Mongolian language sayfasının kaynağını görüntüle

{{Infobox language
|name          = Mongolian
|nativename    = Монгол хэл
{{MongolUnicode|ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠬᠡᠯᠡ|style=height:2em;text-align:left}}
|pronunciation = {{IPA|/mɔŋɢɔ̆ɮ xeɮ/}}
|states        = [[Mongolia]],
|region        = All of Mongolia and [[Inner Mongolia]]; parts of [[Liaoning]], [[Jilin]], [[Heilongjiang]] and [[Gansu]] provinces in [[China]]
|speakers      = 5.2 million
|date          = 2005
|ref           = <ref name="ReferenceA"/>
|familycolor   = Altaic
|fam1          = [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic]]
|fam3          = Central Mongolic
|ancestor      = [[Middle Mongolian]]
|ancestor2     = [[Classical Mongolian]]

|dia1          = [[Khalkha Mongolian|Khalkha]]
|dia2          = [[Chakhar Mongolian|Chakhar]]
|dia3          = [[Khorchin Mongolian|Khorchin]]
|dia4          = [[Kharchin]]{{fix|text=not dialect link}}
|dia5          = [[Baarin Mongolian|Baarin]]
|dia6          = [[Xilingol League|Shilin gol]]{{fix|text=not dialect link}}
|dia7          = [[Ordos Mongolian]]
|dia8          = [[Darkhad dialect|Darkhad]]
|stand1        = [[Khalkha Mongolian|Khalkha]] (Mongolia)
|stand2        = [[Chakhar Mongolian|Chakhar]] (China)
|script        = [[Mongolian alphabets]]: <br>[[Traditional Mongolian alphabet|Traditional]] [[Mongolian script]]<br>(in Inner Mongolia), <br>[[Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet]] (in Mongolia), <br>[[Mongolian Braille]]
|nation        = {{MGL}}<br>{{CHN}}
*[[Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region]]<ref>{{cite web|title= China|url= http://www.ethnologue.com/country/CN/status|website= Ethnologue}}</ref>
|agency        = Mongolia:<br>State Language Council,<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.edulaws.pmis.gov.mn/edulaws/web/index.php?modules=law&viewid=2&law_id=189|title= Törijn alban josny helnij tuhaj huul<nowiki>'</nowiki>|publisher= MongolianLaws.com|date=2003-05-15|accessdate=2009-03-27}} The decisions of the council have to be ratified by the government.</ref><br>China:<br>Council for Language and Literature Work<ref>"Mongγul kele bičig-ün aǰil-un ǰöblel". See Sečenbaγatur ''et al.'' 2005: 204.</ref>
|iso1          = mn
|iso2          = mon
|iso3          = mon
|lc1           = khk
|ld1           = Khalkha Mongolian
|lc2           = mvf
|ld2           = Peripheral Mongolian (part)
|lingua        = part of 44-BAA-b
|map=Mongols-map.png
|mapalt=Topographic map showing Asia as centered on modern-day Mongolia and Kazakhstan. An orange line shows the extent of the Mongol Empire. Some places are filled in red. This includes all of Mongolia, most of Inner Mongolia and Kalmykia, three enclaves in Xinjiang, multiple tiny enclaves round Lake Baikal, part of Manchuria, Gansu, Qinghai, and one place that is west of Nanjing and in the south-south-west of Zhengzhou
|mapcaption=Geographic distribution of Mongolic peoples across Asia (red)
|notice=IPA
|glotto        = mong1331
|glottorefname= Mongolian
}}
{{Contains Mongolian script}}

The '''Mongolian language''' (in [[Mongolian script]]: {{MongolUnicode|ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ}} {{MongolUnicode|ᠺᠡᠯᠡ}} ''{{lang|mvf-Latn|Mongɣol kele}}''; in [[Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet|Mongolian Cyrillic]]: {{lang|khk-Cyrl|Монгол хэл}}, ''{{lang|khk-Latn| Mongol khel}}'') is the official language of [[Mongolia]] and largest-known member of the [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic language family]]. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 10 million, including the vast majority of the residents of [[Mongolia]] and many of the [[Mongols|Mongolian]] residents of the [[Inner Mongolia|Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region]].<ref name="ReferenceA">
Estimate from Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 141</ref>
In Mongolia, the [[Khalkha Mongolian|Khalkha dialect]], written in [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] (and at times in [[Latin script|Latin]] for [[social networking]]), is predominant, while in Inner Mongolia, the language is [[dialect]]ally more diverse and is written in the traditional [[Mongolian script]]. In the discussion of grammar to follow, the variety of Mongolian treated is Standard Khalkha Mongolian (i.e., the standard written language as formalized in the writing conventions and in the school grammar), but much of what is to be said is also valid for vernacular (spoken) Khalkha and for other Mongolian dialects, especially [[Chakhar Mongolian|Chakhar]].

Some classify several other Mongolic languages like [[Buryat language| Buryat]] and [[Oirat language |Oirat]] as dialects of Mongolian, but this classification is not in line with the current international standard.

Mongolian has [[vowel harmony]] and a complex syllabic structure for a Mongolic language that allows clusters of up to three consonants syllable-finally. It 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|subject–object–predicate]], ordering among [[noun phrase]]s is relatively free, so grammatical roles are indicated by a system of about eight [[grammatical case]]s. There are five [[Grammatical voice|voices]]. Verbs are marked for voice, [[Grammatical aspect|aspect]], [[Grammatical tense|tense]], and [[Linguistic modality|epistemic modality]]/[[evidentiality]]. In sentence linking, a special role is played by [[converb]]s.

Modern Mongolian evolved from [[Middle Mongol language|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, [[Vowel length|long vowels]] developed, the case system changed slightly, and the verbal system was restructured. Mongolian is distantly related to the [[Khitan language]]. It belongs to the Northern Asian [[linguistic area]], including the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]], [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic]], [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]], [[Korean language|Korean]] and [[Japonic languages|Japonic]] languages. These languages have been grouped under the still-debated [[Altaic languages|Altaic language family]] and contrasted with the [[Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area]]. [[Mongolian literature]] is well attested in written form from the 13th century but has earlier Mongolic precursors in the literature of the [[Khitan people|Khitan]] and other [[Xianbei]] peoples.

