Oirat language
Encyclopedia
Oirat belongs to the group of Mongolic languages
. Scholars differ as to whether Oirat is a distinct language
or a major dialect
of the Mongolian language
. Oirat speaking areas are scattered across the far west of the Mongolian state
, the northwest of People's Republic of China
(mainly in Xinjiang
), and Russia
's Caspian coast, where its major variety
is Kalmyk
. In all three nations, 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 dialect, which is spoken in all of these nations, is Torgut. The term Oirat or, more precisely, Written Oirat is sometimes also used to refer to the language of historical documents written in the Clear script.
In Mongolia, there are seven historical Oirat dialects, each corresponding to a different tribe:
There are some varieties that are difficult to classify. The Alasha dialect
in Alxa League
in South Mongolia
originally belonged to Oirat and has been classified as such by some because of its phonology
. But it has been classified by others as Mongolian proper because of its morphology
. The Darkhad dialect in Mongolia's Khövsgöl Province has variously been classified as Oirat, Mongolian proper, or (less often) Buryat
.
Oirat is everywhere an endangered language
variety. In Russia, the killing of a large fraction of the Kalmyk population and the destruction of their society as consequences of the Kalmyk deportations of 1943, along with the subsequent imposition among them of Russian as the sole official language
have rendered the language obsolescent: it is almost exclusively old people that have a fluent command of Kalmyk. In China, while Oirat is still quite widely used in its traditional ranges and there are many monolingual speakers, a combination of government policies and social realities has created an environment deleterious to the use of this language: the Chinese authorities' adoption of Southern Mongolian as the normative
Mongolian language, new educational policies which have led to the virtual elimination of Mongolian schools in Xinjiang (there are just two left), policies aiming to curtail nomadism, and the limited occupational prospects in Chinese society for graduates of Mongolian schools. As for Mongolia, the predominance of the Khalkha dialect
is bringing about the Khalkhaization of all other varieties of Mongolian.
Mongolic languages
The Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in East-Central Asia, mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas plus in Kalmykia. The best-known member of this language family, Mongolian, is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia and the Mongolian residents of Inner...
. Scholars differ as to whether Oirat is a distinct language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
or a major dialect
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,...
of the Mongolian language
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...
. Oirat speaking areas are scattered across the far west of the Mongolian state
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
, the northwest of People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
(mainly in Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
), and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
's Caspian coast, where its major variety
Variety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
is Kalmyk
Kalmyk language
The Kalmyk language , or Russian Oirat, is the native speech of the Kalmyk people of the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal subject of the Russian Federation. In Russia, it is the normative form of the Oirat language , which belongs to the Mongolic language family...
. In all three nations, 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 dialect, which is spoken in all of these nations, is Torgut. 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.
In Mongolia, there are seven historical Oirat dialects, each corresponding to a different tribe:
- Dörbet is spoken in half of the sums of Uvs ProvinceUvs ProvinceUvs is one of the 21 aimags of Mongolia. It is located in the west of the country, 1336 km away from the national capital Ulaanbaatar.Its capital is Ulaangom which lies 936m above the Sea level....
and in DörgönDörgön, KhovdDörgön is a sum of Khovd Province in western Mongolia....
, Khovd Province - BayatBayatThe surname Bayat or Baiyat is derived from clans in Iran and Afghanistan.-Clans:Bayat is the name of an originally Turkic clan in Iran which traces its origin to the 12th century...
in the sums of MalchinMalchin, UvsMalchin is a sum of Uvs Province in western Mongolia....
, KhyargasKhyargas, UvsKhyargas is a sum of Uvs Province in western Mongolia.The sum is named after Khyargas lake, which is 80 km south of the sum center.The sum center was formerly located at another site, ....
, TesTes, UvsTes is a sum of Uvs Province in western Mongolia.It is named after the Tesiin gol river that flows through the sum. Part of the area is covered with sand dunes. The sum's western end is the eastern shore of Uvs Nuur....
and ZüüngoviZüüngovi, UvsZu'ungovi is a sum of Uvs Province in western Mongolia.It lies on the southern shore of Uvs Nuur. Part of the sum is covered with sand dunes....
, Uvs - Torgut in BulganBulgan, KhovdBulgan is a sum of Khovd Province in western Mongolia....
sum, Khovd - UriankhaiUriankhai"Uriankhai" , also known as Urianhai or Uryangkhai, is a term applied to several neighboring ethnic groups...
in the sums of DuutDuut, KhovdDuut is a sum of Khovd Province in western Mongolia....
and MönkhkhairkhanMönkhkhairkhan, KhovdMönkhkhairkhan is a sum of Khovd Province in western Mongolia. It is named after Mount Mönkhkhairkhan....
