A Study Of Case In Tungus Dialect Of Evenki Language

Evenki belongs to the Tungus branch of the Manchu Tungusic language group of the Altaic language family,and has three dialects:Solon,Tungusic and Aoluguya.Tungus Evenki dialect,also known as Hamnikhan Evenki,has two local dialects,namely Boorji and Namaida.Its speakers are mainly spread across Evenki Sumu of Old Barag Banner and Xinhen East Sumu of Evenki Banner in Hulunbuir,with a population of about 2000.Based on the theoretical framework of reference grammar,combined with previous research and the first-hand corpus obtained from our fieldwork,the thesis classifies the cases in Tungus Evenki dialect,and describes its phonetic form,grammatical meaning and features.In addition,it divides the pronoun categories of Tungus Evenki dialect,and describes its declension features in detail.Furthermore,the cases in Tungus Evenki dialect are compared with those of Solon dialect and Aoluguya dialect,in order to summarize the similarities and differences of the cases among three dialects of Evenki,with an aim to present accurate linguistic facts as well as a complete case system.The thesis consists of five parts.Firstly,the introduction presents an overview of the Evenki ethnic group,including the basic information of Evenki people and social history of the Tungus Evenki people.The first part that introduces basic information of Evenki people involves the dialect division and geographical distribution of the dialects,population,production and lifestyle,and language use,etc.The second part that introduces social history of Tungus Evenki people gives a detailed summary of the migration history,administrative divisions,social economy and cultural customs of the Tungus Evenki people.Secondly,it summarizes the previous research on the Tungus Evenki dialect and the cases in Evenki language.Finally,it elaborates the rationale for the study,the theoretical framework,methodology and the source of the corpus.The chapter one "Cases in Tungus Evenki Dialect" systematically describes the nominative case,genitive case,accusative case,instrumental case,dative case,allative case,ablative case and sociative case of Tungus Evenki dialect based on the corpus analysis.The cases in Boorji and Namaida of Tungus dialect are not discussed separately due to the fact that they are basically identical.Only several slight differences are compared and analyzed.The chapter two "Declension Features of Personal Pronouns in Tungus Evenki Dialect" classifies and describes the pronouns in Tungus Evenki dialect.Case markers are added to the root of personal pronouns in order to reflect the declension features.The chapter three "A Comparison of the Cases in the Three Dialects of Evenki Language" discusses the similarities and differences of the grammatical properties between Tungus dialect,Solon and Aoluguya.The last chapter,the conclusion,summarizes the phonetic and semantic properties of the cases in Tungus Evenki dialect based on a detailed description and analysis as well as a horizontal comparison of the cases in three Evenki dialects.In addition,it also illustrates the state of language environment and preservation of Tungus Evenki dialect,presenting the value of this study in the protection of endangered languages.