Eastern Mongolic languages

Infobox Language family
name=Eastern Mongolic
region=Central Asia
familycolor=Altaic
fam1=Altaic [" [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90009] Ethnologue"] (controversial)
fam2=Mongolic
child1=Daur
child2=Mongour group
child3=Oirat-Khalkha group

The Eastern Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia. 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, Russia, and Inner Mongolia.

Classification

Eastern Mongolic groups include the following:
*Central Mongolic
**Khalkha (Halh) Mongolian (official language of Mongolia)
**Ordos (native form: Urdus)
**Chahar and the other Inner Mongolian dialects except for Alasha
*Western Mongolic (Oirat-Kalmyk-Darkhat)
**Oirat (Kalmyk) (Dialects: Torgut, Dorbet, Olot [Ööld, Elyut, Eleuth] , Khoshut [Khoshuud] )
**Darkhat
*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 Qinghai-Gansu Sprachbund Mongolic languages)
**Monguor (Also known as Tu, Dialects: Mongghul, Mangghuer, heavily influenced by Tibetan or Chinese)
**Kangjia
**Bonan
**Dongxiang (Santa)
*South-Central Mongolic
**Eastern Yugur (Shira Yugur)

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" [eg Sečenbaɣatur (2005): 193-194] 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 eg between Buryat and Khalkh Mongols during history thus creating or preserving a dialect continuum.

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90482 Ethnologue report on Eastern Mongolian languages]
* [http://www.chriskaplonski.com/mongolia/ethnicgroups.html Ethnic groups of Mongolia]
* [http://www.chriskaplonski.com/images/ethnicmap_med.jpgEthnic map of Mongolia]

References

* Janhunen, J. 2003. The Mongolic Languages. London.
* Sečenbaɣatur (2005): "Mongɣul kelen-ü nutuɣ-un ayalɣun-u sinǰilel-ün uduridqal". Kökeqota: Öbür mongɣul-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriy-a.