==Geographic distribution==
Mongolian is the official national language of [[Mongolia]], where it is spoken by nearly 3.6 million people (2014 estimate),<ref name="Mongolian">{{cite book|last1=Janhunen|first1=Juha|title=Mongolian|date=November 29, 2012|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|page=11|chapter=1}}</ref> and the official provincial language of China's [[Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region]], where there are at least 4.1 million ethnic Mongols.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tsung|first1=Linda|title=Language Power and Hierarchy: Multilingual Education in China|date=October 27, 2014|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|page=59|chapter=3}}</ref> Across the whole of China, the language is spoken by roughly half of the country's 5.8 million ethnic Mongols (2005 estimate)<ref name="Mongolian"/> 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 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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tsung|first1=Linda|title=Language Power and Hierarchy: Multilingual Education in China|date=October 27, 2014|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|chapter=3}}</ref> 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 the presence of urban ethnic communities.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Iredale|first1=Robyn|last2=Bilik|first2=Naran|last3=Fei|first3=Guo|title=China's Minorities on the Move: Selected Case Studies|date=August 2, 2003|page=84|chapter=4}}</ref> The multilingual situation in Inner Mongolia does not appear to obstruct efforts by ethnic Mongols to preserve their language.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Janhunen|first1=Juha|title=Mongolian|date=November 29, 2012|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|page=16|chapter=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Otsuka|first1=Hitomi|title=More Morphologies: Contributions to the Festival of Languages, Bremen, 17 Sep to 7 Oct, 2009|date=30 Nov 2012|page=99|chapter=6}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Mongolian"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Iredale|first1=Robyn|title=China's Minorities on the Move: Selected Case Studies|date=August 2, 2003|publisher=Routledge|pages=56, 64–67|chapter=3}}</ref> The children of inter-ethnic Mongol-Chinese marriages also claim to be and are registered as ethnic Mongols.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Janhunen|first1=Juha|title=Mongolian|date=November 29, 2012|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|page=11|chapter=1}}{{cite book|last1=Iredale|first1=Robyn|last2=Bilik|first2=Naran|last3=Fei|first3=Guo|title=China's Minorities on the Move: Selected Case Studies|date=August 2, 2003|page=61|chapter=3}}</ref>

==Classification and dialects==
[[File:Ulan Bator 14.JPG|thumb|left|220px|[[Mongolian script]] and [[Mongolian Cyrillic]] on [[Damdin Sükhbaatar|Sukhbaatar's]] statue in [[Ulaanbaatar]].]]
Mongolian belongs to the [[Mongolic languages]]. The delimitation of the Mongolian language within Mongolic is a much disputed theoretical problem, one whose resolution is impeded by the fact that existing data for the major [[variety (linguistics)|varieties]] is not easily arrangeable according to a common set of linguistic criteria. Such data might account for the [[historical linguistics|historical]] development of the Mongolian [[dialect continuum]], as well as for its [[sociolinguistics|sociolinguistic]] qualities. Though phonological and lexical studies are comparatively well developed,<ref>See especially Rinčjen 1979, Amaržargal 1988, Coloo 1988 and for a general bibliography on Mongolic phonology Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 218–229.</ref> the basis has yet to be laid for a comparative [[morphology (linguistics)|morphosyntactic]] study, for example between such highly diverse varieties as [[Khalkha Mongolian|Khalkha]] and Khorchin.<ref>See Ashimura 2002 for a rare piece of research into dialect morphosyntax that shows significant differences between Khalkha and Khorchin.</ref><ref>Janhunen 2003d: 189.</ref>

The status of certain varieties in the Mongolic group—whether they are languages distinct from Mongolian or just dialects of it—is disputed. There are at least three such varieties: [[Oirat language|Oirat]] (including the [[Kalmyk language|Kalmyk variety]]) and [[Buryat language|Buryat]], both of which are spoken in Russia, Mongolia, and China; and [[Ordos Mongolian|Ordos]], spoken around Inner Mongolia's [[Ordos City]].<ref>See Janhunen (ed.) 2003 and Sečenbaγatur ''et al.'' 2005 for two classificatory schemes.</ref>

There is no disagreement that the Khalkha dialect of the Mongolian state is Mongolian.<ref>For an exact delimitation of Khalkha, see Amaržargal 1988: 24–25.</ref> Beyond this one point, however, agreement ends. For example, the influential classification of Sanžeev (1953) proposed a "Mongolian language" consisting of just the three dialects Khalkha, [[Chakhar Mongolian|Chakhar]], and Ordos, with Buryat and Oirat judged to be independent languages.<ref>Sanžeev 1953: 27–61, especially 55.</ref> On the other hand, Luvsanvandan (1959) proposed 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).<ref>Quoted from Sečenbaγatur ''et al.'' 2005: 167–168.</ref> Some Western scholars<ref>among them Janhunen 2003</ref> 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 dialect|Alasha]],<ref>Sečenbaγatur ''et al.'' 2005: 265–266.</ref> which is under the cultural influence of Inner Mongolia but historically tied to Oirat, and of other border varieties like [[Darkhad dialect|Darkhad]] would very likely remain problematic in any classification,<ref>Sečenbaγatur ''et al.'' 2005: 266 classify Alasha as a variety of Southern Mongolian according to morphological criteria, while Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 148 classify it as a variety of Oirat according to phonological criteria. For a discussion of opinions on the classification of Darkhad, see Sanžaa and Tujaa 2001: 33–34.</ref> 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.<ref>Sečenbaγatur ''et al.'' 2005: 166–73, 184–195. See also Janhunen 2003d: 180.</ref> The split of {{IPA|[tʃ]}} into {{IPA|[tʃ]}} before *i and {{IPA|[ts]}} before all other reconstructed vowels, which is found in Mongolia but not in Inner Mongolia, is often cited as a fundamental distinction,<ref>E.g., Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 143, Poppe 1955: 110–115.</ref> for example [[Proto-Mongolic language|Proto-Mongolic]] ''{{IPA|*tʃil}}'', Khalkha {{IPA|/tʃiɮ/}}, Chakhar {{IPA|/tʃil/}} 'year' versus Proto-Mongolic ''{{IPA|*tʃøhelen}}'', Khalkha {{IPA|/tsooɮəŋ/}}, Chakhar {{IPA|/tʃooləŋ/}} 'few'.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2006: 159–160; the difference between the [l]s might just be due to the impossibility of reconstructing something as precise as {{IPA|[ɮ]}} for Proto-Mongolic and imprecision or convenience in notation for Chakhar (Chakhar phonemes according to Dobu 1983).</ref> On the other hand, the split between the past tense verbal suffixes -''{{IPA|sŋ}}'' in the Central varieties vs. -''{{IPA|dʒɛː}}'' in the Eastern varieties<ref>E.g., ''bi tegün-i taniǰei'' I him know -{{smallcaps|past}} 'I knew him' is accepted and ?''Bi öčögedür iregsen'' rejected by an Inner Mongolian grammarian from Khorchin (Chuluu 1998: 140, 165); in Khalkha, by contrast, the first sentence would not appear with the meaning attributed to it, while the second is perfectly acceptable.</ref> is usually seen as a merely [[stochastic]] difference.<ref>See, for example, Činggeltei 1959. Notice that this split is blurred by the school grammar, which treats several dialectal varieties as one coherent grammatical system (for example Činggeltei 1999 [1979]). This understanding is in turn reflected in the undecided treatment of -''{{IPA|sŋ}}'' in research work like Bayančoγtu 2002: 306.</ref>