, Khovd and in the sums of AltaiAltai, Bayan-ÖlgiiAltai is a town and sum of Bayan-Ölgii Province in western Mongolia....
, Buyant and BulganBulgan, Bayan-ÖlgiiBulgan is a sum of Bayan-Ölgii Province in western Mongolia....
, Bayan-Ölgii Province - Ööld in ErdenebürenErdenebüren, KhovdErdenebüren is a sum of Khovd Province in western Mongolia....
, Khovd - ZakhchinZakhchinZakhchin is a subgroup of the Oirats residing in Khovd Province, Mongolia.Zakhchin means 'Border people'. They are so called because they are originated form the border garrison of Dzungar Empire...
in the sums of MankhanMankhan, KhovdMankhan is a sum of Khovd Province in western Mongolia.-Notable people:* Damdiny Demberel, long standing member and since 2008 speaker of the State Great Khural, was born in Mankhan....
, AltaiAltai, KhovdAltai is a sum of Khovd Province in western of Mongolia....
, ÜyenchÜyench, KhovdÜyench is a sum of Khovd Province in western Mongolia....
, ZeregZereg, KhovdZereg is a sum of Khovd Province in western Mongolia. It is the birthplace of Mongolia's president, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj....
and MöstMöst, KhovdMöst is a sum of Khovd Province in western Mongolia....
, Khovd - Khoton in TarialanTarialan, UvsTarialan is a sum of Uvs Province in western Mongolia.It is the closest sum to Ulaangom, only about 30 km away from the provincial capital. The center of the sum is on Kharkhiraa river coming out of the Kharkhiraa mountain....
, Uvs.
There are some varieties that are difficult to classify. The Alasha dialect
Alasha dialect
Alasha ; Mongolian script Alaša, Chinese 阿拉善 Ālāshàn), or ', is a variety in-between Oirat and Mongolian that historically used to belong to Oirat but has come under the influence of Mongolian proper. It is spoken by well above 40.000 speakers in Alasha league in South Mongolia and consists of two...
in Alxa League
Alxa League
Alxa League is one of 12 prefecture level divisions and three extant leagues of Inner Mongolia. The league borders Mongolia to the north, Bayan Nur to the northeast, Wuhai and Ordos to the east, Ningxia to the southeast, and Gansu to the south and west. The capital is Bayan Hot in the aimag's...
in South 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...
originally belonged to Oirat and has been classified as such by some because of its phonology
Phonology
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...
. But it has been classified by others as Mongolian proper because of its morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
. The Darkhad dialect in Mongolia's Khövsgöl Province has variously been classified as Oirat, Mongolian proper, or (less often) Buryat
Buryat language
Buryat is a Mongolic variety spoken by the Buryats that is either classified as a language or as a major dialect group of Mongolian. The majority of Buryat speakers live in Russia along the northern border of Mongolia where it is an official language in the Buryat Republic, Ust-Orda Buryatia and...
.
Oirat is everywhere an endangered language
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
variety. In Russia, the killing of a large fraction of the Kalmyk population and the destruction of their society as consequences of the Kalmyk deportations of 1943, along with the subsequent imposition among them of Russian as the sole official language
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
have rendered the language obsolescent: it is almost exclusively old people that have a fluent command of Kalmyk. In China, while Oirat is still quite widely used in its traditional ranges and there are many monolingual speakers, a combination of government policies and social realities has created an environment deleterious to the use of this language: the Chinese authorities' adoption of Southern Mongolian as the normative
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
Mongolian language, new educational policies which have led to the virtual elimination of Mongolian schools in Xinjiang (there are just two left), policies aiming to curtail nomadism, and the limited occupational prospects in Chinese society for graduates of Mongolian schools. As for Mongolia, the predominance of the Khalkha dialect
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...
is bringing about the Khalkhaization of all other varieties of Mongolian.
Numerals
| English | Classical Mongolian | Oirat | |
| 1 | One | Nigen | Nige(n) |
| 2 | Two | Qoyar | Khoyor |
| 3 | Three | Ghurban | Ghurba(n) |
| 4 | Four | Dorben | Dorbo(n) |
| 5 | Five | Tabun | Tabu(n) |
| 6 | Six | Jirghughan | Zurghaa(n) |
| 7 | Seven | Dologhan | Doloo(n) |
| 8 | Eight | Naiman | Nayima(n) |
| 9 | Nine | Yisun | Yesu(n) |
| 10 | Ten | Arban | Arba(n) |