Mongolian is the principal language of the Mongolic language family that originated in the Mongolian Plateau . It is spoken by ethnic Mongols and other closely related Mongolic peoples who are native to modern Mongolia and surrounding parts of East and North Asia . Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia and a recognized language of Xinjiang and Qinghai .
98-534: Toghrul ( Mongolian : Тоорил хан Tooril han ; Chinese : 脫里 ), also known as Wang Khan or Ong Khan ( Ван хан Wan han ; Chinese : 王汗 ; pinyin : Wáng Hán ; died 1203), was a khan of the Keraites . He was the blood brother ( anda ) of the Mongol chief Yesugei and served as an important early patron and ally to Yesugei's son Temüjin, later known as Genghis Khan . The main source on his life
196-776: A literary standard for Mongolian in whose grammar is said to be based on the Standard Mongolian of Inner Mongolia and whose pronunciation is based on the Chakhar dialect as spoken in the Plain Blue Banner . Dialectologically, however, western Mongolian dialects in Inner Mongolia are closer to Khalkha than they are to eastern Mongolian dialects in Inner Mongolia: e.g. Chakhar is closer to Khalkha than to Khorchin. Juha Janhunen (2003: 179) lists
294-564: A Kerait clan, the Tumen Tubegen, and a large part of the survivors became Toghrul's followers. The Keraites returned fully to Toghrul around 1198. The Naimans remained neutral and offered no help to Erke Qara because the Naiman people were then divided between two kings. Buyruq khan took the southern part and Tayang khan inherited the northern part of the Naiman lands. Erke Qara fled for the second time, this time to Buyruq khan. To reward
392-616: A distrust of one another. When the forces of coalition came together to fight Buyruq's army, they quickly realized that the Naiman lands were conducive to a long pursuit. Indeed, Toghrul had a hard time chasing his enemies because they had plenty of ground to escape. After a hike of a few hundred kilometers, Toghrul realized that he could never catch them and came back. Buyruq's general Kökse Sabraq attacked Toghrul who moved away from Temujin, defeated Toghrul's son Senggüm, capturing his son and wife in process. However they were beaten back thanks to aid from Temujin. In 1200, Toghrul aided Temujin, who
490-811: A fierce battle in which he was wounded. Toghrul was present and assumed command, but he was more or less unable to fight himself given his advanced age and withdrew his men from the fight. Some of Keraits joined the forces with Temujin during and after the battle. After this battle, the Battle of the Burning Sands , Temujin received the help of the Qonggirats who had confronted him during the first battle of Kerulen and then fled to Jamukha. Toghrul and Ilga, however, were still more numerous. Temujin sent ambassadors to demand peace, as he wished to renew his friendship with Toghrul. Ilga, now choosing for his father, rejected
588-705: A language Sprachbund , rather than common origin. Mongolian literature is well attested in written form from the 13th century but has earlier Mongolic precursors in the literature of the Khitan and other Xianbei peoples. The Bugut inscription dated to 584 CE and the Inscription of Hüis Tolgoi dated to 604–620 CE appear to be the oldest substantial Mongolic or Para-Mongolic texts discovered. Writers such as Owen Lattimore referred to Mongolian as "the Mongol language". The earliest surviving Mongolian text may be
686-590: A much broader "Mongolian language" consisting of 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). Additionally, the Language Policy in the People's Republic of China: Theory and Practice Since 1949 , states that Mongolian can be classified into four dialects: the Khalkha dialect in
784-538: A parameter called ATR ( advanced tongue root ); the groups are −ATR, +ATR, and neutral. This alignment seems to have superseded an alignment according to oral backness. However, some scholars still describe Mongolian as being characterized by a distinction between front vowels and back vowels, and the front vowel spellings 'ö' and 'ü' are still often used in the West to indicate two vowels which were historically front. The Mongolian vowel system also has rounding harmony. Length
882-535: A postalveolar or palatalized consonant will be followed by an epenthetic [i] , as in [ˈatʃĭɮ] . Stress in Mongolian is nonphonemic (does not distinguish different meanings) and thus is considered to depend entirely on syllable structure. But scholarly opinions on stress placement diverge sharply. Most native linguists, regardless of which dialect they speak, claim that stress falls on the first syllable. Between 1941 and 1975, several Western scholars proposed that
980-426: A short first syllable are stressed on the second syllable. But if their first syllable is long, then the data for different acoustic parameters seems to support conflicting conclusions: intensity data often seems to indicate that the first syllable is stressed, while F0 seems to indicate that it is the second syllable that is stressed. The grammar in this article is also based primarily on Khalkha Mongolian. Unlike
1078-483: A special role is played by converbs . Modern Mongolian evolved from Middle Mongol , the language spoken in the Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries. In the transition, a major shift in the vowel-harmony paradigm occurred, long vowels developed, the case system changed slightly, and the verbal system was restructured. Mongolian is related to the extinct Khitan language . It was believed that Mongolian