In Inner Mongolia, official language policy divides the Mongolian language into three dialects: [[Southern Mongolian]], Oirat, and Barghu-Buryat. Southern Mongolian is said to consist of Chakhar, Ordos, [[Baarin Mongolian|Baarin]], Khorchin, Kharchin, and Alasha. The authorities have synthesized a [[Standard language|literary standard]] for Mongolian in whose grammar is said to be based on Southern Mongolian and whose pronunciation is based on the Chakhar dialect as spoken in the [[Eight Banners|Plain Blue Banner]].<ref>"Öbür mongγul ayalγu bol dumdadu ulus-un mongγul kelen-ü saγuri ayalγu bolqu büged dumdadu ulus-un mongγul kelen-ü barimǰiy-a abiy-a ni čaqar aman ayalγun-du saγurilaγsan bayidaγ." (Sečenbaγatur ''et al.'' 2005: 85).</ref> Dialectologically, however, western Southern Mongolian dialects are closer to Khalkha than they are to eastern Southern Mongolian dialects: for example, Chakhar is closer to Khalkha than to Khorchin.<ref>Janhunen 2003d.</ref>

Besides Mongolian, or "Central Mongolic", other languages in the Mongolic grouping include [[Daur language|Dagur]], spoken in eastern [[Inner Mongolia]], [[Heilongjiang]], and in the vicinity of [[Tacheng]] in [[Xinjiang]]; the [[Shirongolic languages|Shirongolic]] subgroup [[Eastern Yugur language|Shira Yugur]], [[Bonan language|Bonan]], [[Dongxiang language|Dongxiang]], [[Monguor language|Monguor]], and [[Kangjia language|Kangjia]], spoken in  [[Qinghai]] and [[Gansu]] regions; and the possibly extinct [[Moghol language|Moghol]] of Afghanistan.<ref>Janhunen 2006, except that Mongghul and Mangghuer are treated as a sub-branch (Slater 2003) and that Kangjia has been added (Siqinchaoketu 1999). Khamnigan which Janhunen groups as a Central Mongolic language is usually not discussed by other scholars.</ref>

As for the classification of the Mongolic family relative to other languages, the Altaic theory (which is increasingly less well received among linguists<ref>For a history of the Altaic theory, see Georg ''et al.'' 1999. Since then, the major pro-Altaistic publication Starostin ''et al.'' 2003 has appeared, which got mostly mildly negative to devastating reviews, the most detailed being Vovin 2005.</ref>) proposes that the Mongolic family is a member of a larger [[Altaic languages|Altaic family]] that would also include the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] and [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]], and usually [[Koreanic languages]] and [[Japonic languages]] as well.

==Grammar==
The following description is based primarily on Khalkha Mongolian. In particular, the [[phonology]] section describes the Khalkha dialect as spoken in [[Ulaanbaatar]], Mongolia's capital. The phonologies of other varieties such as Ordos, Khorchin, and even Chakhar, differ considerably.<ref>See Sečenbaγatur ''et al.'' 2005: 249–384.</ref> In contrast, most of what is said about morphology and syntax also holds true for Chakhar,<ref>See Sečenbaγatur 2003</ref> while Khorchin is somewhat more diverse.<ref>See Bayančoγtu 2002</ref>

===Phonology===
{{Listen
 |filename     = Modern_Mongolian_Language_Example,_2016.ogv
 |title        = Mongolians speaking Mongolian
 |description  = Modern day Mongolians speaking the Khalkh which is the dominant dialect of Mongolia.
}}
This section discusses the [[phonology]] of Khalkha Mongolian with subsections on Vowels, Consonants, Phonotactics and Stress.

====Vowels====
The standard language has seven [[monophthong]] vowel phonemes. They are aligned into three [[vowel harmony]] groups by a parameter called ATR ([[Advanced and retracted tongue root|advanced tongue root]]); the groups are &minus;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 is phonemic for vowels, and each of the seven phonemes occurs short or long. Phonetically, short {{IPA|/o/}} is highly divergent from long {{IPA|/o/}}, being the [[close-mid central rounded vowel|central vowel]] {{IPA|[ɵ]}}.

In the following table, the seven vowel phonemes, with their length variants, are arranged and described phonetically.

:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
!
! colspan="2"|[[Front vowel|Front]]
! colspan="2"|[[Central vowel|Central]]
! colspan="2"|[[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
!
! Short
! Long
! Short
! Long
! Short
! Long
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA|i}}
| {{IPA|iː}}
|
|
| {{IPA|u}}
| {{IPA|uː}}
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | [[Near-close vowel|Near-Close]]
|
|
|
|
| {{IPA|ʊ}}
| {{IPA|ʊː}}
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | [[Close-mid vowel|Close-Mid]]
| {{IPA|e}}
| {{IPA|eː}}
| {{IPA|o}} {{IPA|[ɵ]}}
|
|
| {{IPA|oː}}
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | [[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
|
|
|
|
| {{IPA|ɔ}}
| {{IPA|ɔː}}
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | [[Open vowel|Open]]
|
|
| {{IPA|a}}
| {{IPA|aː}}
|
|
|}

Khalkha also has four [[diphthong]]s: {{IPA|/ui, ʊi, ɔi, ai/}}.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 22</ref>

'''ATR harmony.''' Mongolian divides vowels into three groups in a system of [[vowel harmony]]:

:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! +ATR ("front")
! &minus;ATR ("back")
! Neutral
|-
| {{IPA|e, u, o}}
| {{IPA|a, ʊ, ɔ}}
| {{IPA|i}}
|}

As mentioned, for historical reasons these have traditionally been labeled as "front" vowels and "back" vowels. Indeed, in [[Romanization|Romanized]] transcription of Mongolian, the vowels {{IPA|/o/}} and {{IPA|/u/}} are often conventionally rendered as {{angle bracket|ö}} and {{angle bracket|ü}}, while the vowels {{IPA|/ɔ/}} and {{IPA|/ʊ/}} are expressed as {{angle bracket|o}} and {{angle bracket|u}} (this is also the case in the nonphonological sections of this article). However, for modern Mongolian phonology, it seems more appropriate to instead characterize the two vowel-harmony groups by the dimension of tongue root position. There is also one neutral vowel, {{IPA|/i/}}, not belonging to either group.

All the vowels in a non[[Compound (linguistics)|compound]] word, including all its suffixes, must belong to the same group. If the first vowel is &minus;ATR, then every vowel of the word must be either {{IPA|/i/}} or a &minus;ATR vowel. Likewise, if the first vowel is a +ATR vowel, then every vowel of the word must be either {{IPA|/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 {{IPA|/A/}} that can be realized as {{IPA|/a, ɔ, e, o/}}. For example:

*{{IPA|orx}} ''household'' + {{IPA|-Ar}} (instrumental) → {{IPA|orxor}} ''by a household''
*{{IPA|xarʊɮ}} ''sentry'' + {{IPA|-Ar}} (instrumental) → {{IPA|xarʊɮar}} ''by a sentry''

Other suffixes can occur in {{IPA|/U/}} being realized as {{IPA|/ʊ, u/}}, in which case all &minus;ATR vowels lead to {{IPA|/ʊ/}} and all +ATR vowels lead to {{IPA|/u/}}. For example:

*{{IPA|aw}} ''to take'' + {{IPA|-Uɮ}} (causative) → {{IPA|awʊɮ}}

If the only vowel in the word stem is {{IPA|/i/}}, the suffixes will use the +ATR suffix forms.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 43–50.</ref>

'''Rounding harmony.''' Mongolian also has rounding harmony, which does not apply to close vowels. If a stem contains {{IPA|/o/}} (or {{IPA|/ɔ/}}), a suffix that is specified for an open vowel will have {{IPA|[o]}} (or {{IPA|[ɔ]}}, respectively) as well. However, this process is blocked by the presence of {{IPA|/u/}} (or {{IPA|/ʊ/}}) and {{IPA|/ei/}}. E.g. {{IPA|ɔr-ɮɔ}} ''came in'', but {{IPA|ɔr-ʊɮ-ɮa}} ''inserted''.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 46–47, 50–51.</ref>

'''Vowel length.''' The pronunciation of long and short [[vowel]]s depends on the [[syllable]]'s position in the word. In word-initial syllables there is a [[phoneme|phonemic]] contrast in [[vowel length|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 is [[syllabification|determined]] according to [[phonotactics|phonotactic]] requirements.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 1–7, 22–24, 73–75.</ref>

====Consonants====
The following table lists the consonants of Khalkha Mongolian. The consonants enclosed in parentheses occur only in loanwords.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 25–30.</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
! colspan=2 rowspan=2|
! colspan=2|[[labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan=2|[[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! rowspan=2|[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan=2|[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! rowspan=2|[[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
|- style="font-size: x-small;" 
! plain
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! plain
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! [[Palatalization (phonetics)|pal.]]
! plain
|-
! colspan=2| [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA|m}}
| {{IPA|mʲ}}
| {{IPA|n}}
| {{IPA|nʲ}}
|
|
| {{IPA|ŋ}}
|
|-
! rowspan=3|[[Plosive consonant|Plosive]]
! <small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]] [[Aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]]</small>
| ({{IPA|pʰ}})
| ({{IPA|pʲʰ}})
| {{IPA|tʰ}}
| {{IPA|tʲʰ}}
|
| ({{IPA|kʲʰ}})
| ({{IPA|kʰ}})
|
|-
! <small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
| {{IPA|p}}
| {{IPA|pʲ}}
| {{IPA|t}}
| {{IPA|tʲ}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! <small>[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
|
|
|
|
|
| {{IPA|ɡʲ}}
| {{IPA|ɡ}}
| {{IPA|ɢ}}
|-
! rowspan=2| [[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
! <small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]] [[Aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]]</small>
|
|
| {{IPA|tsʰ}}
|
| {{IPA|tʃʰ}}
|
|
|
|-
! <small>[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
|
|
| {{IPA|ts}}
|
| {{IPA|tʃ}}
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan=2| [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! <small>[[Central consonant|central]]</small>
| ({{IPA|f}})
|
| {{IPA|s}}
|
| {{IPA|ʃ}}
| {{IPA|xʲ}}
| {{IPA|x}}
|
|-
! <small>[[Lateral consonant|lateral]]</small>
|
|
| {{IPA|ɮ}}
| {{IPA|ɮʲ}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan=2| [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|
| {{IPA|r}}
| {{IPA|rʲ}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan=2| [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| {{IPA|w̜}}
| {{IPA|w̜ʲ}}
|
|
| {{IPA|j}}
|
|
|
|}

