I am writing a thesis on Kunminghua and something just struck me today when I was studying Yunnans history. Muslims have had a big impact on Yunnan in ancient times and I am wondering, correct me if I'm wrong, if arabic has had an impact on the Yunnanese as a whole? Since I studied some arabic before, there are some similarities between the pronounciation in arabic and kunminghua which could explain the strange sounds in Kunminghua if compared with putonghua.

What do you guys think?

Interesting theory, do you have any examples?

I'm somewhat skeptical, but I've heard people theorize that the 'ga' used at the end of statements is related to the polite particles 'krap' and 'khaa' in Thai... have you found anything to corroborate this?

hi swedish guy,
interesting,
but there are almost always some similarities in the sound systems of two languages, even if they descend from completely different language families.
was there ever an extended period of time when Arabic-speaking Muslims and Manadrin(language family)-speaking Yunnanese were in close contact?
or is your theory that the influence was less direct?

i'm very interested in linguistic issues and preparing to do a PhD in linguistic anthropology. i would be very interested to meet with you sometime.
adam.

adam_ology@hotmail.com

Interesting thread.

The earliest Muslim residents (as opposed to earlier Muslim traders) arrived in Yunnan during the Yuan dynasty and were largely from Central Asia. A prime example of this, is Sayyid'Ajall Shams Al-Din (Ch: Sai Dianchi) who served as governor (his descendants continued to serve in the province for several generations -- and many Muslims today trace their lineage back to him).

As far as Arabic influencing Kunminghua I'd have to also be skeptical primarily because 1) the Muslim soldiers that arrived during the Yuan spoke Central Asian languages 2) the Muslim concentrations were primarily outside of Kunming.

Kunming hua seems to have a influence from many different dialect areas, I found after living in Kunming that Sichuan Hua and the language they speak in Xian was almost 100% understandable. There are also Cantonese sounds in Kunming dialect, for example the Gai for street is the same, but interestingly they still use the Ji sound for chicken,,unlike Cantonese. Yunnan is one of the only areas in China that has a long history of migration from other parts of China and I guess their home dialects were integrated into Yunnan dialect.

For a really strange sounding Chinese travel to the border with Burma,,,

www.hongtatimes.com.cn/[...]

There is a kunminghua dictionary available from one of the book shops near Shi Da. Find a copy and I would have thought you could get some info from the preface/introduction section. You might even be able to find the editor and pick his brains if you're very keen.

Eh...I really want to say that Kunming hua is derived from Noth China dialect,it's a branch of this kind of dialect,actually the aboriginals in Yunnan is not much,lot of people live in Kunming now are come from Noth China,so when we talk about Kunming hua it means we are talking about Yunnan's history