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#17327837321351176-591: A system of vowel harmony : For historical reasons, these have been traditionally labeled as "front" vowels and "back" vowels, as /o/ and /u/ developed from /ø/ and /y/, while /ɔ/ and /ʊ/ developed from /o/ and /u/ in Middle Mongolian. Indeed, in Mongolian romanizations , the vowels /o/ and /u/ are often conventionally rendered as ⟨ö⟩ and ⟨ü⟩ , while the vowels /ɔ/ and /ʊ/ are expressed as ⟨o⟩ and ⟨u⟩ . However, for modern Mongolian phonology, it
1274-767: A year according to the Secret History. It was after leaving the Qara-Khitai that he finally decided to join Genghis Khan. According to Rashid al-Din , he would have reached Genghis Khan's encampment by 1196. Toghrul became his guest for about two years. Living in exile, Toghrul was aided by Temujin who undertook an attack to the Merkits for a second time and gave a large part of the booty to Toghrul who gifted it to different Kerait chiefs to consolidate allies with his tribe of origin. Temujin then allegedly attacked
1372-521: Is Classical Mongolian , which is dated from the 17th to the 19th century. This is a written language with a high degree of standardization in orthography and syntax that sets it quite apart from the subsequent Modern Mongolian. The most notable documents in this language are the Mongolian Kangyur and Tengyur as well as several chronicles. In 1686, the Soyombo alphabet ( Buddhist texts )
1470-433: Is determined according to phonotactic requirements. The following table lists the consonants of Khalkha Mongolian. The consonants enclosed in parentheses occur only in loanwords. The occurrence of palatalized consonant phonemes, except /tʃ/ /tʃʰ/ /ʃ/ /j/ , is restricted to words with [−ATR] vowels. A rare feature among the world's languages, Mongolian has neither a voiced lateral approximant, such as [l] , nor
1568-409: Is ellipsis . The rules governing the morphology of Mongolian case endings are intricate, and so the rules given below are only indicative. In many situations, further (more general) rules must also be taken into account in order to produce the correct form: these include the presence of an unstable nasal or unstable velar, as well as the rules governing when a penultimate vowel should be deleted from
1666-466: Is CVVCCC, where the last C is a word-final suffix. A single short vowel rarely appears in syllable-final position . If a word was monosyllabic historically, *CV has become CVV. In native words, the following consonants do not occur word-initially: /w̜/ , /ɮ/ , /r/ , /w̜ʲ/ , /ɮʲ/ , /rʲ/ , /tʰʲ/ , and /tʲ/ . [ŋ] is restricted to codas (else it becomes [n] ), and /p/ and /pʲ/ do not occur in codas for historical reasons. For two-consonant clusters,
1764-438: Is a +ATR vowel, then every vowel of the word must be either /i/ or a +ATR vowel. In the case of suffixes, which must change their vowels to conform to different words, two patterns predominate. Some suffixes contain an archiphoneme /A/ that can be realized as /a, ɔ, e, o/ ; e.g. Other suffixes can occur in /U/ being realized as /ʊ, u/ , in which case all −ATR vowels lead to /ʊ/ and all +ATR vowels lead to /u/ ; e.g. If
1862-426: Is a typical agglutinative language that relies on suffix chains in the verbal and nominal domains. While there is a basic word order, subject–object–verb , ordering among noun phrases is relatively free, as grammatical roles are indicated by a system of about eight grammatical cases . There are five voices . Verbs are marked for voice, aspect , tense and epistemic modality / evidentiality . In sentence linking,
1960-472: Is also valid for vernacular (spoken) Khalkha and other Mongolian dialects, especially Chakhar Mongolian . Some classify several other Mongolic languages like Buryat and Oirat as varieties of Mongolian, but this classification is not in line with the current international standard. Mongolian is a language with vowel harmony and a complex syllabic structure compared to other Mongolic languages, allowing clusters of up to three consonants syllable-finally. It
2058-491: Is based primarily on the Khalkha dialect as spoken in Ulaanbaatar , Mongolia's capital. The phonologies of other varieties such as Ordos, Khorchin, and even Chakhar, differ considerably. This section discusses the phonology of Khalkha Mongolian with subsections on Vowels, Consonants, Phonotactics and Stress. The standard language has seven monophthong vowel phonemes. They are aligned into three vowel harmony groups by
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#17327837321352156-566: Is impeded by the fact that existing data for the major varieties is not easily arrangeable according to a common set of linguistic criteria. Such data might account for the historical development of the Mongolian dialect continuum , as well as for its sociolinguistic qualities. Though phonological and lexical studies are comparatively well developed, the basis has yet to be laid for a comparative morphosyntactic study, for example between such highly diverse varieties as Khalkha and Khorchin. In Juha Janhunen's book titled Mongolian , he groups
2254-410: Is more appropriate to instead characterize the two vowel-harmony groups by the dimension of tongue root position. There is also one neutral vowel, /i/ , not belonging to either group. All the vowels in a non compound word, including all its suffixes, must belong to the same group. If the first vowel is −ATR, then every vowel of the word must be either /i/ or a −ATR vowel. Likewise, if the first vowel