Mongolian lacks the voiced lateral approximant, {{IPA|[l]}}; instead, it has a [[voiced alveolar lateral fricative]], {{IPA|/ɮ/}}, which is often realized as voiceless {{IPA|[ɬ]}}.<ref>Karlsson 2005: 17</ref> In word-final position, {{IPA|/n/}} (if not followed by a vowel in historical forms) is realized as {{IPA|[ŋ]}}. The occurrence of palatalized consonant phonemes seems to be restricted to words that contain [&minus;ATR] vowels.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 20–21, where it is actually stated that they are phonemic only in such words; in Svantesson's analysis, [&minus;ATR] corresponds to "pharyngeal" and [+ATR]—to "nonpharyngeal".</ref> Aspirated consonants are preaspirated in medial and word-final contexts, devoicing preceding consonants and vowels. Devoiced short vowels are often deleted.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://journals.lub.lu.se/index.php/LWPL/article/viewFile/2341/1916|title=Vowels in Mongolian speech: deletions and epenthesis |author=Anastasia Mukhanova Karlsson, Lund University, Department of Linguistics|accessdate=2014-07-26}}</ref>

====Syllable structure and phonotactics====
The maximal [[syllable]] is CVVCCC, where the last C is a word-final suffix. A single short vowel rarely appears in [[Syllable coda|syllable-final position]]. If a word was monosyllabic historically, *CV has become CVV. {{IPA|[ŋ]}} is restricted to codas (else it becomes {{IPA|[n]}}), and {{IPA|/p/}} and {{IPA|/pʲ/}} do not occur in codas for historical reasons. For two-consonant clusters, the following restrictions obtain:

* a palatalized consonant can be preceded only by another palatalized consonant or sometimes by {{IPA|/ɢ/}} and {{IPA|/ʃ/}}
* {{IPA|/ŋ/}} may precede only {{IPA|/ʃ, x, ɡ, ɡʲ/}} and {{IPA|/ɢ/}}
* {{IPA|/j/}} does not seem to appear in second position
* {{IPA|/p/}} and {{IPA|/pʲ/}} do not occur as first consonant and as second consonant only if preceded by {{IPA|/m/}} or {{IPA|/ɮ/}} or their palatalized counterparts.

Clusters that do not conform to these restrictions will be broken up by an [[epenthesis|epenthetic]] nonphonemic vowel in a syllabification that takes place from right to left. For example, ''hojor'' 'two', ''ažil'' 'work', and ''saarmag'' 'neutral' are, phonemically, {{IPA|/xɔjr/}}, {{IPA|/atʃɮ/}}, and {{IPA|/saːrmɡ/}} respectively. In such cases, an epenthetic vowel is inserted so as to prevent disallowed consonant clusters. Thus, in the examples given above, the words are phonetically {{IPA|[xɔjɔ̆r]}}, {{IPA|[atʃĭɮ]}}, and {{IPA|[saːrmăɢ]}}. The phonetic form of the epenthetic vowel follows from vowel harmony triggered by the vowel in the preceding syllable. Usually it is a [[Relative articulation#Centralized vowels|centralized]] version of the same sound, with the following exceptions: preceding {{IPA|/u/}} produces {{IPA|[e]}}; {{IPA|/i/}} will be ignored if there is a nonneutral vowel earlier in the word; and a postalveolar or palatalized consonant will be followed by an epenthetic {{IPA|[i]}}, as in {{IPA|[atʃĭɮ]}}.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 62–72.</ref>

====Stress====
[[Stress (linguistics)|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.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 95–97</ref> 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 the leftmost heavy syllable gets the stress. Yet other positions were taken in works published between 1835 and 1915.

Walker (1997)<ref>elaborating on Bosson 1964 and Poppe 1970.</ref> proposes that stress falls on the rightmost [[Syllable weight|heavy syllable]] unless this syllable is word-final:

:{|
| H'''ˈH'''LL || {{IPA|[pai.ˈɢʊɮ. ɮəɢ.təx]}} || ''to be organized''
|-
| LH'''ˈH'''L || {{IPA|[xon.ti.ˈru.ɮəŋ]}} || ''separating'' (adverbial)
|-
| LHH'''ˈH'''L || {{IPA|[ʊ.ɮan.paːtʰ.ˈrin.xəŋ]}} || ''the residents of Ulaanbaatar''
|-
| H'''ˈH'''H || {{IPA|[ʊːr.ˈtʰai.ɢar]}} || ''angrily''
|-
| '''ˈH'''LH || {{IPA|[ˈʊitʰ.ɢər.tʰai]}} || ''sad''
|}

A "heavy syllable" is here 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 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:<ref>Walker's evidence is collected from one native informant, examples from Poppe 1970, and consultation with James Bosson. She defines stress in terms of pitch, duration and intensity. The analysis pertains to the Khalkha dialect. The phonemic analysis in the examples is adjusted to Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005.</ref>

:{|
| L'''ˈH''' || {{IPA|[ɢa.ˈɮʊ]}} || ''goose''
|-
| '''ˈL'''L || {{IPA|[ˈʊnʃ.səŋ]}} || ''having read''
|}

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.<ref>Harnud [Köke] 2003.</ref><ref>Harnud 2003 was reviewed by J. Brown in ''Journal of the International Phonetic Association'', 2006 Dec, 36(2): 205–207.</ref> The conclusion is drawn that di- and trisyllabic words with 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 (physics)|intensity]] data often seems to indicate that the first syllable is stressed, while [[Fundamental frequency|F0]] seems to indicate that it is the second syllable that is stressed.<ref>Harnud [Köke] 2003: 44–54, 94–100.</ref>

===Morphology===
Modern Mongolian is an [[agglutination|agglutinative]], almost exclusively suffixing language, the only exception being reduplication.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 58–59.</ref> Most of the suffixes consist of a single [[morpheme]]. There are many [[Derivation (linguistics)|derivation]]al morphemes.<ref>Sečen 2004.</ref> For example, the word ''bajguullagynh'' consists of the root ''baj''- 'to be', an [[epenthesis|epenthetic]] -''g''-, the [[causative]] -''uul''- (hence 'to found'), the [[Derivation (linguistics)|derivative]] suffix -''laga'' that forms nouns created by the action (like -''ation'' in 'organisation') and the complex suffix –''ynh'' denoting something that belongs to the modified word (-''yn'' would be [[genitive case|genitive]]).

