Mongolian language - Citizendia

Mongolian Монгол (Mongol) (Mongɣul)
Spoken in:	Mongolia, China, People's Republic of, Kyrgyzstan, Russia
Region:	All of Mongolia, Buryatia in Russia, Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, and Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces in China
Total speakers:	5. Mongolia (mɒŋˈɡoʊliə, literally Mongol country/nation,) is a Landlocked Country in East Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Kyrgyzstan (ˈkɻ̩gɪztɑn (AmE or /'kɝgəztan/ (BrE Kyrgyz: Кыргызстан; Russian: Киргизия or Киргизстан or Кыргызстан Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Buryat Republic (Респу́блика Буря́тия Буряад Республика is a federal subject of Russia (a Republic) Issyk Kul (also Ysyk Köl, Issyk-kol; Ысыккөл Иссык-Куль is an Endorheic Lake in the northern Tian Shan mountains Inner Mongolia ( Mongolian:, Öbür mongɣul; occasionally romanized to Nei Mongol is the Mongol ( is a northeastern province of the People's Republic of China. ( Postal map spelling: Kirin; Manchu: Girin ula is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern ( Postal map spelling: Heilungkiang Manchu: Sahaliyan ula is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern 7 million
Language family:	Altaic^[1] Mongolic Eastern Oirat-Khalkha Khalkha-Buriat Mongolian
Official status
Official language in:	Mongolia People's Republic of China (Inner Mongolia)
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`mn`
ISO 639-2:	`mon`
ISO 639-3:	variously: `mon` – Mongolian (generic) `khk` – Khalkha Mongolian `mvf` – Peripheral Mongolian
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family Altaic, according to its proponents is a language family that includes 66 Languages ref> Altaic languages spoken by about 348 million people mostly in and around The Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia. The Eastern Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia. The Oirat-Khalkha languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia. The Khalkha-Buriat languages are a group of closely-related languages spoken in Central Asia. Mongolia (mɒŋˈɡoʊliə, literally Mongol country/nation,) is a Landlocked Country in East Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Inner Mongolia ( Mongolian:, Öbür mongɣul; occasionally romanized to Nei Mongol is the Mongol This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

The Mongolian language ( , Mongɣul kele, Cyrillic: Монгол хэл, Mongol khel) is the best-known member of the Mongolic language family and the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia, where it is officially written with the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by The Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Mongolia (mɒŋˈɡoʊliə, literally Mongol country/nation,) is a Landlocked Country in East The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by It is also spoken in some of the surrounding areas in northern China, the Russian Far East and Kyrgyzstan. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Russian Far East (Да́льний Восто́к Росси́и ˈdalʲnʲɪj vʌˈstok rʌˈsʲiɪ is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i Kyrgyzstan (ˈkɻ̩gɪztɑn (AmE or /'kɝgəztan/ (BrE Kyrgyz: Кыргызстан; Russian: Киргизия or Киргизстан or Кыргызстан The majority of speakers in Mongolia speak the Khalkha (or Halh) dialect, while those in China speak the Chahar, Oyirad, and Barghu-Buryat dialect groups. The Khalkha, or Halh (Classical Mongolian qalq-a, Khalkha Mongolian mn Халх) are a subgroup of the Mongols.

Classification

Mongolian is a Mongolic language. The Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia. The Altaic theory proposes that the Mongolic family is a member of the larger Altaic family, which would also include the Turkic and Tungusic languages. Altaic, according to its proponents is a language family that includes 66 Languages ref> Altaic languages spoken by about 348 million people mostly in and around The Turkic languages constitute a Language family of some thirty languages spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu-Tungus Tungus are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. Related languages include Kalmyk spoken near the Caspian Sea and Buryat of East Siberia, as well as a number of minor languages in China along with the Nikudari and Mogholi languages of Afghanistan. Kalmyk (also known as Kalmuck Calmouk Qalmaq Kalmytskii Jazyk Khalmag Volga Oirat Weilate Western Mongol is the Language of the Kalmyks and Oirats Buryat (or Buriat is a Mongolic variety spoken by the Buryats that is usually classified as a language. Moghol (also known as Mogholi 639-3 is a Mongolic language spoken in Afghanistan by the Moghol People around Herat, where Dari