2352-1269: Is phonemic for vowels, and except short [e], which has merged into short [i], at least in Ulaanbaatar dialect, each of the other six phonemes occurs both short and long. Phonetically, short /o/ has become centralised to the central vowel [ɵ] . In the following table, the seven vowel phonemes, with their length variants, are arranged and described phonetically. The vowels in the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet are: Khalkha also has four diphthongs : historically /ui, ʊi, ɔi, ai/ but are pronounced more like [ʉe̯, ʊe̯, ɞe̯, æe̯] ; e.g. ой in нохой ( nohoi ) [nɔ̙ˈχɞe̯] 'dog', ай in далай ( dalai ) [taˈɮæe̯] sea', уй in уйлах ( uilah ) [ˈʊe̯ɮɐχ] 'to cry', үй in үйлдвэр ( üildver ) [ˈʉe̯ɮtw̜ɘr] 'factory', эй in хэрэгтэй ( heregtei ) [çiɾɪxˈtʰe] 'necessary'. There are three additional rising diphthongs /ia/ (иа), /ʊa/ (уа) /ei/ (эй); e.g. иа in амиараа ( amiaraa ) [aˈmʲæɾa] 'individually', уа in хуаран ( huaran ) [ˈχʷaɾɐɴ] 'barracks'. This table below lists vowel allophones (short vowels allophones in non-initial positions are used interchangeably with schwa): Mongolian divides vowels into three groups in
2450-647: Is still found among the Kazakhs , Uzbeks and Nogai Karakalpaks Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire in 1206. His grandson, Kublai Khan , after defeating his younger brother and rival claimant to the throne Ariq Böke , founded the Yuan dynasty of China in 1271. The dynasty was overthrown by the Ming dynasty during the reign of Toghon Temür in 1368, but it survived in the Mongolian Plateau , known as
2548-634: Is the Secret History of the Mongols . "Wang Khan" was the name given to Toghrul by the Jurchen -led Jin dynasty of China; Wang means king or prince. During the 13th century, Toghrul was one of several Asian leaders who was identified with the legend of Prester John , but also King David, a brother to John. Although the Keraites converted to Nestorianism , a sect of Christianity , early in
2646-402: Is word-final, it gets stressed anyway. In cases where there is only one phonemic short word-initial syllable, even this syllable can get the stress: More recently, the most extensive collection of phonetic data so far in Mongolian studies has been applied to a partial account of stress placement in the closely related Chakhar dialect. The conclusion is drawn that di- and trisyllabic words with
2744-694: The Jurchen -led Jin dynasty of China. The Tatars were considered by the Jurchens to be harmful and the opportunity was perfect to exterminate them. When the combined forces of Toghrul and Genghis Khan attacked the Tatars, they were caught in a vice as the Jurchen warriors behind them easily encircled the enemy tribe. The men were slaughtered, the women were taken as concubines and the children were adopted or became servants and slaves. Some thousands of Tatar who had resisted and then escaped entrenched themselves. This
2842-509: The Kalmyk variety ) and Buryat, both of which are spoken in Russia, Mongolia, and China; and Ordos , spoken around Inner Mongolia's Ordos City . The influential classification of Sanžeev (1953) proposed a "Mongolian language" consisting of just the three dialects Khalkha, Chakhar, and Ordos, with Buryat and Oirat judged to be independent languages. On the other hand, Luvsanvandan (1959) proposed
2940-714: The Khoshuts . The Qing dynasty respected the Borjigin family and the early emperors married the Hasarid Borjigids of the Khorchin. Even among the pro-Qing Mongols, traces of the alternative tradition survived. Aci Lomi, a banner general, wrote his History of the Borjigid Clan in 1732–35. The 18th century and 19th century Qing nobility was adorned by the descendants of the early Mongol adherents including
3038-535: The Naimans , who were a neighboring tribe to the west of the Keraites. The two other brothers, Buqa-Timur and Tai-Timur Taïshi were executed. However, Toghrul's success was brief because his uncle only known with the title Gurkhan overthrew him. Toghrul fled with his daughter and a handful of faithful. He tried to get the help of the Merkits to overthrow Gurkhan in turn, but their leader, Toqto'a Beki, refused despite
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3136-582: The Northern Yuan dynasty . Although the throne was usurped by Esen Taishi of the Oirats in 1453, he was overthrown in the next year. A recovery of the khaganate was achieved by Dayan Khan , but the territory was segmented by his descendants. The last khan Ligden died in 1634 and his son Ejei Khongor submitted himself to Hong Taiji the next year, ending the Northern Yuan regime. However,
3234-611: The Shuluun Huh/Zhènglán Banner , and is written in the traditional Mongolian script . The number of Mongolian speakers in China is still larger than in the state of Mongolia, where the majority of Mongolians in China speak one of the Khorchin dialects , or rather more than two million of them speak the Khorchin dialect itself as their mother tongue, so that the Khorchin dialect group has about as many speakers as
3332-594: The Stele of Yisüngge [ ru ] , a report on sports composed in Mongolian script on stone, which is most often dated at 1224 or 1225. The Mongolian- Armenian wordlist of 55 words compiled by Kirakos of Gandzak (13th century) is the first written record of Mongolian words. From the 13th to the 15th centuries, Mongolian language texts were written in four scripts (not counting some vocabulary written in Western scripts): Uyghur Mongolian (UM) script (an adaptation of
3430-584: The Uyghur alphabet), 'Phags-pa script (Ph) (used in decrees), Chinese (SM) ( The Secret History of the Mongols ), and Arabic (AM) (used in dictionaries). While they are the earliest texts available, these texts have come to be called " Middle Mongol " in scholarly practice. The documents in UM script show some distinct linguistic characteristics and are therefore often distinguished by terming their language "Preclassical Mongolian". The Yuan dynasty referred to
