The Mongolic languages are a

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...

spoken by the

Mongolic peoples The Mongolic peoples are a collection of East Asian originated ethnic groups in East, North, South Asia and Eastern Europe, who speak Mongolic languages. Their ancestors are referred to as Proto-Mongols. The largest contemporary Mongolic et ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

North Asia North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains ...

and

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...

, mostly in

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this language family, Mongolian, is the primary language of most of the residents of

and the

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

residents of

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

, with an estimated 5.7+ million speakers.

Classification

The Mongolic languages have no convincingly established living relatives. The closest relatives of the Mongolic languages appear to be the para-Mongolic languages, which include the extinct Khitan,

Tuyuhun Tuyuhun (; LHC: *''tʰɑʔ-jok-guənʔ''; Wade-Giles: ''T'u-yühun''), also known as Henan () and Azha (; ), was a dynastic kingdom established by the nomadic peoples related to the Xianbei in the Qilian Mountains and upper Yellow River valle ...

, and possibly also

Tuoba The Tuoba (reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation: *''tʰak-bɛt''), also known as the Taugast or Tabgach ( otk, 𐱃𐰉𐰍𐰲 ''Tabγač''), was a Xianbei clan in Imperial China.Wei Shou. ''Book of Wei''. Vol. 1 During the Sixteen Kingdo ...

languages. A few linguists have grouped Mongolic with Turkic, Tungusic and possibly Koreanic and

Japonic Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan, sometimes also Japanic, is a language family comprising Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and ...

as part of the widely discredited

Altaic family Altaic (; also called Transeurasian) is a controversial proposed language family that would include the Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language families and possibly also the Japonic and Koreanic languages. Speakers of these languages are ...

History

The stages of Historical Mongolic are: * Pre-Proto-Mongolic, from approximately the 4th century AD until the 12th century AD, influenced by Common Turkic, and previously by Bulgar Turkic. * Proto-Mongolic, from approximately the 13th century AD, spoken around the time of

Chinggis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; ; xng, Temüjin, script=Latn; ., name=Temujin – August 25, 1227) was the founder and first Great Khan (Emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in history a ...

. * Middle Mongol (depending on classification spoken from the 13th century until the early 15th century or late 16th century; given the almost entire lack of written sources for the period in between, an exact cutoff point cannot be established) *

Classical Mongolian Classical Mongolian was the literary language of Mongolian which was first introduced shortly after 1600, when Ligdan Khan set his clergy the task of translating the whole of the Tibetan Buddhist canon, consisting of the Kanjur and Tanjur, into M ...

, from approximately 1700 to 1900 * Standard Mongolian The standard Mongolian language has been in official use since 1919, and this form of the language is used in the economic, political, and social fields. The script for standard Mongolian uses a version of the Russian alphabet called the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet. It was introduced in the 1940s in the Mongolian People's Republic under Soviet influence, after a brief period where Latin was used as the official script. After the Mongolian democratic revolution in 1990, the traditional Mongolian script was considered to replace Cyrillic, but this plan was not adopted. However, the government announced it will be official by 2025.

Languages

Contemporary Mongolic languages are as follows. The classification and numbers of speakers follow Janhunen (2006), except for Southern Mongolic, which follows Nugteren (2011). ; Mongolic * Dagur (96,000 speakers) * Central Mongolic **

Khamnigan The Khamnigan, Hamnigan Mongols, or the Tungus Evenki, are a Tungusic- Mongolic ethnic (sub)group of Mongolized Evenks. Khamnigan is the Buriat- Mongolian term for all Ewenkis. In the early 16th century, the Evenks of Transbaikalia or Khamnigan ...

(2,000 speakers) ** Buryat (330,000 speakers) ** Mongolian proper (5.2 million speakers) *** Eastern and Central dialect ****

Khalkha The Khalkha (Mongolian script, Mongolian: mn, Халх, Halh, , zh, 喀爾喀) have been the largest subgroup of Mongols, Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos Mongols, Ordos and Tum ...

**** Chakhar ****

Khorchin The Khorchin ( mn, Хорчин, ''Horçin''; ''Qorčin''; ) are a subgroup of the Mongols that speak the Khorchin dialect of Mongolian and predominantly live in northeastern Inner Mongolia of China. History The Ming dynasty gave Borjigin p ...

Ordos Ordos may refer to: Inner Mongolia * Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China **Ordos Ejin Horo Airport * Ordos Loop of the Yellow River, a region of China **Ordos Plateau or "the Ordos", land enclosed by Ordos Loop *Ordos Desert, in Inner Mongolia *Ordos ...

(123,000 speakers) ** Oirat (including Kalmyk) (360,000 speakers) * Southern Mongolic (part of a Gansu–Qinghai Sprachbund) ** Shira Yugur (4,000 speakers) ** ***

Monguor Mongour, formerly also known by various names including Tu and Dchiahour, may refer to: * Monguor people * Monguor language The Monguor language (; also written Mongour and Mongor) is a Mongolic language of its Shirongolic branch and is part of ...