Geographic distribution and dialects

Mongolian is the national language of Mongolia, where there are over two million speakers. Mongolia (mɒŋˈɡoʊliə, literally Mongol country/nation,) is a Landlocked Country in East There are also up to three million speakers in Northern China, mostly Inner Mongolia; however, some of them are bilingual with Chinese, and use of Mongolian is declining among younger people and in urban areas. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Inner Mongolia ( Mongolian:, Öbür mongɣul; occasionally romanized to Nei Mongol is the Mongol

Dialects of Mongolian differ in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary to the point of creating difficulties in comprehension. The most widely recognized one is Khalkha, which is the official standard dialect in Mongolia and is spoken in most of the country, including the capital city. Ulan Bator, or Ulaanbaatar (Улаанбаатар is the Capital and largest city of Mongolia. In China, the recently instituted official pronunciation standard is the dialect of the Plain Blue Banner in central Inner Mongolia, which belongs to the Chahar group. The Eight Banners (In Manchu: jakūn gūsa, In Chinese: 八旗 baqí were administrative divisions into which all Manchu families were placed The Chahar (Chinese 察哈尔 are a tribe of the Mongols. The same name is also given to a Mongolian Dialect spoken in the area of Chahar

Grammar

The following description is based primarily on urban Khalkha Mongolian, but much of it is also valid for Southern Central Mongolian, including Chahar.

Lexicon

The Mongolian vocabulary includes historic loanwords especially from Old Turkic, Sanskrit (often through Uigur), Tibetan, Chinese and Tungusic and keeps adopting more recent ones from Russian, Chinese and English. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested Turkic language, found in inscriptions by the Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested Turkic language, found in inscriptions by the Tibetan refers to a group of languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering South Asia as well as by overseas The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu-Tungus Tungus are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Commissions in the Mongolian state have been busy translating new terminology into Mongolian, so that Mongolian words such as 'president' <jerönhijlögč> ("generalizer") and 'beer' <šar ajrag> ("yellow kumys") exist (though this one is second to Russian <pivo>). Terminology is the study of terms and their use Terms are Words and Compound words that are used in specific contexts There are quite a few loan translations, e. In Linguistics, a calque (kælk or loan translation is a Word or Phrase borrowed from another Language by Literal, word-for-word g. ‘population’ <hün am> (“person mouth”) from Chinese rénkŏu (人口; 'population').

Morphology

Modern Mongolian is an agglutinative, exclusively suffixing language; the suffixes are most often composed of a single morpheme. In Linguistics, agglutination is the morphological process ofadding Affixes to the base of a Word. In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. It has a rich number of morphemes to build up more complex words from simple roots. The root is the primary lexical unit of a Word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents For example, the word <bajguullagynh> consists of the root <baj-> ‘to be’, an epenthetic <-g->, the causative <-uul-> (then ‘to found’), the derivative suffix <–laga> that forms nouns created by the action (‘organisation’) and the complex suffix <–ynh> denoting something that belongs to the modified word (<-yn> would be genitive). In Phonology, epenthesis (/əˈpɛnθəsɪs/ Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις - epenthesis from epi "on" + en "in" A causative form in Linguistics, is an expression of an agent causing or forcing a patient to perform an action (or to be in a certain condition In Linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another

Nominal compounds are quite frequent. In Linguistics, a compound is a Lexeme (less precisely a Word) that consists of more than one stem. Some derivational verbal suffixes are rather productive, e. In Linguistics, productivity is the degree to which Native speakers use a particular grammatical process especially in Word formation. g. <jar’-> 'to speak', <jarilts-> 'to speak with each other'. Formally, verbal suffixes that create independent words can roughly be divided into three classes: final verbs, which can only be used sentence-finally, i. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. e. <-na> (mainly future or generic statements) or –ø (second person imperative); participles (often called “verbal nouns”), which can be used clause-finally or attributively, i. In Linguistics, a participle (from Latin participium, a Calque of Greek μετοχη "partaking" is a derivative of a non-finite e. <-san> (probably perfective, otherwise past) or <-maar> (‘want to’); and converbs, which can link clauses or function adverbially, i. In Grammar, the perfective aspect is an aspect that exists in many languages In general linguistics a converb is a Non-finite verb form that serves to express Adverbial subordination, i In Grammar an adverbial is a word (an Adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial Phrase or an adverbial Clause) that modifies or tells us something e. <-ž> (qualifies for any adverbial function or neutrally connects two sentences) or <-tal> (the action of the main clause takes place until the action expressed by the suffixed verb begins). In Linguistics, a sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words bearing minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it often preceded and followed In Grammar, a clause is a word or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in some Languages and some types of