3528-553: The syllable 's position in the word. In word-initial syllables, there is a phonemic contrast in vowel length . A long vowel has about 208% the length of a short vowel. In word-medial and word-final syllables, formerly long vowels are now only 127% as long as short vowels in initial syllables, but they are still distinct from initial-syllable short vowels. Short vowels in noninitial syllables differ from short vowels in initial syllables by being only 71% as long and by being centralized in articulation. As they are nonphonemic, their position
3626-401: The 11th century there is no credible proof that Toghrul was himself Christian as Mongolian sources say nothing about his religion. He was born around 1130, to Nestorian family of Keraites . His father was Cyriacus Buyruk Khan , the leader of Keraites. Toghrul had a very difficult youth. The Merkits captured him during his childhood and he was reduced to slavery. It is possible that he left
3724-587: The 20th century. The clan formed the ruling class among the Mongols and some other peoples of Central Asia and Eastern Europe . Today, the Borjigid are found in most of Mongolia, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang , and genetic research has shown that descent from Genghis Khan and Timur is common throughout Central Asia and other regions. The patrilineage began with Blue-grey Wolf (Börte Chino) and Fallow Doe (Gua Maral). According to The Secret History of
3822-425: The 20th century. Aristocratic descent was something to be forgotten in the socialist period. Joseph Stalin 's associates executed some 30,000 Mongols including Borjigin nobles in a series of campaigns against their culture and religion. Clan association has lost its practical relevance in the 20th century, but is still considered a matter of honour and pride by many Mongolians . In 1920s the communist regime banned
3920-535: The Borjigid or Kiyad name became the basis for many Chinese surnames adopted by ethnic Inner Mongols . The Inner Mongolian Borjigin Taijis took the surname Bao ( 鲍 , from Borjigid) and in Ordos Qi ( 奇 , Qiyat). A genetic research has proposed that as many as 16 million men from populations as far apart as Hazaras in the West and Hezhe people to the east may have Borjigid-Kiyad ancestry. The Qiyat clan name
4018-834: The Borjigin. Asian dynasties descended from Genghis Khan included the Yuan dynasty of China, the Ilkhanids of Persia , the Jochids of the Golden Horde , the Shaybanids of Siberia and Central Asia, and the Astrakhanids of Central Asia. As a rule, the Genghisid descent played a crucial role in Tatar politics. For instance, Mamai had to exercise his authority through a succession of puppet khans but could not assume
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4116-603: The Inner Mongolia since September, which caused widespread protests among ethnic Mongol communities. These protests were quickly suppressed by the Chinese government. Mandarin has been deemed the only language of instruction for all subjects as of September 2023. Mongolian belongs to the Mongolic languages . The delimitation of the Mongolian language within Mongolic is a much disputed theoretical problem, one whose resolution
4214-529: The Kerait who had remained faithful to him, Toghrul ordered them to plunder the weakened Merkits for the third time. Significant Merkits, including two sons of Toqto'a-beki, were captured while another was murdered. Meanwhile, Toghrul's brother, Jakha Gambhu became blood brothers by Temujin . Around 1199, Toghrul wanted to finish once and for all with the Naimans and the dispute between the two kings of this tribe
4312-570: The Keraits by surprise. 8,000 Mongol horsemen faced Keraits for three days but eventually Kerait surrendered. Toghrul fled to Tayang Khan but was killed by a Naiman soldier named Qori Sübeči who did not recognize him. The majority of the Keraits allied themselves with Temujin. Toghrul's head was later noticed by Tayang who was panicked and then stepped on it, crushing it. He was married to a Khitan woman and had at least two sons – Ilga Senggüm and Uyku. According to Jami' al-Tawarikh , Doquz Khatun
4410-521: The Khalkha dialect group in the State of Mongolia. Nevertheless, the Chakhar dialect, which today has only about 100,000 native speakers and belongs to the Khalkha dialect group, is the basis of standard Mongolian in China. The characteristic differences in the pronunciation of the two standard varieties include the umlauts in Inner Mongolia and the palatalized consonants in Mongolia (see below) as well as
4508-593: The Merkit after being freed by a ransom or simply escaped. However, according to the Secret History, he was again abducted at the age of thirteen by the Tatars , who also took his own mother. When Toghrul returned to the Keraites later, his father was near death. Toghrul took his place and commanded the Keraites around 1165. In order to eliminate potential rivals, he started by killing his brothers between 1165 and 1171. One of them, namely Erke Qara managed to escape and fled to
4606-563: The Mongol was Bodonchar Munkhag's great-great-grandson Khaidu Khan . Khaidu's grandsons Khabul Khan and Ambaghai Khan (founder of the Taichiut clan) succeeded him. Thereafter, Khabul's sons, Hotula Khan and Yesugei , and Khabul's grandson Temujin ( Genghis Khan , son of Yesugei) ruled the Khamag Mongol . By the unification of the Mongols in 1206, virtually all of Temujin's uncles and first cousins had died, and from then on only
