A report on Southern Mongolian, Mongolic languages and Inner Mongolia
It is assumed by most Inner Mongolia linguists and would be on the same level as the other three major dialect groups Khalkha, Buryat, Oirat.
- Southern MongolianThe best-known member of this language family, Mongolian, is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia and the Mongol residents of Inner Mongolia, with an estimated 5.7+ million speakers.
- Mongolic languagesBecause Southern Mongolian would consist of all non-Buryat Mongolian varieties spoken in Inner Mongolia, this classification has been argued against by several linguists who hold that there is a dialect continuum between Khalkha and the Southern Mongolian varieties that rather favours grouping Chakhar, Ordos and Khalkha on the one hand and Khorchin and Kharchin on the other hand, or at least that "Mongolian proper" is an immediate member of Mongolian/Mongolic.
- Southern MongolianWithin Mongolian proper, they then draw a distinction between Khalkha on the one hand and Southern Mongolian (containing everything else) on the other hand.
- Mongolic languagesMongols in Inner Mongolia speak Mongolian dialects such as Chakhar, Xilingol, Baarin, Khorchin and Kharchin Mongolian and, depending on definition and analysis, further dialects or closely related independent Central Mongolic languages such as Ordos, Khamnigan, Barghu Buryat and the arguably Oirat dialect Alasha.
- Inner MongoliaThe standard pronunciation of Mongolian in China is based on the Chakhar dialect of the Plain Blue Banner, located in central Inner Mongolia, while the grammar is based on all Southern Mongolian dialects.
- Inner Mongolia3 related topics with Alpha
Oirat language
2 linksOirat (Clear script:, Oirad kelen, ; Kalmyk: Өөрд, Őrd; Khalkha Mongolian: Ойрад, Oirad) is a Mongolic language spoken by the descendants of Oirat Mongols, now forming parts of Mongols in China, Kalmyks in Russia and Mongolians.
The Alasha dialect in Alxa League in Inner Mongolia originally belonged to Oirat and has been classified as such by some because of its phonology.
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 were just two left as of 2009), policies aiming to curtail nomadism, and the limited occupational prospects in Chinese society for graduates of Mongolian schools.
Mongolian language
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Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia and both the most widely spoken and most-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 ethnic Mongol residents of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.
In Inner Mongolia, official language policy divides the Mongolian language into three dialects: Southern Mongolian, Oirat, and Barghu-Buryat.
Khalkha Mongolian
1 linksThe Khalkha dialect (Халх аялгуу / Halh ayalguu /, ) is a dialect of central Mongolic widely spoken in Mongolia.
According to some classifications, the Khalkha dialect includes Southern Mongolian varieties such as Shiliin gol, Ulaanchab and Sönid.
However, Mongolian scholars more often hold that the border between Khalkha and Chakhar is the border between the Mongolian state and the Chakhar area of South Mongolia.