Roughly speaking, Mongolian has eight cases: nominative (unmarked), genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, instrumental, comitative and directional. In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other Markedness is a linguistic concept that developed out of the Prague School (also known as the Prague linguistic circle) In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another The dative case is a Grammatical case generally used to indicate the Noun to whom something is given The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic The instrumental case (also called the eighth case) is a Grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the The comitative case, also known as the associative case, is a Grammatical case that denotes companionship and is used where English would use "in company with" Allative case ( abbreviated ALL, from Latin allāt-, afferre "to bring to" is a type of the locative In addition, a number of postpositions exist that usually govern genitive, ablative or comitative case or an oblique form, that is, the stem plus sometimes -Vn either for lexical historical reasons or analogy (thus maybe becoming an attributive case suffix). In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. Analogy is both the cognitive process of transferring Information from a particular subject (the analogue or source to another particular subject (the target and Nouns can take reflexive-possessive clitics indicating that the marked noun is possessed by the subject of the sentence: <Bi najz(-)aa alsan> I friend-[reflexive-possessive] kill-[perfective] ‘I killed my friend’. In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word. According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the There are also rather noun-like adjectives that will be converted into nouns when taking any case suffix, but cannot function nominatively without the multifunctional clitic <n’>. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the In Linguistics, conversion, also called zero derivation, is a kind of Word formation; specifically it is the creation of a Word Plural does not need to be marked, but plural suffixes are becoming more and more common. Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world

Personal pronouns exist for the first and second person, while the old demonstrative pronouns have come to form third person (proximal and distal) pronouns. Personal pronouns are Pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common Nouns. Demonstratives are deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others Other word (sub-)classes include interrogative pronouns, conjunctions (which take participles), spatials and quite a few particles. In Linguistics, the term particle is a word lacking a strict definition but has the function of changing the relation of the parts of the sentence to one another and is therefore (Word classes are treated with some simplification here. For a more precise treatment, see Sechenbaatar 2003. )

Negation is mostly expressed by <-güj> after participles and by the negation particle <biš> after nouns and adjectives; negation particles preceding the verb (for example in converbal constructions) exist, but tend to be replaced by analytical constructions.

Syntax

Phrase structure

The nominal phrase has the order: demonstrative pronoun/numeral, adjective, noun. In Linguistics, a number name, or numeral, is a symbol or group of symbols or a Word in a Natural language that represents a Number Attributive sentences usually precede the whole NP. Titles or occupations of people, low numerals indicating groups and focus clitics are put behind the head noun. In Linguistics, the topic (or theme) is informally what is being talked about and the comment ( rheme or focus) is what is being Possessive pronouns (in different forms) may either precede or follow the NP. A possessive pronoun is a Part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something E. g. <bidnij uulzsan ter sajhan zaluugaas č> we-genitive meet-perfective that beautiful young_man-ablative focus ‘even from that beautiful young man that we have met’, <Dorž bagš maan’> Dorj teacher our ‘our teacher Dorj’.

The verbal phrase consists of the predicate’s complements and the adverbials modifying it in front of it and, mainly if the predicate is sentence-final, modal particles behind it. In Linguistics, modal particles are always Uninflected words and are a type of Grammatical particle. E. g. <Ter helehgüjgeer ünijg bičsen šüü> S/he without_saying it-accusative write-perfective particle ‘She wrote it without saying [i. e. that she would do so] (so I can assure you). ’ In this clause the adverbial should precede the complement as it is itself derived from a verb and could take ‘it’ as its complement. If the adverbial was an adjective à la <hurdan> 'fast', it could immediately precede the predicate. There are also instances in which the adverb must immediately precede the predicate.

The predicate itself may consist of a noun or an adjective with or without a copula, but if the subject isn’t marked by <bol> or <n'> as topic , a bare noun will look a little awkward. In Linguistics, the topic (or theme) is informally what is being talked about and the comment ( rheme or focus) is what is being Participles will never take a copula. Consider this example: <aldag> 'kills regularly' <aldag bajna> 'kills regularly (as I have come to know by some time of observance)': though <bajna> would be a mere copula if put behind a noun, in this case it indicates referentiality. However, any participle can be followed by an auxiliary carrying additional information. For example, if the verbal noun expressing regularity is chosen, the information “perfective” will have to be encoded in an auxiliary: <aldag bajsan> 'killed regularly' If the speaker wished to express how s/he acquired such knowledge, an additional <bajna> could be added. Simple progressive aspect is built up by a verb, the neutral converb <-ž> and the auxiliary <baj->. In place of <baj->, some other verbs could express other aspects like completion: <uuž orhison> drink-CV leave-perfective 'drank up'. However, a few aktionsarten may be expressed adverbially: <ehelž uusan> begin-CV drink-perfective 'began to drink' (or <uuž ehelsen> with the same meaning). The aktionsart (ʔakˈʦi̯oːnsˌʔaɐ̯t plural aktionsarten) or lexical aspect of a verb is a part of the way in which that verb is structured in relation to