4704-814: The Mongolian Plateau was almost in chaos. After the breakup of the Golden Horde, the Khiyat continued to rule the Crimea and Kazan until the late 18th century. They were annexed by the Russian Empire and the Chinese. In Mongolia, the Kublaids reigned as Khagan of the Mongols, however, descendants of Ögedei and Ariq Böke usurped the throne briefly. Under Dayan Khan (1480–1517) a broad Borjigid revival reestablished Borjigid supremacy among
4802-741: The Mongolian language in Chinese as "Guoyu" ( Chinese : 國語 ), which means "National language", a term also used by other non-Han dynasties to refer to their languages such as the Manchu language during the Qing dynasty , the Jurchen language during the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) , the Khitan language during the Liao dynasty , and the Xianbei language during the Northern Wei period. The next distinct period
4900-504: The Mongolic language family into four distinct linguistic branches: The Common Mongolic branch is grouped in the following way: There is no disagreement that the Khalkha dialect of the Mongolian state is Mongolian. However, the status of certain varieties in the Common Mongolic group—whether they are languages distinct from Mongolian or just dialects of it—is disputed. There are at least three such varieties: Oirat (including
4998-631: The Mongols , their 11th generation descendant Dobu Mergen's widow Alan Gua the Fair was impregnated by a ray of light. Her youngest son became the ancestor of the later Borjigid. He was Bodonchar Munkhag , who along with his brothers sired the entire Mongol nation. According to Rashid-al-Din Hamadani , many of the older Mongolian clans were founded by members of the Borjigin— Barlas , Urud, Manghud , Taichiut , Chonos , Kiyat, etc. The first Khan of
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#17327837321355096-653: The Mongols proper. His descendants proliferated to become a new ruling class. The Borjigin clan was the strongest of the 49 Mongol banners from which the Bontoi clan proper supported and fought for their Khan and for their honor. The eastern Khorchins were under the Hasarids, and the Ongnigud, Abagha Mongols were under the Belguteids and Temüge Odchigenids . A fragment of the Hasarids deported to Western Mongolia became
5194-432: The Tatar, which dramatically reduced their numbers. Genghis and Toghrul returned to the mountains, but this time in the southern portion and faced the newly-commanding Kuchuguden's men, among them were Merkit, South Naiman, Oirats and tribes following Jamukha. Six tribes had left Jamukha and there were only four. Again, steep slopes, trees and various natural obstacles greatly slowed down the enemies of Toghrul and Temujin and
5292-426: The accusative, while it must take the nominative if it is indefinite . In addition to case, a number of postpositions exist that usually govern the genitive, dative-locative, comitative and privative cases, including a marked form of the nominative (which can itself then take further case forms). There is also a possible attributive case (when a noun is used attributively ), which is unmarked in most nouns but takes
5390-419: The booty among themselves and gave the Merkit wives to the warriors. The children became slaves. Börte was found later in the evening. Toghrul returned to the Kerait camp with his men, proud of an easy victory. Temujin, intending to attack the Tatar Confederation who had long caused him problems, including the murder of his father, asked for help from Toghrul in 1194; he willingly accepted, still satisfied with
5488-514: The central problem remains the question of how to classify Chakhar, Khalkha, and Khorchin in relation to each other and in relation to Buryat and Oirat. The split of [tʃ] into [tʃ] before *i and [ts] before all other reconstructed vowels, which is found in Mongolia but not in Inner Mongolia, is often cited as a fundamental distinction, for example Proto-Mongolic *tʃil , Khalkha /tʃiɮ/ , Chakhar /tʃil/ 'year' versus Proto-Mongolic *tʃøhelen , Khalkha /tsoːɮəŋ/ , Chakhar /tʃoːləŋ/ 'few'. On
5586-408: The characteristic sign of the genie which had visited Alan Gua and had " borǰïɣïn " eyes, adding that the Arabs called " ašhal " a man whose iris (" bübäčik ") was black, cornea white (" aq "), and whose limbal ring was red. The Borjigin family ruled over the Mongol Empire from the 13th to 14th century. The rise of Genghis Khan narrowed the scope of the Borjigid-Kiyad clans sharply. This separation
5684-401: The clan name Borjigin. The Genghisids also include such dynasties and houses as Giray , House of Siberia , Ar begs , Yaushev family and other. The last ruling monarch of Genghisid ancestry, Maqsud Shah (d. 1930), Khan of Kumul from 1908 to 1930. The Borjigin held power over Mongolia for many centuries (even during Qing period ) and only lost power when Communists took control in
5782-475: The command of the Keraites, and Gurkhan fled. Toghrul was, like Jamukha , blood-brother of Temujin. He led the coalition against Merkits when Temujin's wife Börte was abducted in 1183, joined by his brother Jakha Gambhu, Jamukha and Temujin . Two of the tribal chiefs, Dair Usun and Toqto'a fled the camp, probably informed by people who had seen the army move. The coalition easily won the fight that followed and about 300 Merkit perished. The chiefs distributed
5880-470: The descendants of Yesugei Baghatur, his brother Daritai, and nephew Onggur formed the Borjigid. According to Paul Pelliot and Louis Hambis , Rashid al-Din Hamadani once explained that " borčïqïn " designated in the Turkic languages a man with dark-blue eyes ( اشهل , ašhal ), and did so again without mentioning the said language, adding that Yesugei's children and the majority of their own children had had such eyes per coincidence, also recalling that
