Mongolic languages

The Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia, notably including Mongolian. Mongolic is sometimes grouped with Turkic and Tungusic as part of the larger Altaic family.

The best-known member of this language family, Mongolian (in Cyrillic orthography as used in Mongolia, Монгол Хэл, and in the vertical Uygur-derived script as used in Inner Mongolia, China, Mongγol Kele), is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia, and is spoken by around 5.7 million people in Mongolia and China.

Classification

Mongolic

• Middle Mongolian
• Classical Mongolian
• Central Mongolian
  • Khalkha (basis dialect for the language used in the Mongolian state)
  • Ordos (native form: Urdus)
  • Chakhar and the other South Mongolian dialects (Khorchin, Kharchin, Baarin, Shilin gol, but excluding Alasha)
• Western Mongolic
  • Oirat (Varieties: Kalmyk, Torgut, Dorbet, Olot (Ööld, Elyut, Eleuth), Khoshut (Khoshuud), Alasha)
• Northern Mongolic
  • Buryat (Dialects: Bargu, Khori, Aga, Ekhirit, Unga, Nizhne-Udinsk, Barguzin, Tunka, Oka, Alar, Bohaan, Bulagat)
  • Khamnigan Mongol
• Northeastern Mongolic
  • Dagur (Daur)
• Southeastern Mongolic (i.e., the Gansu-Qinghai Sprachbund Mongolic languages)
  • Monguor (also known as Tu; dialects: Mongghul (Huzhu), Mangghuer (Minhe))
  • Kangjia
  • Bonan
  • Dongxiang (Santa)
• South-Central Mongolic
  • Eastern Yugur (Shira Yugur)
• Southwestern Mongolic
  • Moghol (Mogholi, Mogol)

This classification is only one among many. Notably, there is a tendency among Mongolian linguists to include Central Mongolic, Western Mongolic and Northern Mongolic into one "Mongolian language"^[2] as opposed to the rest of the languages which are then labelled as "Mongolic". This may depend on Mutual intelligibility, but an analysis based on a tree diagram such as the one above faces other problems due to the close contacts between e.g. Buryat and Khalkh Mongols during history thus creating or preserving a dialect continuum. Another problem lies in the sheer comparability of terminology as Western linguists use language and dialect, while Mongolian linguists use the Grimmian trichotomy language (kele), dialect (nutuγ-un ayalγu) and Mundart (aman ayalγu).

History

Proto-Mongolic

The Mongolic languages originated from the Proto-Mongolic language that was spoken at the time when Genghis Khan united a number of tribes speaking Late Pre-Proto-Mongolic languages. The Proto-Mongolic language is the origin of all subsequent Mongolic languages. Insofar as its elements are preserved in these languages, it is possible to speak of Common Mongolic. There are languages believed to be related to Proto-Mongolic, namely Tabghach (the language of the founders of the Northern Wei dynasty) and Khitan. In the case of Tabghach, the surviving evidence is very sparse, thus one can state that a generic relationship is possible. In the case of Khitan, there is rich evidence, but most of it is written in the two Khitan scripts that have as yet not been fully deciphered. However, from the available evidence it has to be concluded that a generic relationship to Mongolic is extremely likely. The common ancestor language of these two languages and Proto-Mongolic might be termed Pre-Proto-Mongolic.^[3]

Old Mongolian

The first surviving Mongolian text is the Stele of Yisüngge, a report on sports in Mongolian script on stone, that is most often dated to about 1224 or 1225^[4]. Other early sources are written in Mongolian, Phagspa (decrees), Chinese (the Secret history), Arabic (dictionaries) and a few other western scripts^[5]. These comprise the so-called Middle Mongolian language that was spoken from the 13th to the early 15th^[6] or late 16th^[7] century. The documents in Mongolian script show some distinct linguistic characteristics and are therefore often distinguished by terming their language Preclassical Mongolian^[6]. The next distinct period is Classical Mongolian that is dated from the 17th to the 19th century. It is a written language with a high degree of standardization in orthography and syntax that sets it quite apart from the subsequent Modern Mongolian. The most notable documents in this language are the Mongolian Kanjur and Tanjur ^[8] as well as a number of chronicles. Middle Mongolian also includes many Turkic loanwords, especially from Old Turkic, which are still used in modern Mongolian language.^[9]

Notes

References

• Γarudi (2002): Dumdadu üy-e-yin mongγul kelen-ü bütüče-yin kelberi-yin sudulul [The study of grammatical forms in Middle Mongolian]. Kökeqota: Öbür mongγul-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriy-a.
• Janhunen, Juha (ed.) (2003): The Mongolic languages. London: Routledge.
• Janhunen, Juha (2003a): Written Mongol. In: Janhunen 2003: 30–56.
• Janhunen, Juha (2003b): Para-Mongolic. In: Janhunen 2003: 391–402.
• Janhunen, Juha (2003c): Proto-Mongolic. In: Janhunen 2003: 1–29.
• Poppe, Nicholas (1955), "The Turkic Loanwords in Middle Mongolian", Central Asiatic Journal 1:1:36 full text
• Poppe, Nicholas (1964 [1954]): Grammar of Written Mongolian. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Rybatzki, Volker (2003): Middle Mongol. In: Janhunen 2003: 47–82.
• Sechenbaatar, Borjigin (2003): The Chakhar dialect of Mongol – A morphological description. Helsinki: Finno-Ugrian society.

External links

• Ethnologue report on Mongolic languages
• Ethnic groups of Mongolia
• Ethnic map of Mongolia
• Mongolic languages at the Open Directory Project