Oirat language
Oirat | |
---|---|
ᡆᡕᡅᠷᠠᡑ ᡘᡄᠯᡄᠨ Oirad kelen Өөрд келн ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠬᠡᠯᠡᠨ ᠦ ᠣᠶᠢᠷᠠᠳ ᠠᠶᠠᠯᠭᠤ Mongγol kelen-ü Oyirad ayalγu Моңһл келнә Өөрд айлһ | |
Native to | Mongolia, Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan[1] |
Region | Khovd, Uvs,[2] Bayan-Ölgii,[3] Kalmykia, Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai |
Ethnicity | 655,372 Oirats |
Native speakers | 368,000, 58% of ethnic population (2007–2010)[4] |
Standard forms | |
Clear script (China: unofficial), Cyrillic (Russia: official) | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Kalmykia, Russia (in the form of Kalmyk); Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, China; Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture and Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 | xal |
ISO 639-3 | Either:xal – Modern Oiratxwo – Written Oirat |
xwo Written Oirat | |
Glottolog | kalm1243 |
Linguasphere | part of 44-BAA-b |
Oirat (
In all three countries, Oirat has become variously endangered or even obsolescent as a direct result of government actions or as a consequence of social and economic policies. Its most widespread tribal dialect, which is spoken in all of these nations, is Torgut.[1][8] The term Oirat or more precisely, Written Oirat is sometimes also used to refer to the language of historical documents written in the Clear script.[10]
Dialects
In Mongolia, there are seven historical Oirat dialects, each corresponding to a different tribe:[11]
- Bayat in the sums of Malchin, Khyargas, Tes and Züüngovi, Uvs
- Torgut in Bulgan sum, Khovd
- Erdenebüren, Khovd
- Zereg and Möst, Khovd
- Khoton in Tarialan, Uvs.
There are some varieties of Oirat that are difficult to classify. The Alasha dialect in Alxa League, Inner Mongolia, originally belonged to Oirat[12] and has been classified as such by some because of its phonology.[1] However, it has been classified by others as Mongolian proper because of its morphology.[13] The Darkhad dialect in Mongolia's Khövsgöl Province has variously been classified as Oirat, Mongolian proper, or (less often) Buryat.[14]
Endangered language
Oirat is
Script systems
Oirat has been written in two script systems: the Mongolian scripts and Cyrillic.
Historically, the
In Kalmykia, a Cyrillic-based script system has been implemented. It does not represent epenthetic vowels, and thus doesn't show syllabification.
In Mongolia, Central Mongolian minority varieties have no status, so Oirats are supposed to use Mongolian Cyrillic which de facto only represents Khalkha Mongolian.
References
Citations
- ^ a b c Svantesson et al. 2005: 148
- ^ Svantesson et al. 2005: 141
- ^ Coloo 1988: 1
- ^ Modern Oirat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Written Oirat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) - ^ cp. the distribution given by Svantesson et al. 2005: 141
- ^ Birtalan 2003. Note that she is not altogether clear about that matter as she writes: "For the present purpose, Spoken Oirat, from which Kalmuck is excluded, may therefore be treated as a more or less uniform language." (212). See also Sanžeev 1953
- ^ Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005
- ^ a b c d Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 396-398
- ^ Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005, Bläsing 2003: 229
- ^ Birtalan 2003: 210-211
- ^ Coloo 1988: 1-6
- ^ Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 265-266
- ^ Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 190-191
- ^ See literature given in Sanžaa and Tujaa 2001: 33-34
- ^ Bitkeeva 2007; for details see Bitkeeva 2006
- ^ Bitkeeva 2007
- ^ Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 179
- ^ Indjieva 2009: 59-65
- ^ Coloo 1988: III-IV
- ^ Chuluunbaatar 2008: 41
Sources
- Birtalan, Ágnes (2003): Oirat. In: Janhunen (ed.) 2003: 210–228.
- Bitkeeva, Aisa (2006): Kalmyckij yazyk v sovremennom mire. Moskva: NAUKA.
- Bitkeeva, Aisa (2007): Ethnic Language Identity and the Present Day Oirad-Kalmyks. Altai Hakpo, 17: 139–154.
- Bläsing, Uwe (2003): Kalmuck. In: Janhunen (ed.) 2003: 229–247.
- Chuluunbaatar, Otgonbayar (2008): Einführung in die mongolischen Schriften. Hamburg: Buske.
- Coloo, Ž. (1988): BNMAU dah’ mongol helnii nutgiin ajalguuny tol’ bichig: oird ayalguu. Ulaanbaatar: ŠUA.
- Indjieva, Elena (2009): Oirat Tobi: Intonational structure of the Oirat language. University of Hawaii. Dissertation.
- Janhunen, Juha (ed.) (2003): The Mongolic languages. London: Routledge.
- Katoh T., Mano S., Munkhbat B., Tounai K., Oyungerel G., Chae G. T., Han H., Jia G. J., Tokunaga K., Munkhtuvshin N., Tamiya G., Inoko H.: Genetic features of Khoton Mongolians revealed by SNP analysis of the X chromosome. Molecular Life Science, School of Medicine, Tokai University, Bohseidai, Isehara, Kanagawa, 259–1193, Japan. [Gene. 12 Sep. 2005].
- Sanžeev, G. D. (1953): Sravnitel’naja grammatika mongol’skih jazykov. Moskva: Akademija nauk SSSR.
- Sečenbaγatur, Qasgerel, Tuyaγ-a, B. ǰirannige, U Ying ǰe (2005): Mongγul kelen-ü nutuγ-un ayalγun-u sinǰilel-ün uduridqal. Kökeqota: Öbür mongγul-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriy-a.
- Svantesson, Jan-Olof, Anna Tsendina, Anastasia Karlsson, Vivan Franzén (2005): The Phonology of Mongolian. New York: Oxford University Press.