The Mechanisms Of Mother Tongue Interference In Chinese-Uygur Contact

Mother tongue interference is a general phenomenon in language learning or contact. This problem is obvious in contact between languages with great typological difference in their phonologies. Chinese is a Sino-Tibetan language which is mono-syllabic and tonal, while Uygur is a Altaic language which is multi-syllabic and atonal. The typological differences between languages in contact will affect the process and the result of mother tongue interference. The contact between Chinese and Uygur must have unique characteristics compared with contacts between languages with slighter differences in typology.Mother tongue interference includes matching, approaching (target language), and merging. In this research matching refers to that Uygur people produce Chinese sounds with Uygur sound quality, substituting all Chinese sounds with similar sounds in Uygur. The base of matching is the phonologies of Chinese and Uygur and their cross-linguistic identification. The result of matching is Uygur Chinese sounds (a variety of Chinese spoken by Uygur people). Approaching (target language) refers to that Uyur Chinese sounds approach the sound of Chinese until they are the same. Merging refers to that Chinese spoken by Chinese people is affected by Uygur and becomes similar to Uygur.Markedness and similarity are two parametres evaluating the typological differences between lanagueges in contact, serving as windows for observing the rules and characteristics of mother tongue interference in Chinese-Uygur contact. Markedness can be classified as two categories:(1) typological markedness which is decided by the universality of a linguistic element among world’s languages;(2) individual markedness which is evaluated by the frequency of appearrence of a linguistic element in a specific language.This research, based on materials of Chinese-Uygur contact collected from fieldwork, deals with rules and characteristics of contact between languages with great typological differences using phonetic experiments, statistical methods, and mathematical analysis, with an aim of discovering the mechanisms and characteristics of mother tongue interference. In Chinese-Uygur contact there are few examples of merging while that of matching and approaching (target language) are very common. In this research the mechanisms of mother tongue interference refer mainly to matching and approaching (target language).This research reveals that the typological differences between Chinese and Uygur phonology may affect the process of mother tongue interference, presenting constraints from markedness of phonological elements and similarity on the process and results of matching and approaching (target language).(1) The matching and approaching of Chinese-Uygur initials are subject to the similarity of phonological elements between the languages in contact.This research proposes a formula to evaluate similarity of initial pairs between Chinese and Uygur, and generalizes the Principle of Similarity in matching of Chinese-Uygur initials. Similarity is the quantitative reflect of matching in languages contact.The matching of finals in language contact is restricted by the acoustic spatial distances among related vowels, that is, the final pairs, which have the shortest spatial distances among Chinese and Uygur vowels, are matched primarily. The spatial distance between vowels to some extent reflects similarity between vowels. Generally, the shorter the distance between two vowels, the higher similarity they have. The matching of finals between Chinese and Uygur is also constrained by similarity.The matching of tones between Chinese and Uygur is constrained by the similarity of tone values. Uygur people choose their own word tone which is the most similar to corresponding Chinese syllable tone in matching.(2) The process of matching is also conditioned by markedness of phonological elementsThe matching of initials is subject to the individual markedness of initials. Typological markedness has no obvious effect on the matching of initials.In the matching of finals, Uygur people restructures Chinese syllables according to their own syllable structure. This is the result of typological difference between Chinese and Uygur syllables. This research proposes Type-adjustment Principle in language contact, which shows the constraint from typological markedness on matching of finals. Usually, Uygur people take much more time to master Chinese tones than initials or finals. The progress from disordered matching to ordered matching is rather slow, going through stages of "tone consciousness absence"→"tone consciousness presence"→"ordering of tonal match"→"ordered match completion." Each stage takes a long time because of the difference of individual markedness and typological markedness between Chinese and Uygur.(3) Approaching (target language) is mainly constrained by the markedness of phonological elements.Markedness of phonological elements is an important reason for the stages in approaching period of language contact. Different stages in approaching of Chinese-Uygur initials, finals, and tones are resulted from the typological markedness and the individual markedness of phonological elements. Phonological elements with low markedness have a high degree of approaching while that with high markedness have a low degree of approaching.Typological markedness or individual markedness alone, or they together constraint the stages in approaching. The initial p finishes approaching before (?) mainly because they have difference in typological markedness; the final ei finishes approaching before (?)u mainly because they have difference in individual markedness; the monophthong final γ finishes approaching before the diphthong final ai because the former has both lower typological markedness and individual markedness, reflecting the conspiracy of both types of markedness.The markedness of phonological elements provides us a new perspective to study the stages in approaching period of language contact.(4) The markedness of phonological elements and the progress of contact are negatively correlated:phonological elements with low markedness change fast in contact; phonological elements with high markedness may delay the process of contact. The negative correlation between markedness of phonological elements and the speed of matching or approaching also reflects the constraint of phonological elements with high markedness on matching and approaching in mother tongue interference.