5978-419: The disintegration of the Ilkhanate in Iran , the first of numerous non-Borjigid-Kiyad dynasties appeared. Established by marriage partners of Genghisids, these included the Suldus Chupanids , Jalayirids in the Middle East, the Barulas dynasties in Chagatai Khanate and India, the Manghud and Onggirat dynasties in the Golden Horde and Central Asia, and the Oirats in western Mongolia. In 1368, during
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#17327837321356076-402: The enemy had withdrawn his forces, Toghrul left to return to Tula river with his warriors. Temujin took advantage of the flight of his enemies to finish several on horseback. Targhutai was reportedly wounded to death as a result of the fight. Jamukha had fared badly during the first attack and Buyruq khan took command of the armies in 1202. Temujin took the initiative to make a massacre among
6174-412: The examples given above, the words are phonetically [ˈxɔjɔ̆r] , [ˈatʃĭɮ] , and [ˈsaːrmăɢ] . The phonetic form of the epenthetic vowel follows from vowel harmony triggered by the vowel in the preceding syllable. Usually it is a centralized version of the same sound, with the following exceptions: preceding /u/ produces [e] ; /i/ will be ignored if there is a nonneutral vowel earlier in the word; and
6272-481: The fact that Toghrul offered him his daughter because the Keraites were very numerous. Being unsuccessful, Toghrul went to see the father of Temujin, Yesugei . He chose to help Toghrul because he had previously fought a battle with the Keraites against the Tatars. The Keraites were surprised when Yesugei attacked without having time to prepare. Despite the fact that the Keraites were much more numerous, their forces were dispersed throughout Central Mongolia. Toghrul resumed
6370-410: The fight gradually grew favorable. Toghrul was more than 70 years old by 1203 and did not have the same reflexes as in his youth. His son Ilga Senggüm took command of the Kerait armies and Toghrul became a figurehead. Ambitious Ilga joined forces with Jamukha, Altan and Qutchar, who persuaded him to eliminate Temujin. Ilga attempted to assassinate him, failed, and then confronted the hordes of Temujin in
6468-436: The following Mongol dialects, most of which are spoken in Inner Mongolia . There are two standard varieties of Mongolian. Standard Mongolian in the state of Mongolia is based on the northern Khalkha Mongolian dialects, which include the dialect of Ulaanbaatar , and is written in the Mongolian Cyrillic script . Standard Mongolian in Inner Mongolia is based on the Chakhar Mongolian of the Khalkha dialect group, spoken in
6566-444: The following restrictions obtain: Clusters that do not conform to these restrictions will be broken up by an epenthetic nonphonemic vowel in a syllabification that takes place from right to left. For instance, hoyor 'two', azhil 'work', and saarmag 'neutral' are, phonemically, /xɔjr/ , /atʃɮ/ , and /saːrmɡ/ respectively. In such cases, an epenthetic vowel is inserted to prevent disallowed consonant clusters. Thus, in
6664-423: The genie which had impregnated Alan Gua after her husband's death had had dark-blue eyes (" ašhal čašm "). Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur later paraphrased Hamadani by relating that Yesugei's eyes were dark-blue (" شهلا šahlā "), that the Mongols (" Moɣol ") called such eyes " borǰïɣïn " (بورجغن ), that his sons and most of their descendants had dark-blue eyes (" ašhal "), and that one recognized thus in Yesugei's lineage
6762-583: The independent words derived using verbal suffixes can roughly be divided into three classes: final verbs , which can only be used sentence-finally, i.e. ‑ na (mainly future or generic statements) or ‑ ö (second person imperative); participles (often called "verbal nouns"), which can be used clause-finally or attributively, i.e. ‑ san ( perfect - past ) or ‑ maar 'want to'; and converbs , which can link clauses or function adverbially , i.e. ‑ zh (qualifies for any adverbial function or neutrally connects two sentences ) or ‑ tal (the action of
6860-413: The language is spoken by roughly half of the country's 5.8 million ethnic Mongols (2005 estimate) However, the exact number of Mongolian speakers in China is unknown, as there is no data available on the language proficiency of that country's citizens. The use of Mongolian in Inner Mongolia has witnessed periods of decline and revival over the last few hundred years. The language experienced a decline during
6958-405: The late Qing period, a revival between 1947 and 1965, a second decline between 1966 and 1976, a second revival between 1977 and 1992, and a third decline between 1995 and 2012. However, in spite of the decline of the Mongolian language in some of Inner Mongolia's urban areas and educational spheres, the ethnic identity of the urbanized Chinese-speaking Mongols is most likely going to survive due to
7056-418: The leftmost heavy syllable gets the stress. Yet other positions were taken in works published between 1835 and 1915. Walker (1997) proposes that stress falls on the rightmost heavy syllable unless this syllable is word-final: A "heavy syllable" is defined as one that is at least the length of a full vowel; short word-initial syllables are thereby excluded. If a word is bisyllabic and the only heavy syllable
7154-421: The main clause takes place until the action expressed by the suffixed verb begins). Roughly speaking, Mongolian has between seven and nine cases : nominative ( unmarked ), genitive , dative - locative , accusative , ablative , instrumental , comitative , privative and directive , though the final two are not always considered part of the case paradigm. If a direct object is definite , it must take
