. The Chinese peasant receives the maximum possible harvest from his plot of land.

In Chinese agriculture, from time immemorial, a very large share was made up of purely manual labor - cultivating the land with a hoe or other hand tools. The main occupation of the Chinese population has always been plow farming. It was either rainfed (non-irrigated) or irrigated. Irrigated agriculture required a lot of labor. It was necessary to supply water to the fields using canals of various sizes. The largest canal in China is called the Grand Canal. It was built in the eastern part of the country and stretches for 1700 km. It took almost 600 years to build it. Canals are used not only for irrigating fields, but also for transporting goods on various ships.

The most common agricultural crop in China is rice. Chinese peasants developed many varieties of this cereal. He gives two

The second most important cereal is winter wheat. It also makes up a significant share of the food supply. Vegetable growing and horticulture occupy a large place in Chinese agriculture.