Nominal [[compound (linguistics)|compounds]] are quite frequent. Some derivational verbal suffixes are rather [[productivity (linguistics)|productive]], e.g. ''jar<nowiki>'</nowiki>''- 'to speak', ''jarilts''- 'to speak with each other'. Formally, the independent words derived using verbal suffixes can roughly be divided into three classes: final [[verb]]s, which can only be used sentence-finally, i.e. -''na'' (mainly future or generic statements) or –''ø'' (second person imperative);<ref>Luvsanvandan (ed.) 1987: 151–153, 161–163.</ref> [[participle]]s (often called "verbal nouns"), which can be used clause-finally or attributively, i.e. -''san'' ([[perfect (grammar)|perfect]]-[[past tense|past]])<ref>Hashimoto 1993.</ref> or -''maar'' ('want to'); and [[converb]]s, which can link clauses or function [[adverbial]]ly, i.e. -''ž'' (qualifies for any adverbial function or neutrally connects two [[sentence (linguistics)|sentences]]) or -''tal'' (the action of the main [[clause]] takes place until the action expressed by the suffixed verb begins).<ref>Luvsanvandan (ed.) 1987: 103–104, 124–125, 130–131.</ref>

Roughly speaking, Mongolian has eight [[grammatical case|cases]]: [[nominative case|nominative]] ([[markedness|unmarked]]), [[genitive case|genitive]], [[dative case|dative]], [[accusative case|accusative]], [[ablative case|ablative]], [[instrumental case|instrumental]], [[comitative case|comitative]] and [[allative case|directional]].<ref>Tsedendamba and Möömöö 1997: 222–232.</ref> If a direct object is [[definiteness|definite]], it must take the accusative, while it must take the nominative if it is [[Definiteness|unspecific]].<ref>Guntsetseg 2008: 61. The exact conditions of use for indefinite specific direct objects have not yet been specified in detail, but they appear to be related to animacy and textual context.</ref> In addition to case, a number of [[Preposition and postposition|postpositions]] exist that usually govern genitive, ablative, or comitative case or a form of the nominative that has sometimes -Vn either for lexical historical reasons or [[analogy]] (thus maybe becoming an attributive case suffix).<ref>Sečenbaγatur 2003: 32–46.</ref> [[Noun]]s can take reflexive-possessive [[clitic]]s indicating that the marked noun is possessed by the [[subject (grammar)|subject]] of the sentence: ''bi najz(-)aa avarsan'' I friend-{{smallcaps|reflexive-possessive}} save-{{smallcaps|perfect}} 'I saved my friend'.<ref>Tsedendamba and Möömöö 1997: 234–241.</ref> However, there are also somewhat noun-like [[adjective]]s to which case suffixes seemingly cannot be attached directly unless there is [[ellipsis (linguistics)|ellipsis]].<ref>For a pioneering approach to this problem, see Sajto 1999.</ref> [[Plural]]ity may be left unmarked, but there are overt plurality markers, some of which are restricted to humans. A noun that is modified by a numeral usually does not take any plural affix.<ref>Tsedendamba and Möömöö 1997: 210–219, Sečenbaγatur 2003: 23–29.</ref>

[[Personal pronoun]]s exist for the first and second person, while the old [[demonstrative pronoun]]s have come to form third person (proximal and distal) pronouns. Other word (sub-)classes include [[interrogative pronoun]]s, [[grammatical conjunction|conjunctions]] (which take participles), [[spatials]], and [[grammatical particle|particles]], the last being rather numerous.<ref>This is a simplified treatment of word classes. For a more precise treatment within the descriptive framework common in Inner Mongolia, see Sečenbaγatur 2003.</ref>

[[negation (linguistics)|Negation]] is mostly expressed by ''-güj'' after participles and by the negation particle ''biš'' after nouns and adjectives; negation particles preceding the verb (for example in converbal constructions) exist, but tend to be replaced by analytical constructions.<ref>For the historic background of negation, see Yu 1991. For a phenomenology, see Bjambasan 2001.</ref>

===Syntax===

====Phrase structure====
The [[noun phrase]] has the order: demonstrative pronoun/[[Numeral (linguistics)|numeral]], adjective, noun.<ref>Guntsetseg 2008: 55.</ref> Attributive sentences precede the whole NP. Titles or occupations of people, low numerals indicating groups, and [[topic–comment|focus]] clitics are put behind the head noun.<ref>Tserenpil and Kullmann 2005: 237, 347.</ref> [[Possessive pronoun]]s (in different forms) may either precede or follow the NP.<ref>Svantesson 2003: 164–165.</ref> Examples:

:{| style="width:60%; height:70px"
|''bid-nij''||''uulz-san''||''ter''||''sajhan''||''zaluu-gaas''||''č''
|-
|we-{{smallcaps|genitive}}||meet-{{smallcaps|perfect}}||that||beautiful ||young.man-{{smallcaps|ablative}} ||{{smallcaps|focus}}
|-
|colspan=6|'even from that beautiful young man that we have met'
|}

:{| style="width:18%; height:55px"
|''Dorž''||''bagš''||''maan<nowiki>'</nowiki>''
|-
|Dorj||teacher||our
|-
|colspan=3|'our teacher Dorj'
|}

The verbal phrase consists of the [[Predicate (grammar)|predicate]] in the center, preceded by its [[complement (linguistics)|complements]] and by the adverbials modifying it and followed (mainly if the predicate is sentence-final) by [[modal particle]]s,<ref>See Mönh-Amgalan 1998.</ref> as in the following example with predicate ''bičsen'':
:{| style="width:52%; height:65px"
|''ter''|| ''hel-eh-güj-geer'' ||''üün-ijg'' ||''bič-sen'' ||''šüü''
|-
|s/he ||without:saying ||it-{{smallcaps|accusative}} ||write-{{smallcaps|perfect}} ||{{smallcaps|particle}}
|-
|colspan=5 |'s/he wrote it without saying [so] [i.e. without saying that s/he would do so, or that s/he had done so], I can assure you.'
|}

