Altaic influences on Beijing dialect : The Manchu case

Chinese has traditionally been considered a language relatively immune to outside influences. It is true that lexical items of foreign origin have been difficult to find. On the other hand, as Hashimoto has pointed out, when one examines the Chinese dialects, the northern dialects have many features in common with Altaic languages which border them on the north and the southern dialects have many features in common with the Austroasiatic languages which border them on the south. Hashimoto hypothesized heavy Altaic influence on northern Chinese dialects and even went so far as to call Beijing dialect a descendent of a Manchu-Chinese pidgin. Though few would follow weight to the supposition that northern Chinese dialects carry an Altaic substrate. As to Manchu influences, Norman has produced one example of morphological borrowing. More studies need to be done in light of new theory