(150,000 speakers) *** Bonan (6,000 speakers) ***

Santa Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

(Dongxiang) (200,000 speakers) *** Kangjia (1,000 speakers) * Moghol (200 speakers)

Alexander Vovin Alexander (Sasha) Vladimirovich Vovin (russian: Александр Владимирович Вовин; 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022) was a Soviet-born Russian-American linguist and philologist, and director of studies at the School for Ad ...

(2007) identifies the extinct Tabγač or

Tuoba language Tuoba (Tabγač or Tabghach; also Taγbač or Taghbach; ) is an extinct language spoken by the Tuoba people in northern China around the 5th century AD during the Northern Wei dynasty. Classification Alexander Vovin (2007) identifies the Tuoba la ...

as a Mongolic language. However, Chen (2005) argues that Tuoba (Tabγač) was a

Turkic language The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...

. Vovin (2018) suggests that the

Ruanruan language Ruanruan (; also called Rouran) is an unclassified extinct language of Mongolia and northern China, spoken in the Rouran Khaganate from the 4th to the 6th centuries AD, considered a likely early precursor to Mongolic. Peter A. Boodberg claimed ...

of the Rouran Khaganate was a Mongolic language, close but not identical to Middle Mongolian. In another classificational approach, there is a tendency to call Central Mongolian a language consisting of Mongolian proper, Oirat and Buryat, while Ordos (and implicitly also Khamnigan) is seen as a variety of Mongolian proper. Within Mongolian proper, they then draw a distinction between Khalkha on the one hand and

Southern Mongolian Southern Mongolian or Inner Mongolian ( ') is a proposed major dialect group within the taxonomy of the Mongolian language. Overview It is assumed by most Inner Mongolia linguists and would be on the same level as the other three major dialect gro ...

(containing everything else) on the other hand. A less common subdivision of Central Mongolic is to divide it into a Central dialect (Khalkha, Chakhar, Ordos), an Eastern dialect (Kharchin, Khorchin), a Western dialect (Oirat, Kalmyk), and a Northern dialect (consisting of two Buryat varieties). The broader delimitation of Mongolian may be based on

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

, but an analysis based on a tree diagram such as the one above faces other problems because of the close contacts between, for example, Buryat and Khalkha Mongols during history, thus creating or preserving a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

. Another problem lies in the sheer comparability of terminology, as Western linguists use ''language'' and ''dialect'', while Mongolian linguists use the Grimmian trichotomy ''language'' (kele), ''dialect'' (nutuγ-un ayalγu) and ''Mundart'' (aman ayalγu). Rybatzki (2003: 388-389) recognizes the following 6 areal subgroups of Mongolic. * Northeastern Mongolic (NE) = Dagur * Northern Mongolic (N) =

Khamnigan Mongol Khamnigan is a Mongolic language spoken east of Lake Baikal. The Khamnigan people, called the ''Horse Tungus'' or ''Steppe Tungus'', are natively bilingual, speaking both a Mongolic and a Tungusic language, which are inherited from their mixe ...

– Buryat * Central Mongolic (C) = Mongol proper–

– Oirat * South-Central Mongolic (SC) = Shira Yughur * Southeastern Mongolic (SE) = Mongghul– Mangghuer– Bonan–

- Kangjia * Southwestern Mongolic (SW) = Moghol

Mixed languages

The following are mixed

Sinitic The Sinitic languages (漢語族/汉语族), often synonymous with "Chinese languages", are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is ...

–Mongolic languages. * Tangwang (mixed

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

–

) * Wutun (mixed

– Bonan)

Pre-Proto-Mongolic

''Pre-Proto-Mongolic'' is the name for the stage of Mongolic that precedes Proto-Mongolic. Proto-Mongolic can be clearly identified chronologically with the language spoken by the Mongols during Genghis Khan's early expansion in the 1200-1210s. ''Pre-Proto-Mongolic'', by contrast, is a continuum that stretches back indefinitely in time. It is divided into ''Early Pre-Proto-Mongolic'' and ''Late Pre-Proto-Mongolic''. Late Pre-Proto-Mongolic refers to the Mongolic spoken a few centuries before Proto-Mongolic by the Mongols and neighboring tribes like the

Merkit The Merkit (literally ''"skillful/wise ones"''; mn, ᠮᠡᠷᠬᠢᠳ ; Мэргид, translit=, Mergid; ) was one of the five major tribal confederations (''khanlig'') of probably Mongol

s and

Kerait The Keraites (also ''Kerait, Kereit, Khereid''; ; ) were one of the five dominant Mongol or Turkic tribal confederations ( khanates) in the Altai-Sayan region during the 12th century. They had converted to the Church of the East ( Nestorianism ...

s. Certain archaic words and features in Written Mongol go back past Proto-Mongolic to Late Pre-Proto-Mongolic (Janhunen 2006).

Relationship with Turkic

Pre-Proto-Mongolic has borrowed various words from

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...