In this clause the adverbial, ''helehgüjgeer'' 'without saying [so]' must precede the predicate's complement, ''üünijg'' 'it-{{smallcaps|accusative}}' in order to avoid syntactic ambiguity, since ''helehgüjgeer'' is itself derived from a verb and hence an ''üünijg'' preceding it could be construed as its complement. If the adverbial was an adjective such as ''hurdan'' 'fast', it could optionally immediately precede the predicate. There are also cases in which the adverb must immediately precede the predicate.<ref>Sečenbaγatur 2003: 167.</ref>

For Khalkha, the most complete treatment of the verbal forms is Luvsanvandan (ed.) 1987. However, the analysis of predication presented here, while valid for Khalkha, is adapted from the description of Khorchin by Matsuoka 2007.

Most often, of course, the predicate consists of a verb. However, there are several types of nominal predicative constructions, with or without a [[copula (linguistics)|copula]].<ref>Hashimoto 2004</ref> [[coverb|Auxiliaries]] that express direction and [[Lexical aspect|aktionsart]] (among other meanings) can with the assistance of a linking converb occupy the immediate postverbal position, e.g. ''uuž orhison'' drink-{{smallcaps|converb}} leave-{{smallcaps|perfect}} 'drank up'. The next position is filled by converb suffixes in connection with the auxiliary, ''baj-'' 'to be', e.g. ''ter güjž bajna'' s/he run-{{smallcaps|converb}} be-{{smallcaps|nonpast}} 'she is running'. Suffixes occupying this position express [[grammatical aspect]], e.g., [[progressive aspect|progressive]] and [[resultative]]. In the next position, participles followed by ''baj-'' may follow, e.g., ''ter irsen bajna'' s/he come-{{smallcaps|perfect}} be-{{smallcaps|nonpast}} 'he has come'. Here, an explicit [[perfect (grammar)|perfect]] and habituality can be marked, which is aspectual in meaning as well. This position may be occupied by multiple suffixes in a single predication, and it can still be followed by a converbal Progressive. The last position is occupied by suffixes that express tense, evidentiality, modality, and aspect.

====Clauses====
Unmarked phrase order is [[subject (grammar)|subject]]–[[object (grammar)|object]]–predicate.<ref>Guntsetseg 2008: 54.</ref> While the predicate generally has to remain in clause-final position, the other phrases are free to change order or to wholly disappear.<ref>Tserenpil and Kullmann 2005: 88, 363–364.</ref> The topic tends to be placed clause-initially, new information rather at the end of the clause.<ref>Apatoczky 2005.</ref> Topic can be overtly marked with ''bol'', which can also mark contrastive focus,<ref>Hammar 1983: 45–80.</ref> overt additive focus ('even, also') can be marked with the clitic ''č'',<ref>Kang 2000.</ref> and overt restrictive focus with the clitic ''l'' ('only').<ref>Tserenpil and Kullmann 2005: 348–349.</ref>

The inventory of [[Grammatical voice|voices]] in Mongolian consists of passive, [[causative]], [[reciprocal (grammar)|reciprocal]], [[plurative]], and cooperative. In a passive sentence, the verb takes the suffix -''gd''- and the agent takes either dative or instrumental case, the first of which is more common. In the causative, the verb takes the suffix -''uul''-, the causee (the person caused to do something) in a transitive action (e.g., 'raise') takes dative or instrumental case, and the causee in an intransitive action (e.g., 'rise') takes accusative case. Causative morphology is also used in some passive contexts:

:{| style="width:40%; height:50px"
|''Bi''||''tüün-d''||''huurt-san''
|-
|I||that.one-{{smallcaps|dative}}||fool-{{smallcaps|causative-perfect}}
|-
|colspan=3 |'I was fooled by her/him'.
|}

The semantic attribute of [[animacy]] is syntactically important: thus the sentence, 'the bread was eaten by me', which is acceptable in English, would not be acceptable in Mongolian. The reciprocal voice is marked by -''ld''-, the plurative by -''tsgaa''-, and the cooperative by -''lts''-.<ref>Sečenbaγatur 2003: 116–123.</ref>

Mongolian allows for adjectival depictives that relate to either the subject or the direct object, e.g. ''Ljena nücgen untdag'' 'Lena sleeps naked', while adjectival resultatives are marginal.<ref>Brosig 2009.</ref>

====Complex sentences====
One way to conjoin clauses is to have the first clause end in a converb, as in the following example using the converb ''-bol'':

:{| style="width:70%; height:50px"
|''bid''|| ''üün-ijg'' ||''ol-bol'' ||''čam-d'' ||''ög-nö''
|-
|we ||it-{{smallcaps|accusative}} ||find-{{smallcaps|conditional.converbal.suffix}} ||you.{{smallcaps|familiar}}-{{smallcaps|dative}} ||give-{{smallcaps|future}}
|-
|colspan=5 |'if we find it we'll give it to you'
|}

Some verbal nouns in the dative (or less often in the instrumental) function very similar to converbs:<ref>Svantesson 2003: 172.</ref> e.g., replacing ''olbol'' in the preceding sentence with ''olohod'' find-{{smallcaps|imperfective-dative}} yields 'when we find it we'll give it to you'. Quite often, postpositions govern complete clauses. In contrast, conjunctions take verbal nouns without case:<ref>See Sečenbaγatur 2003: 176–182 (who uses the term "postposition" for both and the term "conjunction" for junctors).</ref>

:{| style="width:50%; height:60px"
|''jadar-san'' ||''učraas'' ||''unt-laa''
|-
|become.tired-{{smallcaps|perfect}} ||because ||sleep-{{smallcaps|witnessed;past}}<ref>Note on notation: the semicolon in the [[interlinear gloss]], {{smallcaps|witnessed;past}} indicates that multiple semantic features are simultaneously expressed by a single, unanalyzable affix.</ref>
|-
|colspan=3 |'I slept because I was tired'
|}

Finally, there is a class of particles, usually clause-initial, that are distinct from conjunctions but that also relate clauses: ''bi olson, harin čamd ögöhgüj'' I find-{{smallcaps|perfect}} but you-{{smallcaps|dative}} give-{{smallcaps|imperfective-negation}} 'I've found it, but I won't give it to you'.

