The Mongolic leids are a group o leids spoken in Central Asie, notably includin Mongolian. Mongolic is whiles grouped wi Turkic an Tungusic as pairt o the lairger Altaic faimily.

The best-kent member o this leid faimily, Mongolian (in Cyrillic orthography as uised in Mongolie, Монгол Хэл, an in the vertical Uyghur-derived script as uised in Inner Mongolie, Cheenae, Mongγol Kele), is the primary leid o maist o the residents o Mongolie, an is spoken bi aroond 5.7 million fowk in Mongolie an Cheenae.

Classification

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Mongolic

This classification is ae ane amang mony. Notably, thare is a tendency amang Mongolian linguists tae include Central Mongolic, Wastren Mongolic an Northren Mongolic intae ane "Mongolian leid"[1] as opposed tae the rest o the leids which are then labelled as "Mongolic". This mey depend on Mutual intelligibility, but an analysis based on a tree diagram sic as the ane abuin faces ither problems due tae the close contacts aetween e.g. Buryat an Khalkh Mongols durin history sicweys creatin or preservin a dialect continuum. Anither problem lies in the sheer comparability o terminology as Western linguists uise leid an dialect, while Mongolian linguists uise the Grimmian trichotomy leid (kele), dialect (nutuγ-un ayalγu) an Mundart (aman ayalγu).

History

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Proto-Mongolic

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The Mongolic leids oreeginatit frae the Proto-Mongolic leid that wis spoken at the time when Genghis Khan unitit a nummer o tribes speakin Late Pre-Proto-Mongolic leids. The Proto-Mongolic leid is the oreegin o aw subsequent Mongolic leids. Insofar as its elements are preserved in thir les, it is possible tae speak o Common Mongolic. Thare are leids believed tae be relatit tae Proto-Mongolic, namely Tabghach (the leid o the foonders o the Northren Wei dynasty) an Khitan. In the case o Tabghach, the survivin evidence is vera sparse, sicweys ane can state that a generic relationship is possible. In the case o Khitan, thare is rich evidence, but maist o it is written in the twa Khitan scripts that hae as yet no been fully deciphered. Housomeivver, frae the available evidence it haes tae be concludit that a generic relationship tae Mongolic is vera likely. The common ancestor leid o thir twa leids an Proto-Mongolic micht be termed Pre-Proto-Mongolic.[2]

Auld Mongolian

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The first survivin Mongolian text is the Stele o Yisüngge, a report on sports in Mongolian script on stane, that is maist aften datit tae aboot 1224 or 1225.[3] Ither early soorces are written in Mongolian, Phagspa (decrees), Cheenese (the Secret history), Arabic (dictionaries) an a few ither wastren scripts.[4] Thir comprise the sae-cried Middle Mongolian leid that wis spoken frae the 13t tae the early 15t[5] or late 16t[6] century. The documents in Mongolian script show some distinct linguistic characteristics an are therefore aften distinguisht bi termin thair leid Preclassical Mongolian.[5] The next distinct period is Classical Mongolian that is datit frae the 17t tae the 19t century. It is a written leid wi a heich degree o staundartization in orthography an syntax that sets it quite apairt frae the subsequent Modren Mongolian. The maist notable documents in this leid are the Mongolian Kanjur an Tanjur[7] as well as a nummer o chronicles. Middle Mongolian includes mony Turkic loanwirds an aw, especially frae Auld Turkic, which are still uised in modren Mongolian leid.[8]

Notes

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  1. eg Sečenbaγatur (2005): 193–194
  2. Janhunen 2003b: 391–394, Janhunen 2003c: 1–3
  3. eg Γarudi 2002: 7
  4. Rybatzki 2003: 58
  5. a b Rybatzki 2003: 57
  6. Poppe 1964: 1
  7. Janhunen 2003a: 32
  8. Poppe, 1955

References

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  • Γarudi (2002): Dumdadu üy-e-yin mongγul kelen-ü bütüče-yin kelberi-yin sudulul [The study o grammatical forms in Middle Mongolian]. Kökeqota: Öbür mongγul-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriy-a.
  • Janhunen, Juha (ed.) (2003): The Mongolic languages. Lunnon: 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 (1955), "The Turkic Loanwords in Middle Mongolian", Central Asiatic Journal 1:1:36 full text
  • 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.
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