Mongolian languages
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Mongolian languages, one of three families within the Altaic language group. The Mongolian languages are spoken in Mongolia and adjacent parts of east-central Asia. Their subclassification is controversial, and no one scheme has won universal approval. The central Mongolian languages are usually divided into a western group, consisting of the closely related Oirat (spoken in Mongolia and in the Xinjiang region of China) and Kalmyk (Russia), and an eastern group, consisting of the closely related Buryat (Russia) and Mongol (Mongolia and China) languages. Outlying languages—Moghol (spoken in Afghanistan), Daur (Inner Mongolia, China), Yellow Uyghur (East Yogur, not to be confused with the Turkic Yellow Uyghur [West Yugar]; Gansu province, China), and the southern group of Monguor (Tu), Dongxiang, and Bao’an (Bonan), which are spoken on the border between the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai—exhibit archaic features. All of the central, but none of the outlying, languages have written forms.
The history of the Mongolian language, both spoken and written, consists of three periods. The divisions of the spoken language are Old, or Ancient, Mongolian (through the 12th century), Middle Mongolian (13th–16th centuries), and New, or Modern, Mongolian (17th century to the present). Old Mongolian is reconstructed from borrowings in other languages and by comparison of the recorded Mongolian languages. The Mongolian vertical script language developed at the end of the 12th century; the oldest extant text dates from roughly 1225. The Pre-Classical period of the written language corresponds to Middle Mongolian. This language is slightly more archaic than the contemporary Middle Mongolian recorded in Chinese transcription in the Secret History of the Mongols (c. 1240) and in other texts and glosses in the Chinese, ’Phags-pa, Persian, and Latin scripts. The conversion of the Mongols to Buddhism (c. 1575) ushered in the Classical period (17th and early 18th centuries) of translation of scriptural texts from Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese, and this period corresponds to the commencement of the Modern period of the spoken language. Not until the 19th century did features of contemporary spoken Mongolian languages begin to appear in Mongolian texts.
With the translation of Buddhistic texts, Mongolian received a large number of Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, and Uyghur terms, including not only technical religious words but also personal names and astronomical and calendrical terms.
At the end of the Ancient Mongolian period, the Mongolian language began to spread from its original homeland, and, during the Middle Mongolian period, various dialects began to develop into separate languages. The outlying languages—which today survive as Moghol in Afghanistan; Daur in the east; and Monguor (Tu), Bao’an (Bonan), and Santa (Dongxiang) in the south—were isolated from the main body of Mongolian languages when the tide of Mongol conquest receded. These languages diverged from the main group of Mongolian dialects and to this day retain archaic features characteristic of Middle Mongolian that have been lost in other Mongolian languages; e.g., many retain /f/ and /h/ from Proto-Altaic */p/ (an asterisk identifies a sound as a hypothetical, reconstructed form), as well as unassimilated vowel sequences. An example of the latter phenomenon is Middle Mongolian e’ü (which in Classical Mongolian contained a medial velar, egü), where other languages have merged the vowels into a single, long vowel (thus ṻ).
Moghol
The Moghol language was reported in the late 20th century to be spoken by no more than 200 elderly people of a few thousand ethnic Moghols living near Herāt in Afghanistan. It is unique in preserving the high back unrounded vowel /ɯ/. Unlike some of the other outlying languages, it has lost Proto-Altaic */p/, but it preserves some unassimilated vowel sequences. The phonology and syntax of Moghol have been affected by Persian, and it has borrowed a large number of words from that language, including some function words. Like Daur, it is not closely related to any other extant Mongolian language.
Daur
Daur is spoken in several places in the northeastern portion of Inner Mongolia. It preserves some unassimilated vowel sequences, and one dialect preserves /h/. It is unique in preserving a complete set of forms of the old verb a- ‘to be’ and in preserving complete sets of forms for both inclusive and exclusive ‘we’. Some Daur speakers used Manchu as their written language, and the influence of Manchu on Daur vocabulary and grammar led some to misclassify it as a Manchu-Tungus language.
Other outlying languages
There is no general agreement concerning relationships within the southern group of Mongolian languages. Monguor (Tu), Bao’an, and Santa are spoken in isolated communities within a compact area on the border between the Chinese provinces of Gansu and Qinghai. Monguor is similar enough to Bao’an that the latter has sometimes been considered a Monguor dialect. Santa, spoken just east of Bao’an, is less similar. Yellow Uyghur (also called Shera Yögur, Jegün Uyghur, East Yogur, among other names) is spoken in the north of Gansu proper. It is not to be confused with the Yellow Uyghur (Sarö, or Sarig, Uyghur, or Yugur, West Yugar) that is a Turkic language; the speakers of the two languages have sometimes been confusingly lumped together. Several other names of dialects or languages (e.g., Aragwa, Sanquan, Shirongol) were mistakenly reported or identified by scholars.
The southern group of Mongolian languages generally preserve unassimilated vowel sequences and retain /h/; in Monguor, Bao’an, and Santa, the earlier stage, /f/, occurs as well. Unlike other Mongolian languages, Monguor, Bao’an, and Yellow Uyghur have stress on the last syllable, with loss or weakening of some initial syllables.