Clauses

Unmarked phrase order is subject, object, predicate (also referred to as SOV). According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the An object in Grammar is a Sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. While the predicate generally has to remain in clause-final position, the other phrases are free to change order or to wholly disappear. The topic tends to be placed clause-initially, new information rather before the predicate. Noun phrase heads modified by long attributive clauses will for the sake of understandability be placed clause-initially. In Grammar, a modifier (or qualifier) is a word or Sentence element that limits or qualifies another word a phrase or a clause Topic can form a phrase of its own (with <bol> or even <n’>), but this option isn’t extensively used.

Mongolian has passive and causative voice. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified In a passive sentence the entirely oblique agent takes either dative or instrumental case, the first of which is more common. The verb takes a suffix <-gd->. In the causative, the person caused to do something would take instrumental, or accusative, if the simple verb would have been intransitive, and the verb would take <-uul->. Causative morphology is also used in some passive contexts: <Bi tüünd čaduulsan> I s/he-dative fool-caustive-perfective ‘I was fooled by her/him’. Animacy is an important component, thus English 'The bread was eaten by me' would not be acceptable in Mongolian. Animacy is a grammatical and/or Semantic category of Nouns based on how Sentient or alive the Referent of the noun is <-ld-> (reciprocal), <-tsgaa-> (plurative) and <-lts-> (cooperative) are voice constructions as well. A reciprocal is a linguistic structure that marks a particular kind of relationship between two noun phrases

Compound sentences

One way to conjoin clauses is to have the first clause end in a converb. An example: <Bi üünijg olbol čamd ögnö> I it-accusative find-conditional_converbal_suffix you-dative give-future ‘If I find it I’ll give it to you’. Some verbal nouns in the instrumental or most often dative function very similar to converbs: above sentence with <olohod> find-imperfective-dative ‘When I find it I’ll give it to you’. Quite often, postpositions govern complete clauses. In contrast, conjunctions take verbal nouns without case: <jadarsan učraas untlaa> become_tired-perfective because sleep-witnessed_perfective 'I slept because I was tired'. Finally, there are usually clause-initial particles with relating meaning: <Bi olson, harin čamd ögöhgüj> I find-perfective but you-dative give-imperfective-negation ‘I’ve found it, but I won’t give it to you’.

Mongolian has a complementizer auxiliary verb <ge-> very similar to Japanese to iu. A complementizer, as used in Linguistics (especially Generative grammar) is a syntactic category ( part of speech) roughly equivalent to the term In Linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a Verb functioning is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities <ge-> literally means ‘to say’ and in converbal form <gež> precedes a verbum sentiendi et dicendi. As a verbal noun <gedeg> (with <n’> or case) it can form a subset of complement clauses. As <gene> it may function as an evidentialis marker. In Linguistics, evidentiality is broadly the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement that is whether Evidence exists for the statement and/or

Except for clauses governed by certain postpositions, attribute clauses, clauses with complementizer and some very short converbal clauses (which some speakers reject anyway), Mongolian clauses are in strictly paratactic order, such that a hypotactic sentence like 'We will, IF you help us, repair the damage. Parataxis in Grammar refers to placing together sentences clauses or phrases without Conjunctions In terms of Syntax, parataxis may resemble Hypotaxis is the grammatical arrangement of functionally similar but "unequal" constructs ( hypo ="beneath" taxis ="arrangement" i ' could in this order with the same syntactic relations not be constructed in Mongolian.

In the subordinate clause the subject, if different from the subject of main clause, sometimes has to take accusative or genitive case. A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence. In itself a dependent clause does not express a complete Thought; therefore it is usually attached to an In grammar an independent clause (or main clause) is a Clause that can stand by itself as a grammatically viable Simple sentence. Subjects in either instrumental or ablative case marginally occur as well. Subjects of attribute clauses in which the head has a function (as is the case for all English relative clauses) demand that if the subject is not the head it has to take instrumental or rather genitive case, e. A relative clause is a Subordinate clause that modifies a Noun. In linguistics the head is the word that determines the syntactic type of the Phrase of which it is a member or analogously the stem that determines the g. <tüünij idsen hool> that_one-genitive eat-perfective meal ‘the meal that s/he had eaten’.

