Moghol language
| Mogholi | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Afghanistan |
| Region | near Herat |
| Ethnicity | 2,000 (no date)[1] |
| Extinct | (date missing)[1] |
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Mongolic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
mhj |
| Glottolog |
mogh1245[2] |
Moghol (or Mogholi) is a Mongolic language once spoken in the region of Herat, Afghanistan, in the villages of Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla. The speakers were the Moghol people, who numbered 3,000 members in the 1970s. They descend from the remnants of Genghis Khan's Mongol army stationed in Afghanistan in the 13th century.[3]
In the 1970s, when the German scholar Michael Weiers did fieldwork on the language, few people spoke it, most knew it passively and most were older than 40. It is unknown if there are still speakers of the language.[4]
The language has been strongly influenced by Persian in its phonology, morphology and syntax, causing Weiers to state that it has the appearance of a "true Inner Asian creole language".[4]
Grammar
Moghol grammar shows substantial influence from Persian languages having borrowed even word classes not found in other Mongolic languages: the parts of speech are nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions.
Nouns are marked for number and case. Verbs are marked for person, number, tense-aspect, and mode. Adjectives inflect for the comparative and superlative degree with the Persian suffixes -tar and -tariin, but not for number and case.
Phonology
Moghol's phonology is influenced by Tajik. It has a system of six vowel qualities with no length contrast: /i e a u o ɔ/. Its consonants are /p b f w m t d s z n l r t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ʃ ʒ j k g ʀ ʔ q h/ [4]
Sample
Weiers noted down the following poem by the Moghol poet Abd Al-Qadir.
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Another Moghol poem or song of Abd Al-Qadir written in Arabic alphabet (from Weiers):
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Numerals
| English | Classical Mongolian | Moghol | |
| 1 | "One" | "Nigen" | "Nika" |
| 2 | "Two" | "Qoyar" | "Qyor" |
| 3 | "Three" | "Ghurban" | "Qurbun" |
| 4 | "Four" | "Dorben" | "Durbon" |
| 5 | "Five" | "Tabun" | "Tuwan" |
| 6 | "Six" | "Jirghughan" | "Jurghan", "Shish" |
| 7 | "Seven" | "Dologhan" | "Jolan", "Huft" |
| 8 | "Eight" | "Naiman" | "Hushtu" |
| 9 | "Nine" | "Yisun" | "No" |
| 10 | "Ten" | "Arban" | "Arbon", "Da" |
Notes
- 1 2 Mogholi at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Mogholi". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ↑ http://www.asiafront.com/news/698/language_of_speaking_in_afghanistan.html
- 1 2 3 Michael Weiers. 2003. "Moghol," The Mongolic Languages. Ed. Juha Janhunen. Routledge Language Family Series 5. London: Routledge. Pages 248–264.
See also
Further reading
- G. Ramstedt. 1906. "Mogholica," JSFOu 23-4.
- Louis Ligeti. 1954. "Le lexique moghol de R. Leech," AOH 4.
- Л. Лигети. 1954. "О монгольских и тюркиских языках и диалектах Афганистана," AOH 4.
- Sh. Iwamura and H. F. Schurmann. 1954. "Notes on Mongolian Groups in Afghanistan," Silver Jubilee Volume of the Zinbun-Kagaku-Kenkyusyo, Kyoto University. Kyoto University.
- Shinobu Iwamura. 1961. The Zirni Manuscript: A Persian-Mongolian Glossary and Grammar. Kyoto University.
- H. F. Schurmann. 1962. The Moghols of Afghanistan. Mouton & Co.
- Michael Weiers. 1972. Die Sprache der Moghol der Provinz Herat in Afghanistan (Sprachmaterial, Grammatik, Wortliste). Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
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