The Tangwang language is a variety of Mandarin Chinese heavily influenced by the Mongolic Dongxiang language

Dongxiang language

The Santa language, also known as Dongxiang , is a Mongolic language spoken by the Dongxiang people in northwest China.-Grammar:In common with other Mongolic languages, Dongxiang is basically a subject–object–verb language...

. It is spoken in a dozen or so villages in Dongxiang Autonomous County

Dongxiang Autonomous County

Dongxiang Autonomous County is an Autonomous County in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, province of Gansu of the People's Republic of China. With ethnic minority of the Dongxiang.- Tangwangchuan :...

, Gansu Province, China. The linguist Mei W. Lee-Smith calls this creole language

Creole language

A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...

 the "Tangwang language" , based on the names of the two largest villages (Tangjia and Wangjia, parts of Tangwang town

Town (China)

When referring to political divisions of China, town is the standard English translation of the Chinese 鎮 . It is a fourth-level administrative unit, i.e...

) where it is spoken.

Speakers

According to Lee-Smith (1996), the Tangwang language is spoken by about 20,000 people living in the north-eastern part of the Dongxiang Autonomous County

Dongxiang Autonomous County

Dongxiang Autonomous County is an Autonomous County in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, province of Gansu of the People's Republic of China. With ethnic minority of the Dongxiang.- Tangwangchuan :...

 (Tangwang town). These people self-identify as Dongxiang

Dongxiang people

The Dongxiang people are one of 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China...

 or Hui people

Hui people

The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...

. The Tangwang speakers don't speak Dongxiang language.

Description

The Tangwang language uses mostly Mandarin words and morphemes with Dongxiang grammar. Besides Dongxiang loanwords, Tangwang also has a substantial number of Arabic and Persian loanwords.

Like standard Mandarin, Tangwang is a tonal language, but grammatical particles, which are typically borrowed from Mandarin, but are used in the way Dongxiang morphemes would be used in Dongxiang, don't carry tones.

For example, while the Mandarin plural suffix -men (们) has only very restricted usage (it can be used with personal pronouns and some nouns related to people), Tangwang uses it, in the form -m, universally, the way Dongxiang would use its plural suffix -la. Mandarin pronoun ni (你) can be used in Tangwang as a possessive suffix (meaning "your").
Unlike Mandarin, but like Dongxiang, Tangwang has grammatical cases as well (but only four of them, instead of eight in Dongxiang).