Sound system

One major feature of Mongolian phonology is vowel harmony. Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance ( see below) assimilatory phonological process involving Vowels in some languages Mongolian divides vowels into two groups. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract For historical reasons, these have traditionally been labelled as "front vowels" (e, u, o) and "back vowels, "(a,ʊ,ɔ). A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as However, Svantesson et al have analyzed the groups as what they term instead "non-pharyngeal" (formerly "front") and "pharyngeal" (formerly "back"). There is also one neutral vowel, /i/, which does not belong to either group.

All the vowels in a non-compound word, including all its suffixes, must belong to the same group. If the first vowel is pharyngeal, then every vowel of the word must be either /i/ or a pharyngeal vowel. Likewise, if the first vowel is a non-pharyngeal vowel, then every vowel of the word must be either /i/ or a non-pharyngeal vowel. In the case of suffixes, which must change their vowels to conform to different words, there are roughly two patterns. Some suffixes can occur with /a/, /ɔ/, /e/, or /o/, following the last phonemic vowel in the root word, in which case /ʊ/ and /u/ lead to [a] and [e] respectively. For example, /orx/ ‘household’ + /Ar/ ‘instrumental’ → /orxor/ ‘by a household’, /xarʊɮ/ ‘sentry’ + /Ar/ ‘instrumental’ → /xarʊɮar/ ‘by a sentry’. Others individual suffixes can occur in either /ʊ/ or /u/, in which case all pharyngeal vowels lead to /ʊ/ and all non-pharyngeal vowels lead to /u/. For example, /aw/ ‘to take’ + /Uɮ/ ‘causative’ → /awʊɮ/. If the only vowel in the root word is /i/, the suffixes will use the non-pharyngeal suffix forms.

Another major feature of Mongolian phonology is the distinction between long and short forms of vowels. This is expressed in word-initial syllables as a straightforward difference in length. A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds In word-internal and word-final syllables, long vowels are not as long and short vowels are short to the point where, in many non-initial syllables, there is phonemically speaking no vowel at all. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning For example, <hojor> 'two', <ažil> 'work', and <saarmag> 'neutral' are, phonemically, /xɔjr/, /atʃɮ/, and /saːrmɡ/ respectively. In such cases, an epenthetic vowel is allophonically inserted so as to prevent disallowed consonant clusters. In Phonology, epenthesis (/əˈpɛnθəsɪs/ Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις - epenthesis from epi "on" + en "in" In Phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds ( Phones that belong to the same Phoneme. Thus, in the examples given above, the words are phonetically [xɔjɔ̆r], [atʃĭɮ], and [saːrmăɡ]. Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech The phonetic form of the epenthetic vowel follows from that of the vowel in the preceding syllable. Usually it is a centralized version of the same sound, with the following exceptions: /u/ produces [e], /i/ will be ignored if there is a non-neutral vowel earlier in the word, and a postalveolar or palatalized consonant will be followed by an epenthetic [i], as in [atʃĭɮ].

Vowel chart

	Front		Central		Back
	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long
Close	i	iː			u	uː
Near-Close					ʊ	ʊː
Close-Mid	e	eː			o	oː
Open-mid					ɔ	ɔː
Open			a	aː

Mongolian also has four diphthongs, /ui/, /ʊi/, /ɔi/, and /ai/. A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A central vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A near-close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a near-close vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly A close-mid vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds The open-mid vowels make a class of Vowel sounds used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with Short /o/ is phonetically [ɵ].