7252-646: The middle, the Horcin-Haracin dialect in the East, Oriat-Hilimag in the west, and Bargu–Buriyad in the north. Some Western scholars propose that the relatively well researched Ordos variety is an independent language due to its conservative syllable structure and phoneme inventory. While the placement of a variety like Alasha , which is under the cultural influence of Inner Mongolia but historically tied to Oirat, and of other border varieties like Darkhad would very likely remain problematic in any classification,
7350-491: The only vowel in the word stem is /i/ , the suffixes will use the +ATR suffix forms. Mongolian also has rounding harmony, which does not apply to close vowels. If a stem contains /o/ (or /ɔ/ ), a suffix that is specified for an open vowel will have [o] (or [ɔ] , respectively) as well. However, this process is blocked by the presence of /u/ (or /ʊ/ ) and /ei/ ; e.g. /ɔr-ɮɔ/ 'came in', but /ɔr-ʊɮ-ɮa/ 'inserted'. The pronunciation of long and short vowels depends on
7448-618: The other hand, the split between the past tense verbal suffixes - /sŋ/ in the Central varieties v. - /dʒɛː/ in the Eastern varieties is usually seen as a merely stochastic difference. In Inner Mongolia, official language policy divides the Mongolian language into three dialects: Standard Mongolian of Inner Mongolia , Oirat, and Barghu-Buryat. The Standard Mongolian of Inner Mongolia is said to consist of Chakhar, Ordos, Baarin , Khorchin, Kharchin, and Alasha. The authorities have synthesized
7546-448: The phonology, most of what is said about morphology and syntax also holds true for Chakhar, while Khorchin is somewhat more diverse. Modern Mongolian is an agglutinative —almost exclusively suffixing—language, with the only exception being reduplication. Mongolian also does not have gendered nouns, or definite articles like "the". Most of the suffixes consist of a single morpheme . There are many derivational morphemes. For example,
7644-555: The preferential policies for minorities in education, healthcare, family planning, school admissions, the hiring and promotion, the financing and taxation of businesses, and regional infrastructural support given to ethnic minorities in China. In 2020, the Chinese government required three subjects—language and literature, politics, and history—to be taught in Mandarin in Mongolian-language primary and secondary schools in
7742-601: The presence of urban ethnic communities. The multilingual situation in Inner Mongolia does not appear to obstruct efforts by ethnic Mongols to preserve their language. Although an unknown number of Mongols in China, such as the Tumets, may have completely or partially lost the ability to speak their language, they are still registered as ethnic Mongols and continue to identify themselves as ethnic Mongols. The children of inter-ethnic Mongol-Chinese marriages also claim to be and are registered as ethnic Mongols so they can benefit from
7840-469: The reign of Toghun Temür (Emperor Huizong of Yuan), the Yuan dynasty was overthrown by the Ming dynasty but members of the family continued to rule over northern China and the Mongolian Plateau into the 17th century, known as the Northern Yuan dynasty . Descendants of Genghis Khan's brothers, Hasar and Belgutei , surrendered to the Ming in the 1380s. By 1470 the Borjigin lines were severely weakened, and
7938-471: The request. Other tribes joined Temujin during that year. He was then in possession of eleven tribes, which formed a third of the whole population of Mongolia. As the enemy increased in number, Jamukha, Qutchar and Altan conspired against Toghrul, but eventually left the Kerait to take refuge with the Naimans of the North. The Tayitchi'ut, Dorbed, Qatagin and Salji'ut followed them. He died after Temujin attacked
8036-610: The splitting of the Middle Mongol affricates * ʧ ( ᠴ č ) and * ʤ ( ᠵ ǰ ) into ʦ ( ц c ) and ʣ ( з z ) versus ʧ ( ч č ) and ʤ ( ж ž ) in Mongolia: Aside from these differences in pronunciation, there are also differences in vocabulary and language use: in the state of Mongolia more loanwords from Russian are being used, while in Inner Mongolia more loanwords from Chinese have been adopted. The following description
8134-517: The stem with certain case endings (e.g. цэрэг ( tsereg ) → цэргийн ( tsergiin )). The additional morphological rules specific to loanwords are not covered. Borjigin A Borjigin is a member of the Mongol sub-clan that started with Bodonchar Munkhag of the Kiyat clan . Yesugei's descendants were thus said to be Kiyat-Borjigin. The senior Borjigids provided ruling princes for Mongolia and Inner Mongolia until
8232-430: The suffix ‑ н (‑ n ) when the stem has an unstable nasal. Nouns can also take a reflexive-possessive suffix , indicating that the marked noun is possessed by the subject of the sentence: bi najz-aa avar-san I friend- reflexive-possessive save- perfect "I saved my friend". However, there are also somewhat noun-like adjectives to which case suffixes seemingly cannot be attached directly unless there
8330-688: The title of khan himself because he lacked Genghisid lineage. The word "Chingisid" derives from the name of the Mongol conqueror Genghis (Chingis) Khan (c. 1162–1227 CE). Genghis and his successors created a vast empire stretching from the Sea of Japan to the Black Sea . Babur and Humayun , founders of the Mughal Empire in India, asserted their authority as Chinggisids. Because they claimed descent through their maternal lineage, they had never used
