Turkic Words in Dongxiang and the Chinese Variety Spoken in Tangwang

Abstract This paper aims at identifying the Turkic words in Dongxiang and the Chinese variety of Tangwang, two languages spoken in Southern Gansu in China and that form parts of the Amdo Sprachbund . Through a comparative approach with other Mongolic languages, Turkic languages spoken in China, and Middle Turkic, it aims at identifying any words that might have been borrowed from Turkic and through Turkic, no matter what the word origin initially was. From a broader perspective, it aims at understanding to what extent Turkic vocabulary has spread in the different languages of the area and can further confirm the areal diffusion of this vocabulary within the Sprachbund . I will try to classify those words in order to determine their origin and the language contact mechanism that was involved in their transfer to Dongxiang and Tangwang Chinese, that is to say to distinguish what belongs to inheritance and what belongs to borrowing.