. In the case of Early Pre-Proto-Mongolic, certain loanwords in the Mongolic languages point to early contact with Oghur (Pre-Proto-Bulgaric) Turkic, also known as r-Turkic. These loanwords precede

Common Turkic Common Turkic, or Shaz Turkic, is a taxon in some classifications of the Turkic languages that includes all of them except the Oghuric languages. Classification Lars Johanson's proposal contains the following subgroups: * Southwestern Common ...

(z-Turkic) loanwords and include: *Mongolic ''ikere'' (twins) from Pre-Proto-Bulgaric ''ikir'' (versus Common Turkic ''ekiz'') *Mongolic ''hüker'' (ox) from Pre-Proto-Bulgaric ''hekür'' (Common Turkic ''öküz'') *Mongolic ''jer'' (weapon) from Pre-Proto-Bulgaric ''jer'' (Common Turkic ''yäz'') *Mongolic ''biragu'' (calf) versus Common Turkic ''buzagu'' *Mongolic ''siri-'' (to smelt ore) versus Common Turkic ''siz-'' (to melt) The above words are thought to have been borrowed from Oghur Turkic during the time of the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...

. Later

Turkic peoples The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members speak languages belonging t ...

in Mongolia all spoke forms of Common Turkic (z-Turkic) as opposed to Oghur (Bulgharic) Turkic, which withdrew to the west in the 4th century. The

Chuvash language Chuvash ( , ; , , ) is a Turkic language spoken in European Russia, primarily in the Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages, one of the two principal branches of the Tur ...

, spoken by 1 million people in European Russia, is the only living representative of Oghur Turkic which split from Proto Turkic around the 1st century AD. Words in Mongolic like ' (brown, Common Turkic ''yagiz'') and ''nidurga'' (fist, Common Turkic ''yudruk'') with initial *d and *n versus Common Turkic *y are sufficiently archaic to indicate loans from an earlier stage of Oghur (Pre-Proto-Bulgaric). This is because Chuvash and Common Turkic do not differ in these features despite differing fundamentally in rhotacism-lambdacism (Janhunen 2006). Oghur tribes lived in the Mongolian borderlands before the 5th century, and provided Oghur loanwords to Early Pre-Proto-Mongolic before Common Turkic loanwords.

Altaic

Following

Sergei Starostin Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin (russian: Серге́й Анато́льевич Ста́ростин; March 24, 1953 – September 30, 2005) was a Russian historical linguist and philologist, perhaps best known for his reconstructions of hypothet ...

Martine Robbeets Martine Robbeets is a Belgian comparative linguist. She is known for the Transeurasian languages hypothesis, which groups the Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic languages together into a single language family. Education Robb ...

suggested that Mongolic languages belong to a " Transeurasian" superfamily also comprising

Japonic languages Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan, sometimes also Japanic, is a language family comprising Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

Tungusic languages The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu-Tungus and Tungus) form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered. There are approximately 75,000 native speakers of the doz ...

and

, but this view has been severely criticized.

Proto-Mongolic

''Proto-Mongolic'', the ancestor language of the modern Mongolic languages, is very close to Middle Mongol, the language spoken at the time of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. Most features of modern Mongolic languages can thus be reconstructed from Middle Mongol. An exception would be the voice suffix like -caga- 'do together', which can be reconstructed from the modern languages but is not attested in Middle Mongol. The languages of the historical Donghu,

Wuhuan The Wuhuan (, < Eastern Han Chinese: *''ʔɑ-ɣuɑn'', <

, and

Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into th ...

peoples might have been related to Proto-Mongolic. For

Tabghach The Tuoba (reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation: *''tʰak-bɛt''), also known as the Taugast or Tabgach ( otk, 𐱃𐰉𐰍𐰲 ''Tabγač''), was a Xianbei clan in Imperial China.Wei Shou. '' Book of Wei''. Vol. 1 During the Sixteen King ...

, the language of the founders of the Northern Wei dynasty, for which the surviving evidence is very sparse, and Khitan, for which evidence exists that is written in the two Khitan scripts (

large Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms ( ...

and small) which have as yet not been fully deciphered, a direct affiliation to Mongolic can now be taken to be most likely or even demonstrated.see Vovin 2007 for Tabghach and Janhunen 2012 for Khitan

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* * * Janhunen, Juha. 2012
Khitan – Understanding the language behind the scripts
SCRIPTA, Vol. 4: 107–132. * * * * * * echenbaatarSečenbaγatur, Qasgerel, Tuyaγ-a, B. ǰirannige, U Ying ǰe. (2005). ''Mongγul kelen-ü nutuγ-un ayalγun-u sinǰilel-ün uduridqal''. Kökeqota: ÖMAKQ. * * * * * Vovin, Alexander. 2007. Once again on the Tabgač language. Mongolian Studies XXIX: 191–206.

External links

Ethnic map of Mongolia

grammars, texts, dictionaries and bibliographies of Mongolian and other Altaic languages {{DEFAULTSORT:Mongolic Languages Mongolic–Khitan languages Languages of Mongolia Languages of China Languages of Russia Languages of Afghanistan Languages of Kyrgyzstan