On Sino-Turkic verbal functional expressions

Abstract

AbstractTurkic conquest and rule of China since 386 CE for nearly two hundred years had exerted its profound and long-lasting influence on many levels of Chinese society. Turkic sinification policy had induced the Xianbei National Language (XNL), which was Turkic language with selected set of Chinese characters for phonetic spelling. XNL, being spelt in Chinese characters, managed to function in Turkic-Chinese code-mixing in the bilingual communities as evidenced in bianwen變文. Because of the Turkic politico-socio-economical dominance, some the Turkic elements in the code-mixing eventually gained prominance and have become permanent part of the northern vernacular, predecessor of modern Mandarin. This paper discusses twelve such Turkic-rooted verbal functional expressions: (1). The causative-passivequ取; (2). Transitive passivesha殺,sha煞,si死; (3). Causativedou鬥,dou逗; (4). Continuativehai還,que卻; (5). Resultativeque卻; (6). Reflexivenə呢(7). Positive indirectivemo shi莫是; (8). Negative indirectivebu dao不道; (9). Future participlecai才,cai纔; (10). Conditionalyao shi要是,yao要,yao bu shi要不是; (11). INDUCE-basenong弄; (12). The speech quote verbdao道.