8428-538: The traditional Mongolian script . In Inner Mongolia, it is dialectally more diverse and written in the traditional Mongolian script. However, Mongols in both countries often use the Latin script for convenience on the Internet. In the discussion of grammar to follow, the variety of Mongolian treated is the standard written Khalkha formalized in the writing conventions and in grammar as taught in schools, but much of it
8526-413: The use of clan names. When the ban was lifted again in 1997, and people were told they had to have surnames, most families had lost knowledge about their clan association. Because of that, a disproportionate number of families registered the most prestigious clan name Borjigin, many of them without historic justification. The label Borjigin is used as a measure of cultural supremacy. In Inner Mongolia ,
8624-466: The valley called the Kerulen Valley with 15000 men. When they saw the enemy, they climbed the mountains because they were shorthanded against the enemy. It was also when Buyruq khan joined Jamukha. Toghrul and Temujin fought a defensive battle which was very difficult and perilous. Torrential rain made the rolling hills and mountains men fell from the top to finish in crevices and ravines. After
8722-598: The victory he had had before. Toghrul's grandfather Marcus Buyruk Khan had also been assassinated by the Tatar, which gave him a similar reason to fight them. He joined Temujin with a few thousand Keraits. The Jurkhin, a Mongolic tribe, were also invited, but declined the offer because they were somewhat hostile with the Borjigin tribe . They eventually found allies in Wanyan Xiang ( 完顏襄 ), minister of Emperor Zhangzong of
8820-424: The voiceless velar plosive [k] ; instead, it has a voiced alveolar lateral fricative , /ɮ/ , which is often realized as voiceless [ɬ] . In word-final position, /n/ (if not followed by a vowel in historical forms) is realized as [ŋ] . Aspirated consonants are preaspirated in medial and word-final contexts, devoicing preceding consonants and vowels. Devoiced short vowels are often deleted. The maximal syllable
8918-547: The word baiguullagiinh consists of the root bai 'to be', an epenthetic ‑ g ‑, the causative ‑ uul ‑ (hence 'to found'), the derivative suffix ‑ laga that forms nouns created by the action (like - ation in organisation ) and the complex suffix ‑ iinh denoting something that belongs to the modified word (‑ iin would be genitive ). Nominal compounds are quite frequent. Some derivational verbal suffixes are rather productive , e.g. yarih 'to speak', yarilc 'to speak with each other'. Formally,
9016-431: Was a daughter of Uyku. Starting from 15th century, Torghut nobles claimed descent from Toghrul. Mongolian language The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5–6 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the ethnic Mongol residents of the Inner Mongolia of China . In Mongolia , Khalkha Mongolian is predominant, and is currently written in both Cyrillic and
9114-514: Was a useful chance to attack. If he attacked one of the brothers, it was almost certain that the other would do nothing and he could destroy them one after the other without having to confront the two tribes together, which could have formed a formidable alliance. He succeeded in bringing together Temujin and Jamukha , chief of the tribe of the Jadaran, and forced them to become allies again, for they had hitherto become enemies. They did so, but with
9212-713: Was attacked by an alliance formed by the Taichiud , commanded by Targhutai Kiriltuk, an old enemy of Temujin, and Merkit led by Toqto'a Beki, who had recently recovered his son on the banks of the Onon River . In 1201, Jamukha had resumed hostilities against Temujin. An impressive coalition of Mongol tribes of Taichiud , Ikires, Qorolas, Salji'ut, Dörbet , Suldus , Qatagin, Besud, Merkit, Oirat and finally Tatars recognized Jamukha as "Khan Universal" ( Gurkhan ). Toghrul decided to back Temujin in order to oppose growing power of Jamukha. Toghrul, Jakha Gambu and Temujin went into
9310-417: Was created, giving distinctive evidence on early classical Mongolian phonological peculiarities. Mongolian is the official national language of Mongolia, where it is spoken (but not always written) by nearly 3.6 million people (2014 estimate), and the official provincial language (both spoken and written forms) of Inner Mongolia, where there are at least 4.1 million ethnic Mongols. Across the whole of China,
9408-665: Was emphasized by the intermarriage of Genghis's descendants with the Baarin, Manghud and other branches of the original Borjigid. In the western regions of the Empire, the Jurkin and perhaps other lineages near to Genghis's lineage used the clan name Kiyad but did not share in the privileges of the Genghisids. The Borjigit clan had once dominated large lands stretching from Java to Iran and from Indo-China to Novgorod . In 1335, with
9506-560: Was related to Turkic , Tungusic , Korean and Japonic languages but this view is now seen as obsolete by a majority of (but not all) comparative linguists. These languages have been grouped under the Altaic language family and contrasted with the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area . However, instead of a common genetic origin, Clauson, Doerfer, and Shcherbak proposed that Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic languages form
9604-430: Was the time when he was given the name Wang Khan ( Chinese : 王汗 ; lit. 'King Khan'). Later that year he was overthrown by Erke Qara, whom he had not been able to assassinate and returned with the Naiman army. Many Keraites who were dissatisfied with the command of Toghrul probably also helped to drive Toghrul out. He fled to Yelü Zhilugu without even going to seek the help of Temujin . He stayed there
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