ABSTRACT
Santa is spoken as the first language by an estimated 95 per cent of the 380,000 Santa people in China (according to the 1990 census). The ethnonym Santa is etymologically connected with the term Sart, as used historically of Persian and Turkic-speaking traders and urban people in Eastern Central Asia. In the Santa language, however, Santa means ‘Muslim’, and, consequently, it comprises not only the speakers of Santa, but also any other Muslim people. The Santa speakers feel that their Islamic faith is more important for their identity than any other ethnically distinctive feature, including their native language. This is obviously the reason why the term Santa has come to be used in its current ethnonymic sense, for in their relationships with other ethnic groups the Santa speakers prefer to identify themselves as ‘Muslims’ in the first place.
