Chakhar dialect
Encyclopedia
The Chakhar dialect
is a variety of Mongolian
spoken the central region of Inner Mongolia
. It is phonologically close to Khalkha
and is the basis for the standard pronunciation of Mongolian in Inner Mongolia.
of recent loanword
s, Chakhar has the pharyngeal vowel
phonemes /ɑ/, /ɪ/, /ɔ/, /ʊ/ and the non-pharyngeal vowel phonemes /ə/, /i/, /o/, /u/ that adhere to vowel harmony
. All have long counterparts and some diphthongs exist as well. /ɪ/ has phoneme status only due to its occurrence as word-initial vowel in words like ɪlɑ̆x ‘to win’ (vs. ɑlɑ̆x ‘to kill’), thus /i/ (<*i) does occur in pharyngeal words as well. Through lexical diffusion
, /i/ <*e is to be observed in some words such as /in/ < *ene ‘this’, rather than in /ələ/ ‘kite (bird)’. However, long monophthong
vowels also include /e/ < *ei. The maximal syllable structure is CVCC. In word-final position, non-phonemic vowels often appear after aspirated and sometimes after unaspirated consonants. They are more frequent in male speech and almost totally disappear in compounds. The consonant
phonemes (again excluding loanwords) are
/n/, /nʲ/, /ŋ/, /b/ /bʲ/, /p/, /x/, /xʲ/, /ɡ/, /ɡʲ/, /m/, /mʲ/, /l/, /lʲ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /t/, /tʲ/, /d/, /dʲ/, /t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/, /j/, /r/, /rʲ/
while [k] (<*k) and [w] (<*p) that occur in loanwords and native words alike are only allophones of /x/ and /b/ in native words. Palatalized
vowels have phoneme status only in pharyngeal words.
s as Khalkha with approximately the same forms. There is a peculiar Allative case
suffix
, -ʊd/-ud, that has developed from *ödö (Mongolian script
<ödege>) 'upwards' and that seems to be a free allomorph
of the common -rʊ/-ru. The reflexive-possessive suffixes retain their final -ŋ (thus -ɑŋ<*-ban etc., while Khalkha has -ɑ).
Large numbers are counted according to the Chinese counting system in powers of 10.000. Collective numerals
can be combined with approximative numeral suffixes. So while ɑrwɑd 'about ten' and ɑrwʊl 'as a group of ten' a common in Mongolian, ɑrwɑdʊl 'as a group of about ten' seems to be peculiar to Chakhar.
The pronominal
system is much like that of Khalkha. The colloquial form of the 1. person
singular
accusative
(in which the idiosyncratic accusative stem is replaced) can be nadï instead of nadïɡ, and the alternation of i ~ ig does occur with other pronominal stems as well. This does not lead to confusion as the genitive is formed with mid-opened instead of closed front vowels, eg the 2. person singular genitive honorific
is [tanɛ] in Chakhar and usually [tʰanɪ] in Khalkha. The 3. person stems don't employ any oblique stems. The 1. person plural exclusive
man- has an almost complete case paradigm only excluding the nominative, while at least in written Khalkha anything but the genitive form is rare.
Chakhar has approximately the same participle
s as Khalkha, but -mar expresses potentiality, not desire, and consequently -xar functions as its free allomorph. On the other hand, there are some distinctive converbs such as -ba (from Chinese 吧 ba) 'if' and -ja (from 也 yè) 'although' which seem to be allomorphs of the suffixes -val and -wc of common Mongolian origin. The finite suffix -la might have acquired converbal status. Finally, -xlar ('if ... then ...') has turned into -xnar, and the form -man ~ -manjï̆n 'only if', which is absent in Khalkha, sometimes occurs. Chakhar has the same core declarative finite forms as Khalkha, but in addition -xui and -lgui to indicate strong probability.
s peculiar to the Chakhar dialect hail from Chinese
and Manchu
.
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
is a variety of Mongolian
Mongolian language
The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...
spoken the central region of Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
. It is phonologically close to Khalkha
Khalkha dialect
The Khalkha dialect is a dialect of Mongolian widely spoken in Mongolia and according to some classifications includes such South Mongolian varieties such as Shiliin gol, Ulaanchab and Sönid...
and is the basis for the standard pronunciation of Mongolian in Inner Mongolia.
