Khorchin dialect
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The Khorchin (Qorčin) dialect is a variety of Mongolian spoken in the east of Inner Mongolia, namely in Hinggan League, in the north, north-east and east of Hinggan and in all but the south of the Tongliao region.[1] There were 2,08 million Khorchin Mongols in China in 2000,[2] so the Khorchin dialect may well have more than one million speakers, making it the largest dialect of Inner Mongolia.
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[edit] Phonology
Khorchin has the consonant phonemes
/p/, /pʰ/, /t/, /tʰ/, /k/, /kʰ/, /x/, /ʧ/, /ʃ/, /s/ /j/, /r/, /w/, /ɮ/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/[3]
and the vowel phonemes
/ɑ/, /ɑː/, /ɛ/, /ɛː/, /ʊ/, /ʊː/, /u/, /uː/, /y/, /yː/, /i/, /iː/, /ɔ/, /ɔː/, /œ/, /œː/, /ə/,/əː/, /ɚ/[4]
The large vowel system hails from the depalatalization of consonants that left former allomorphic vowels as phonemes, hence /œ/ and /ɛ/. On the other hand, *ö is absent, eg Proto-Mongolic *ɵŋke > Kalmyk /ɵŋ/, Khalkha /oŋk/ 'colour',[5] but Khorchin /uŋ/, thus merging with /u/.[6] /y/ is absent in the native words of some varieties and /ɚ/ is completely restricted to loanwords from Chinese,[7] but as these make up a very substantial part of Khorchin vocabulary, it is not feasible to postulate a separate loanword phonology. This also resulted in a vowel harmony system that is rather different from Chakhar and Khalkha: /u/ may appear in non-initial syllables of words without regard for vowel harmony, as may /ɛ/ (eg /ɑtu/ 'horses' and /untʰɛ/ 'expensive';[8] Khalkha would have /ɑtʊ/ 'horses' and /untʰe/). On the other hand, /u/ still determines a word as front-vocalic when appearing in the first syllable, which doesn't hold for /ɛ/ and /i/.[9] In some subdialects, /ɛ/ and /œ/ which originated from palatalized /a/ and /ɔ/, have changed vowel harmony class according to their acoustic properties and become front vowels in the system, and the same holds for their long counterparts. Eg *mori-bar 'by horse' > Khorchin [mœːrœr] vs. Jalaid subdialect [mœːrər].[10]
On the consonant side, /ʧʰ/ has been replaced by /ʃ/, and in some varieties, /s/ is replaced by /tʰ/.[11] Then, *u (>ʊ) has regressively assimilated to / ɑ/ before *p, eg. *putaha (Written Mongolian budaγ-a) > pata ‘rice’.[12] However, less systematic changes that pertain only to a number of words are far more notable, eg *ʧʰital 'capacity'> Khorchin /xɛtl/.[13] This last example also illustrates that Khorchin allows for the consonant nuclei /l/ and /n/ (cp. [ɔln] 'many').[14]
[edit] Morphology
Khorchin uses the old comitative / -lɛ/ to delimit an action within a certain time. A similar function is fulfilled by the suffix -ɑri that is, however, restricted to environments in the past stratum.[15] In contrast to other Mongolian varieties, in Khorchin Chinese verbs can be directly borrowed; other varieties have to borrow Chinese verbs as Mongolian nouns and then derive these to verbs. Compare the new loan /ʧɑŋlu-/ 'to ask for money' < zhāngluó (张罗) with the older loan /ʧəːl-/ 'to borrow' < jiè (借)[16] that is present in all Mongolian varieties and contains the derivational suffix /-l-/.
[edit] References
- ^ Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 565
- ^ Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 317
- ^ Bayančoγtu 2002: Todurqayilalta 2-3; Bayančoγtu sometimes uses other symbols
- ^ Bayančoγtu 2002: 1, 80, Bayančoγtu also assumes a phoneme /ё/ (~ [ɤ]), but following the analysis of Svantesson et al. 2005 that claims that Mongolian (except for Ordos) only distinguishes phonemic and non-phonemic vowels in non-initial syllables, we arrive at an analysis where [ɤ] and [ə] are in complementary distribution, thus constituting only one phoneme. We thus arrive at the similar phoneme system as that of Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 317 who, however, don't mention the vowel /ɚ/ that is restricted to loanwords and doesn't play a role in the vowel harmony system of Khorchin.
- ^ Svantesson et al. 2005:135, 171
- ^ Bayančoγtu 2002: 15
- ^ Bayančoγtu 2002: 28-29
- ^ Bayančoγtu 2002: 89, 91
- ^ Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 328-329
- ^ Bayančoγtu 2002: 93
- ^ Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 327
- ^ Qai yan 2005: 92
- ^ Bayančoγtu 2002: 79
- ^ Bayančoγtu 2002: 109-110
- ^ Bayančoγtu 2002: 149
- ^ Bayančoγtu 2002: 529, 531-532
[edit] Bibliography
- Bayančoγtu (2002): Qorčin aman ayalγun-u sudulul. Kökeqota: Öbür mongγul-un yeke surγaγuli-yin keblel-ün qoriy-a.
- Qai yan (2003): Qorčin aman ayalγu ba aru qorčin aman ayalγun-u abiyan-u ǰarim neyitelig ončaliγ. In: Öbür mongγul-un ündüsüten-ü yeke surγaγuli 2005/3: 91-94.
- Sečenbaγatur et al. (2005): Mongγul kelen-ü nutuγ-un ayalγun-u sinǰilel-ün uduridqal. Kökeqota: Öbür mongγul-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriy-a.
- Svantesson, Jan-Olof, Anna Tsendina, Anastasia Karlsson, Vivan Franzén (2005): The Phonology of Mongolian. New York: Oxford University Press.