Consonant chart

		Labial		Dental		Palatal	Velar		Uvular
		Plain	Palatalized	Plain	Palatalized	Palatal	Palatalized	Plain	Uvular
Nasal		m	mʲ	n	nʲ			ŋ
Plosive	Voiceless aspirated	(pʰ)	(pʲʰ)	tʰ	tʲʰ		(kʲʰ)	(kʰ)
	Voiceless	p	pʲ	t	tʲ
	Voiced						ɡʲ	ɡ	ɢ
Affricate	Voiceless aspirated			tsʰ		tʃʰ
Affricate	Voiceless	(f)		ts		tʃ
Fricative				s		ʃ	xʲ	x
Lateral fricative				ɮ	ɮʲ
Trill				r	rʲ
Approximant		w̜	w̜ʲ			j

Mongolian lacks a true phoneme /l/; instead, it has a voiced alveolar lateral fricative, /ɮ/. Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips ( bilabial articulation or with the lower lip and the upper teeth ( labiodental articulation In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Uvulars are Consonants articulated with the back of the Tongue against or near the uvula, that is further back in the mouth than Velar consonants Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU The voiced alveolar lateral fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet Syllable-finally, /n/ (if it doesn't precede another /n/) is realized as [ŋ]. In Phonology, a syllable coda comprises the Consonant sounds of a Syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a Vowel The consonants in parentheses occur only in loanwords.

Writing systems

Main article: Mongolian writing systems

Mongolian has been written in a variety of alphabets over the years. Many Mongolian writing systems have been devised over the centuries

The traditional Mongolian script was adapted from Uyghur script in 1208, although it has undergone transformations, and occasionally been supplemented by other scripts. The classic vertical Mongolian script (ɣɣul bičig, cyrillic: Монгол бичиг Mongol bichig) was the first of many writing systems created The Mongolian alphabet was used in Mongolia until 1931, when it was temporarily replaced by the Latin alphabet, and finally by Cyrillic in 1937. The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by The traditional alphabet was abolished completely by the pro-Soviet government in 1941, and a short-lived attempt to reintroduce the traditional alphabet after 1990 was abandoned after some years.

In the People's Republic of China, the Mongolian language is a co-official language with Mandarin Chinese in some regions, notably the entire Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Standard Mandarin, also known as Standard Spoken Chinese, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan Inner Mongolia ( Mongolian:, Öbür mongɣul; occasionally romanized to Nei Mongol is the Mongol The traditional alphabet has always been used there, although Cyrillic was considered briefly before the Sino-Soviet split. The Sino-Soviet split was a gradual divergence of diplomatic ties between the People's Republic of China (PRC and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR There are two types of written Mongolian used in China: the classical script, which is official among Mongols nationwide, and the Clear script, used predominantly among Oirats in Xinjiang. The Clear script (Тодо бичиг todo bichig) was created in 1648 by the Oirat Buddhist monk Zaya-pandita Namkhaijamco to write This article deals with the Oirat ethnic group For the obsolete term for the Turkic Altays see Altay people. Xinjiang ( Uyghur: شىنجاڭ Shinjang;; Postal map spelling: Sinkiang; Turkish: Sincan, Sincan Uygur Özerk

The modified Cyrillic alphabet used for Mongolian is as follows:

Cyrillic	Name	IPA	Transliteration	Cyrillic	Name	IPA	Transliteration
Аа	а	a	a	Пп	пэ	(pʰ ), (pʰʲ )	( p )
Бб	бэ	p,pʲ, b	b	Рр	эр	r,rʲ	r
Вв	вэ	w,wʲ	v	Сс	эс	s	s
Гг	гэ	ɡ,ɡʲ,ɢ´, k	g	Тт	тэ	tʰ,tʰʲ	t
Дд	дэ	t,tʲ	d	Уу	у	ʊ	u
Ее	е	jε~jɜ, e	je	Үү	ү	u	ü
Ёё	ё	jɔ	jo	Фф	фэ~фа~эф	( f )	( f )
Жж	жэ	tʃ	ž	Хх	хэ~ха	x,xʲ	h
Зз	зэ	ts	z	Цц	цэ	tsʰ	ts
Ии	и	i	i	Чч	чэ	tʃʰ	č
Йй	хагас и	i	j	Шш	ша~эш	ʃ	š
Кк	ка	( k ), (kʲ )	( k )	Щщ	ща~эшчэ	(stʃ )	( šč )
Лл	эл	ɮ,ɮʲ	l	Ъ ъ	хатуугийн тэмдэг	"
Мм	эм	m,mʲ	m	Ыы	эр үгийн ы	i	y
Нн	эн	n,nʲ	n	Ьь	зөөлний тэмдэг	ʲ	'
Оо	о	ɔ	o	Ээ	э	e	e
Өө	ө	o	ö	Юю	ю	jʊ, ju	ju
				Яя	я	ja, j	ja

Үү and Өө are sometimes written as Vv and Єє, mainly when using Russian software or keyboards that don't support them. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic

Historical 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 at the verge of 1224 and 1225^[2]. The classic vertical Mongolian script (ɣɣul bičig, cyrillic: Монгол бичиг Mongol bichig) was the first of many writing systems created Other early sources are written in Mongolian, Phagspa (decrets), Chinese (the Secret history), Arabic (dictionaries) and a few western scripts^[3]. The ’Phagspa script (дөрвөлжин үсэг dörvöljin üseg "square script" Tibetan: hor gsar yig "new Mongolian script" A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( The Secret History of the Mongols ( Mongɣol-un niɣuca tobčiyan, Cyrillic script: Монголын нууц товчоо Mongolyn nuuts tovchoo) is The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. These comprise the Middle Mongolian language that was spoken from the 13th to the early 15th^[4] or late 16th^[5] century. Middle Mongolian is an extinct Mongolic language formerly spoken in Mongolia, China, and Russia. 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. Classical Mongolian is an extinct Mongolic language formerly used in Mongolia, China, and Russia. 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 ^[7] as well as a bunch of chronicles. The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a loosely defined list of sacred texts recognized by various schools of Tibetan Buddhism, made up of the Kangyur or Kanjur The Tengyur or Tanjur ( Wylie: Bstan-'gyur ('Translation of Treatises' is the Tibetan collection of commentaries to the Buddhist teachings or "Translated Treatises"

Changes in phonology

Consonants

Middle Mongolian documents show only two velar plosives <g> and <k> (and one allophone for each), but in some instances the <g> disappeared and in others not. There is no hint as to how this might be related to contextual factors, and while there is a hypothesis that this is related to distinctive vowel length or stress ^[8], it is a matter of dispute whether there is any factual evidence for this. Now there is a word-initial <h> that disappeared during the Middle Mongolian stage. This might be the same phoneme as one of the instances of <g> (possibly [x]). Thus, it is likely that x > h > Ø. ^[9] Eg Phagspa <haran>, Preclassical Mongolian <aran>, reconstructed in Proto-Mongolic as *haran ‘person’, became Modern Mongolian <aran>^[10]. Phagspa čaqa’an, Preclassical čaγaγan^[11], reconstructed for Late Pre-Proto-Mongolic as *ʧʰagahan ‘white’, became Modern Mongolian /ʦʰaga:n/. As also apparent from this example, affricates were fronted in Northern Modern Mongolian dialects such as Khalkha. /kʰ/ was spirantized to /x/ in Ulaanbaatar Khalkha and the Mongolian dialects South of it, eg Preclassical Mongolian <kündü>, reconstructed as *kʰynty ‘heavy’, became Modern Mongolian /xunt/^[12] (but in Erdenet many speakers will say / kʰunt/). Lenition is a kind of Consonant mutation that appears in many Languages Along with assimilation, it is one of the primary sources of historical change Originally word-final <n> turned into <ŋ>; if *n was originally followed by a vowel that later dropped, it remained unchanged, eg *kʰen became /xiŋ/, but *kʰoina became /xɔin/. After i-breaking, *[ʃ] became phonemic. Consonants in words containing back vowels that were followed by *i in Proto-Mongolian became palatalized in Modern Mongolian. Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process In some words, word-final *n was dropped with most case forms, but still appeared with the ablative, dative and genitive. ^[13]

Vowels

Proto-Mongolic had *i, *e, *y, *ø, *u, *o, *a. First, *o and *u were pharyngealized to /ɔ/ and /ʊ/, then *y and *ø were velarized to /u/ and /o/. Pharyngealization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants or Vowels by which the Pharynx or Epiglottis is constricted during the articulation Velarization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants by which the back of the Tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the Thus, the vowel harmony shifted from a velar to a pharyngeal paradigm. *i in the first syllable back-vocalic words was assimilated to the following vowel; in word-initial position it became /ja/. *e followed by *y was rounded to *ø. VhV and VjV sequences where the second vowel was any vowel but *i were monophthongized. Short vowels in any syllable but the first were deleted from the phonetic representation of the word; long vowels in these positions became short vowels. ^[14]

Eg *imahan (*i becomes /ja/, *h disappears)> *jama:n (instable n drops; vowel reduction> jama(n) ‘goat’

and *emys- (regressive rounding assimilation)> *ømys- (vowel velaization)> *omus- (vowel reduction)> oms- ‘to wear’