Location and classification
There are three different definitions of the word Chakhar. First, there is Chakhar proper, spoken in the banners Shuluun Köke, Shuluun Köböötü Chagaan, Höböötü Shira, Taipusi, Chakhar Right Wing Rear, Chakhar Right Wing Middle, Chakhar Right Wing Front, Shangdu, Dolonnur and Huade with a number of approximately 100.000 speakers. In a broader definition, the Chakhar group contains the varieties Chakhar proper, Urat, Darkhan, Muumingan, Dörben Küüket, Keshigten of Ulanqab. In a very broad and controversial definition, it also contains the dialects of Xilin Gol such as Üjümchin, Sönit, Abaga, Shilinhot. The Southern Mongolian normative pronunciation is based on the variety of Chakhar proper as spoken in the Shuluun Köke banner.Phonology
Excluding the phonologyPhonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
of recent loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s, Chakhar has the pharyngeal vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
phonemes /ɑ/, /ɪ/, /ɔ/, /ʊ/ and the non-pharyngeal vowel phonemes /ə/, /i/, /o/, /u/ that adhere to vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
. All have long counterparts and some diphthongs exist as well. /ɪ/ has phoneme status only due to its occurrence as word-initial vowel in words like ɪlɑ̆x ‘to win’ (vs. ɑlɑ̆x ‘to kill’), thus /i/ (<*i) does occur in pharyngeal words as well. Through lexical diffusion
Lexical diffusion
In historical linguistics, lexical diffusion is both a phenomenon and a theory. The phenomenon is that by which a phoneme is modified in a subset of the lexicon, and spreads gradually to other lexical items...
, /i/ <*e is to be observed in some words such as /in/ < *ene ‘this’, rather than in /ələ/ ‘kite (bird)’. However, long monophthong
Monophthong
A monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation....
vowels also include /e/ < *ei. The maximal syllable structure is CVCC. In word-final position, non-phonemic vowels often appear after aspirated and sometimes after unaspirated consonants. They are more frequent in male speech and almost totally disappear in compounds. The consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
phonemes (again excluding loanwords) are
/n/, /nʲ/, /ŋ/, /b/ /bʲ/, /p/, /x/, /xʲ/, /ɡ/, /ɡʲ/, /m/, /mʲ/, /l/, /lʲ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /t/, /tʲ/, /d/, /dʲ/, /t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/, /j/, /r/, /rʲ/
while [k] (<*k) and [w] (<*p) that occur in loanwords and native words alike are only allophones of /x/ and /b/ in native words. Palatalized
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
vowels have phoneme status only in pharyngeal words.
Word classes and morphology
The case system of Chakhar has the same number of morphemeMorpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
s as Khalkha with approximately the same forms. There is a peculiar Allative case
Allative case
Allative case is a type of the locative cases used in several languages. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages which do not make finer distinctions.-Finnish language:In the Finnish language, the allative is the fifth of the locative cases, with the...
suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
, -ʊd/-ud, that has developed from *ödö (Mongolian script
Mongolian script
The classical Mongolian script , also known as Uyghurjin, was the first writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most successful until the introduction of Cyrillic in 1946...
<ödege>) 'upwards' and that seems to be a free allomorph
Allomorph
In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme. The concept occurs when a unit of meaning can vary in sound without changing meaning. The term allomorph explains the comprehension of phonological variations for specific morphemes....
of the common -rʊ/-ru. The reflexive-possessive suffixes retain their final -ŋ (thus -ɑŋ<*-ban etc., while Khalkha has -ɑ).
Large numbers are counted according to the Chinese counting system in powers of 10.000. Collective numerals
Number names
In linguistics, number names are specific words in a natural language that represent numbers.In writing, numerals are symbols also representing numbers...
can be combined with approximative numeral suffixes. So while ɑrwɑd 'about ten' and ɑrwʊl 'as a group of ten' a common in Mongolian, ɑrwɑdʊl 'as a group of about ten' seems to be peculiar to Chakhar.
The pronominal
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
system is much like that of Khalkha. The colloquial form of the 1. person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
accusative
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
(in which the idiosyncratic accusative stem is replaced) can be nadï instead of nadïɡ, and the alternation of i ~ ig does occur with other pronominal stems as well. This does not lead to confusion as the genitive is formed with mid-opened instead of closed front vowels, eg the 2. person singular genitive honorific
Honorific
An honorific is a word or expression with connotations conveying esteem or respect when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term is used not quite correctly to refer to an honorary title...
is [tanɛ] in Chakhar and usually [tʰanɪ] in Khalkha. The 3. person stems don't employ any oblique stems. The 1. person plural exclusive
Clusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...
man- has an almost complete case paradigm only excluding the nominative, while at least in written Khalkha anything but the genitive form
Chakhar has approximately the same participle
Participle
In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
s as Khalkha, but -mar expresses potentiality, not desire, and consequently -xar functions as its free allomorph. On the other hand, there are some distinctive converbs such as -ba (from Chinese 吧 ba) 'if' and -ja (from 也 yè) 'although' which seem to be allomorphs of the suffixes -val and -wc of common Mongolian origin. The finite suffix -la might have acquired converbal status. Finally, -xlar ('if ... then ...') has turned into -xnar, and the form -man ~ -manjï̆n 'only if', which is absent in Khalkha, sometimes occurs. Chakhar has the same core declarative finite forms as Khalkha, but in addition -xui and -lgui to indicate strong probability.
Lexicon
Most loanwordLoanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s peculiar to the Chakhar dialect hail from Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
and Manchu
Manchu language
Manchu is a Tungusic endangered language spoken in Northeast China; it used to be the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Mandarin Chinese and there are fewer than 70 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus...
.