Songlin () is a divergent, unclassified Sino-Tibetan or isolate language spoken in Zayu County, Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet. A linguistic description of Songlin has been published in a monograph by Song (2019).

Names Songlin speakers refer to their language as , and to Songlin village as (Song 2019:6).

History of documentation Jiang Huo (江获) first learned about the existence of Songlin while doing research on Idu during the 2000s, when local Idu people in the Upper Chayu Town area reported that the "Songleng Tuyu" 松冷土语 was spoken nearby. After preliminary data was collected in 2014, intensive field work was conducted during the summers of 2015–2017 by a Chinese research team led by Li Daqin (李大勤) (Song 2019:13). A monograph documenting the Songlin language, Xizang Chayu Songlin yu (西藏察隅松林语), was written by Song Cheng (宋成) and submitted for publication in 2018. The book was released in 2019.

Demographics The language is spoken in Songlin Village 松林村, Upper Chayu Town 上察隅镇 by approximately 1,000 people. The local lingua franca of the area is the Zayu dialect of Khams Tibetan. Some Songlin speakers can speak Idu and gSerkhu, both of which are also spoken in Upper Chayu Town 上察隅镇.

Songlin village is located on the western banks of the Kangrigarbo Qu (贡日嘎布曲) river, several kilometers to the northwest of the Upper Chayu/Shangchayu Town (ʐoŋ˧˩ȶø˥ in Songlin; located further downstream on the same river). Some nearby villages include Gonggu 巩固, Xiba 西巴 (ɕi˥tɑ˥ in Songlin), and Rongyu 荣玉 to the north, and Zongba 宗巴 and Migu 米古 to the south (Song 2019:6).

Classification Song & Lin (2020) shows that Songlin is not closely related to any of the surrounding Tibeto-Burman languages and cannot be classified as a Tibetic language. A computational phylogenetic study by Jiang (2023) also demonstrates the divergent position of Songlin. Songlin and the Mishmi languages all are spoken in Zayu County, but Songlin is not closely related to any of them.

Roger Blench (2023) considers Songlin to be a language isolate, as with the other Arunachal languages.

Engels and Bodt (2025) classify Songlin as one of the Chamdo languages, which in turn they classify as West Gyalrongic, making Songlin a close relative to Tangut. They also posit prehistoric contact between Songlin and the Hmong–Mien languages.

Phonology Consonants The consonant inventory of Songlin is as follows (Song 2019:18–19).

LabialAlveolarRetroflexAlveolo-palatalPalatalVelarGlottalPlosivevoiceless p t ȶ c k aspirated pʰ tʰ ȶʰ cʰ kʰ voiced b d ȡ ɟ g Nasalvoiceless m̥ n̥ ȵ̥ ŋ̊ voiced m n ȵ ŋ Fricativevoiceless s ʂ ɕ hvoiced z ʐ ʑ Affricatevoiceless ts tʂ tɕ aspirated tsʰ tʂʰ tɕʰ voiced dz dʐ dʑ Approximant w j Lateralvoiceless ɬ voiced l

Consonant clusters include: nb, nd, nȡ, nɟ, ng, ndz, ndʑ, ndʐ, pʐ, pʰʐ, bʐ, nbʐ, kʐ, kʰʐ, gʐ, nbʐ, ngʐ. /n/- is treated as part of consonant clusters, rather than as part of prenasalized initial consonants.

Note: In Sinology, ȵ is roughly equivalent to [ɲ] or [nʲ], while ȶ and ȡ can typically be transcribed as [tʲ] and [dʲ], respectively, although in practice they can actually be equivalent to [tʃ] or [dʒ] instead, or other similar affricates. Also, ɕ and ʑ often, but not always, correspond to [ʃ] and [ʒ] in IPA transcriptions used by non-Sinologists. For further information, see obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Vowels There are 12 vowels: i, y, ɯ, u, e, ø, o, ə, ɛ, ɑ, ɿ, ʮ (Song 2019:21–22).

Songlin has 5 diphthongs: ui, ɯi, ou, ie, iɛ.

Note that ɿ [ɨ] is used by Sinologists, as well as ʮ ([ʉ], [ɹ̩ʷ] or [z̩ʷ]), which is a labialized syllabic denti-alveolar approximant used by Sinologists.

Tones There are three tones in Songlin.

Tone number Pitch value Chao tones Description 1 /˥/ /55/ high level (高平) 2 /˨˦/ /24/ mid rising (中升) 3 /˧˩/ /31/ low falling (低降)

About 50% of all words in Songlin have the high level tone /˥/ (/55/), while the mid rising /˨˦/ (/24) and low falling /˧˩/ (/31/) tones are each found in approximately 25% of all Songlin words (Song 2019:24).

Script Song (2019:30–32) proposes a pinyin-based script for Songlin.

