Chinese influence on Bouyei basic kinship terms

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to compare the systems of Mandarin Chinese and Bouyei basic kinship terms and investigate whether Chinese has an influence on the Bouyei basic kinship terms. All data were collected from relevant documents and the native Chinese and Bouyei informants in China, and analyzed with the componential analysis approach. The results revealed that the basic kinship terms in both languages distinguished between generations, linealities, families, ages, genders, and parental sides. The Bouyei basic kinship terms appeared to be less complicated than Chinese. They made no distinction between linealities, families, ages, genders, and parental sides for the third generation above ego (G+3) and the second and the third generation below ego (G-2, G-3) as same as other languages in Kam-Tai groups. There were just three terms in Bouyei borrowed from Chinese. This was shown that the Chinese influence on the Bouyei basic kinship terms were minimal though they have language contact.