Changes in morphology

Nominal system

While most case suffixes did change somewhat in form, ie were shortened, most of the modern case system remained intact. Important changes occurred with the comitative and the dative. The Middle Mongolian comitative <-luγ-a> could not be used attributively, but it was replaced by suffix <-taj> that originally derived adjectives denoting possession of the stem from nouns, eg <mori-tai> ‘having a horse’ became <mor’toj> ‘having a horse/with a horse’. As this adjective functioned parallel to <ügei> ‘not having’, it has been suggested^[15] that a “privative case” (‘without’) has been introduced into Mongolian. There have been three different case suffixes in the dative-locative-directive domain that are grouped in different ways: <-a> as locative and <-dur>, <-da> as dative^[16] or <-da> and <-a> as dative and <-dur> as locative ^[17], in both cases with some functional overlapping. As <dur> seems to be grammaticalized from <dotur-a> ‘within’, thus indicating a span of time^[18], the second account seems to be more likely. Finally, the directive of modern Mongolian <-ruu> has been innovated. Gender agreement was abandoned.

Verbal system

Middle Mongolian had a greater set of final verb suffixes and a smaller number of participles which were less likely to be used as finite predicates. Their functional values seem to have shifted as well, but as the aspectual, temporal, modal and evidential nuances of Middle Mongolian verb forms are not well understood, it is impossible to state much about their semantic development. However, as several analytic forms to code imperfectivity have emerged that were not present in Middle Mongolian, final suffixes likely bore that burden then. The linking converb <n> became confined to stable verb combinations, while the number of converbs somewhat increased. The gender and number distinction exhibited by some final verbs got lost^[19].

Changes in syntax

Word order in clauses with pronominal subject changed from Object-Predicate-Subject to Subject-Object-Predicate. The negation of verbs shifted from negation particles preceding final verbs to a negation particle following participles; thus, as final verbs could no longer be negated, their paradigm of negation was filled by particles.

Notes

^ The existence of the Altaic family is controversial. See Altaic languages. Altaic, according to its proponents is a language family that includes 66 Languages ref> Altaic languages spoken by about 348 million people mostly in and around
^ eg Γarudi 2002: 7
^ Rybatzki 2003: 58
^ Rybatzki 2003: 57
^ Poppe 1964: 1
^ Rybatzki 2003: 57
^ Janhunen 2003a: 32
^ eg Tömörtogoo 2005
^ Svantesson et al. 2005: 113, 119-124
^ Today, /arn/ is somewhat unusual, but its plural /ard/ ‘people’ is common.
^ Adapted from Tömörtogoo 2002: 80
^ Svantesson et al. 2005: 133, 167
^ Svantesson et al. 2005: 124, 165-166, 205
^ Svantesson 2005: 181, 184, 186-187, 190-195
^ Janhunen 2003c: 27
^ Rybatzki 2003: 68
^ Γarudi 2002: 101-107
^ see Toγtambayar 2006: 18-35 for the detailed line of argumentation
^ The gender issue is fairly commonplace, see eg Rybatzki 2003: 75. A very convincing case for the numberus distinction between -ba and -bai is made in Tümenčečeg 1990: 103-108. She also argues that this has been the case for other suffixes.

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 (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. Finno-Ugrian Society ( Société Finno-Ougrienne, Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura is a Finnish Learned society, dedicated to the study of Finno-Ugric languages
Svantesson, Jan-Olof, Anna Tsendina, Anastasia Karlsson, Vivan Franzén (2005): The Phonology of Mongolian. New York: Oxford University Press.
Toγtambayar, M. (2006): Mongγul kelen-ü kele ǰüiǰigsen yabuča-yin tuqai sudulul [Grammaticalization in Mongolian]. Liyuuning-un ündüsüten-ü keblel-ün qoriy-a.
Tömörtogoo, D. (2005): Mongol dörvölžin üsegijn durashalyn sudalgaa [Research on the Phagspa script]. Ulaanbaatar: IAMS.
Tsedendamba, Ts. , C. Möömöö (ed. ) (1997): Orčin cagijn mongol hel [Contemporary Mongolian]. Ulaanbaatar.
Tserenpil, D. , Rita Kullmann (2005) [1996]: Mongolian grammar. Ulaanbaatar: Admon.
Tümenčečeg (1990): Dumdadu ǰaγun-u mongγul kelen-ü toγačin ögülekü tölüb-ün kelberi-nügüd ba tegün-ü ularil kögǰil. In: Öbür mongγul-un yeke surγaγuli 1990/3: 102-120.

External links

This article refers to personal naming customs in Mongolia. Inner Mongolian customs are similar but do display some differences

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