+Consonants Songlin script IPA a ɑ b p c tsʰ d t e ə f f g k h h i i j tɕ k kʰ l l m m n n o o p pʰ q tɕʰ r ʐ s s t tʰ u u v y w w x ɕ y j z ts

+Consonant clusters Songlin script IPA nbb nb ndd nd nddy nȡ nggy nɟ ngg ng nz ndz nj ndʑ nzh ndʐ br pʐ pr pʰʐ bbr bʐ gr kʐ kr kʰʐ ggr gʐ nbbr nbʐ nggr ngʐ

+Vowels Songlin script IPA a ɑ e ə ee e eee ɛ i i ii ɿ iii ʮ o o oo ø u u uu ɯ v y

+Rimes Songlin script IPA in in ing iŋ eng əŋ eeen ɛn an ɑn ang ɑŋ uun ɯn uung ɯŋ ian iɛn ong oŋ

Tones are transcribed using the numerals 1, 2, and 3 (see the Tones section above):

+Tones Songlin script Pitch value 1 /55/ (high level) 2 /24/ (mid rising) 3 /31/ (low falling)

Example phrase (Song 2019:33): ga1sii1 ga1sii1 dyv1 neng3 'once upon a time'/'a very long time ago' (很久很久以前)

Morphology Some common prefixes in Songlin are (Song 2019:43): ɑ˧˩-: nominal prefix mɑ˧˩-: nominal prefix kə˧˩-: used before some verbs, some body parts, and various nouns

Some suffixes are: -pɑ˥: used with human-related terms, body parts, and others -tso˥: 'son' (儿); masculine/diminutive, used to mark an animate noun (person or animal) as male, juvenile, or small

Reduplication is commonly used to form new nouns (Song 2019:45–46).

Pronouns The Songlin pronouns are (Song 2019:134):

singular dual plural 1st person ŋɑ˥ ɑ˨˦kʰə˥ȵi˥ ɑ˨˦se˥ ŋɑ˧˩kʰə˥ȵi˥ ŋɑ˧˩se˥ 2nd person nu˥ nə˧˩kʰə˥ȵi˥ nə˧˩se˥ 3rd person pu˨˦ pə˧˩kʰə˥ȵi˥ pə˧˩se˥

Interrogatives Songlin interrogatives are (Song 2019:140):

Gloss Songlin who? ʃɑŋ˧˩ŋɑ˥ what?; which? cʰe˥/hɑ˧˩mi˥ when? ȵɛn˨˦kʰɑ˧˩ where? hɑ˧˩ndɑ˥ how many? hɑ˧˩ȶi˥ how? hɑ˧˩nbo˥

Sentence examples The following Songlin sentence examples are from Yan (Song 2020:656). Songlin has SOV word order.

Vocabulary The following are Songlin words cited from Song (2020).

Chinese gloss English gloss Songlin 一 one tɕi˧˩tɑ˥ 二 two kʰɑ˧˩ȵi˥ 三 three sɯŋ˥ 四 four ʑi˨˦ 五 five po˧˩ŋoŋ˨˦ 六 six tʂʰɯ˨˦ 七 seven ȵ̥in˨˦ 八 eight pu˧˩ndʑe˨˦ 九 nine gu˨˦ 风 wind kʐi˨˦ 虹 rainbow zɑ˥ 右 right (side) tʂoŋ˥lɑ˥ 外面 outside pɑ˧˩tɕy˨˦ 跳蚤 flea kɑ˧˩ji˥ (牛)角 horn (of cattle) goŋ˨˦kʰʐɿ˥ 尾巴 tail ndʑoŋ˥mɑŋ˥ 脖子 neck kɑ˥loŋ˥ 背 back ci˨˦tsʰɿ˥ (树)叶子 leaf (of tree) kʰɑ˧˩pɑ˨˦ 汗 sweat tsʰɑ¹³pɑ˨˦ 尿 urine tɕʰi˧˩li˥ 官 government official ngə˥tʂʰɿ˥ 孙子 grandson noŋ˧˩tɕy˥ 鞋 shoe ku˧˩ȵu˥ 刀子 knife nba˧˩ju˥ 船 boat tʂɿ˧˩dzin˥ 鬼 ghost, spirit tɕʰo˨˦ 走 walk ci˥ 飞 fly (v.) ku˨˦ 吃 eat ndzo˥ 烤 roast, bake pu˥ 拔 pull pʰʐo˨˦ 捆 tie (v.) pɯi˥ 睡 sleep ŋoŋ˨˦ 敢 dare pin˥ 他 he pu˨˦ 好 good ȵe˨˦ȵe˥ 小 small kɑ˧˩tsɛ˥ 旧 old (of things) bi˨˦ 很 very ʐɛ˨˦ 星星 star kɑ˥mɑ˥ 地、土 earth, soil pʐo˨˦ 山 mountain ʐɿ˨˦ 金子 gold sie˥ 水獭 otter nɑ˥sɛn˥ 毛 hair (body) n̥oŋ˨˦ 柱子 pillar kɑ˥wɑ˥ 针 needle kʰɛ˨˦ 布 cloth ʐe˨˦ 寺 temple (Buddhist) nɟø˥nba˥ 镰刀 sickle ɕin˥koŋ˥ 锯子 saw (tool) su˥li˥ 绳子 rope nbɑ˧˩je˨˦ 听 listen ndʑo˥ 大 big hɑ˥ndu˥ 高 high, tall sen˥ 你 you (sg.) nu˥ 干净 clean ɕɑŋ˥ngʐɑŋ˥ 软的 soft ȵɛ˨˦ȵɛ˨˦ 黄的 yellow sɛ˥sɛ˥ 轻的 light (weight) jɑŋ˨˦jɑŋ˥ 新的 new ɕi˧˩tso˨˦ 桥 bridge dɑŋ˨˦ 火柴 firewood mi˧˩tʂʰe˥ 树 tree tɕʰɑŋ˨˦

References