International Journal of Diachronic Linguistics  Linguistic Reconstruction 16 (2019): 87–144 A wedding ceremony of the Kyakala in China: Language and ritual by Andreas Hölzl & Yadi Hölzl Abstract: The language of the Kyakala in China is a seemingly extinct Tungus- ic language that is only known through Chinese publications from the 1980s (i.e., Mu Yuejun 1986, 1987, Mu Yejun & Ma Wenye 1983, Mu’ercha Yejun & Meng Huiying 1986, cf. Janhunen 1996, 1997, Fu, Guo & Janhunen 1999, Hölzl 2018b). This paper analyzes additional data that consist of a wedding song that was published in Chinese by Mu’ercha Anbulonga & Mu’ercha Yil- ing’a (1983) and has not been investigated in detail yet. This song, which ap- parently is the only extant text available for this language, is an integral part of a wedding ritual. The new data confirm Hölzl’s (2018b) hypothesis that Chi- nese Kyakala is best classified with the Jurchenic subbranch, although it exhib- its certain indications of being a mixed Tungusic language. Keywords: Kyakala; Manchu; Tungusic; language mixing; ritual; wedding cer- emony; wedding song. 1 Introduction 1 “Chinese Kyakala” is a Tungusic language that was formerly spoken in Northeast China but is seemingly extinct today. The name Kyakala has also been used for Tungusic populations on the Russian side of the border that spoke varieties from the so-called Udegheic subbranch of Tungusic (e.g., Schmidt 1928, Janhunen 1996: 66, 1997, 2012, Fu, Guo & Janhunen 1999). This paper focuses on Chinese Kyakala, exclusively, which can 1 We would like to thank Stefan Georg, Tom Payne, Elena Perekhvalskaya, András Róna-Tas, Svenja Bonmann, Veronika Zikmundová, Tatiana Pang, and two anynomous reviewers for reading an earlier version of this paper. All remaining shortcomings are ours.