Mongolian has a [[complementizer]] [[auxiliary verb]] ''ge''- very similar to [[Japanese language|Japanese]] ''to iu''. ''ge''- literally means 'to say' and in converbal form ''gež'' precedes either a psych verb or a verb of saying. As a verbal noun like ''gedeg'' (with ''n<nowiki>'</nowiki>'' or case) it can form a subset of complement clauses. As ''gene'' it may function as an [[evidentiality|evidentialis]] marker.<ref>Sečenbaγatur 2003: 152–153.</ref>

Mongolian clauses tend to be combined [[parataxis (grammar)|paratactically]], which sometimes gives rise to sentence structures which are subordinative despite resembling coordinative structures in European languages:<ref>Johanson 1995.</ref>

:{| style="width:45%; height:60px"
|''ter''||''ir-eed''||''namajg''||''üns-sen''
|-
|that.one || come-{{smallcaps|converb}} || I.{{smallcaps|accusative}} ||kiss-{{smallcaps|perfect}}
|-
|colspan=4 |'S/he came and kissed me.'
|}

In the [[subordinate clause]] the subject, if different from the subject of [[main clause]], sometimes has to take accusative or genitive case.<ref>Mizuno 1995.</ref> There is marginal occurrence of subjects taking ablative case as well.<ref>Pürev-Očir 1997: 131.</ref> Subjects of attributive clauses in which the head has a function (as is the case for all English [[relative clause]]s) usually require that if the subject is not the [[head (linguistics)|head]], then it take the genitive,<ref>Sečenbaγatur 2003: 36.</ref> e.g. ''tüünij idsen hool'' that.one-{{smallcaps|genitive}} eat-{{smallcaps|perfect}} meal 'the meal that s/he had eaten'.

==Loanwords and coined words==
In distant times Mongolian adopted [[loanword]]s from [[Old Turkic]], [[Sanskrit]] (these often through [[Old Turkic|Uighur]]), [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[Classical Tibetan|Tibetan]],<ref>Temürčereng 2004: 86–99.</ref> [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]], and [[Chinese language|Chinese]].<ref>Svantesson 2003: 127.</ref> Recent loanwords come from [[Russian language|Russian]], [[English language|English]],<ref>Temürčereng 2004: 99–102.</ref> and Chinese (mainly in Inner Mongolia).<ref>Öbür mongγul-un yeke surγaγuli 2005: 792–793.</ref> Language commissions of the Mongolian state have been busy translating new [[terminology]] into Mongolian,<ref>{{cite web|author=Baabar|title=Yum bolgon nertei|work=Ödriin sonin|date=2008-12-09}}</ref> so that the Mongolian vocabulary now has ''jerönhijlögč'' 'president' ("generalizer") and ''šar ajrag'' 'beer' ("yellow kumys"). There are quite a few [[calque|loan translations]], e.g., ''galt tereg'' 'train' ('fire-having cart') from Chinese huǒchē (火车, fire cart) 'train'.<ref>Öbür mongγul-un yeke surγaγuli 2005: 828.</ref> Other loan translations include ''mun chanar'' (essence) from Chinese shízhì (实质, true quality), ''khün am'' (population) from Chinese rénkǒu (人口, person mouth), ''erdene shish'' (corn, maize) from Chinese yùmǐ (玉米, jade rice) and ''bügd nairamdakh uls'' (republic) from Chinese gònghéguó (共和国, public collaboration nation).

Examples of Sanskrit loanwords used in contemporary Khalkha Mongolian include ''shashin'' (शशन sasana, religion), ''sansar'' (सँसार sansāra, space), ''avyas'' (अभ्यास abhyasa, talent), ''buyan'' (पुण्य punya, good deeds), ''agshin'' (क्षण kšana, instant), ''tiv'' (द्वीप dvipa, continent), ''garig'' (ग्रह graha, planet), ''tsadig'' (जातक jātaka, tales, stories), ''shuleg'' (श्लोक šloka, poems, verses), ''badag'' (पदक padaka, strophe), ''arshan'' (रसायन rašayana, mineral water, nectar), ''shastir'' (शास्त्र shastra, chronicle), ''bud'' (बुध budh, Mercury), ''sugar'' (शुक्र shukra, Venus), ''barhasvadi'' (वृहस्पति vrihaspati, Jupiter) and ''sanchir'' (शनि shani, Saturn).

Examples of Persian loanwords used in contemporary Khalkha Mongolian include ''anar'' (anar, amethyst), ''baishin'' (pishiwan, building), ''bars'' (fars, tiger), ''bers'' (farzin, chess queen/female tiger), ''bold'' (pulad, steel), ''bolor'' (bulur, crystal), ''gunjid'' (kunjut, sesame), ''gindan'' (zindan, prison), ''dari'' (daru, powder/gunpowder), ''duran'' (dur, telescope), ''duranbai'' (durbin, telescope/microscope), ''devter'' (daftar, notebook), ''nom'' (nameh, book) and ''hurmast'' (ahuramazda, high god).

Examples of Chinese loanwords used in contemporary Khalkha Mongolian include ''banz'' (板子 bǎnzi, board), ''laa'' (蜡 là, candle), ''luuvan'' (萝卜 lúobo, radish), ''khuluu'' (葫芦 húlu, gourd), ''denluu'' (灯路 dēnglù, lamp), ''chiiden'' (汽灯 qìdēng, electric lamp), ''biir'' (笔儿 bǐ'er, paintbrush), ''gambanz'' (斩板子 zhǎnbǎnzi, cutting board), ''chinjuu'' (青椒 qīngjiāo, pepper), ''juutsai'' (韭菜 jiǔcài, leek), ''moog'' (蘑菇 mógu, mushroom), ''tsuu'' (醋 cù, vinegar, soy sauce), ''baitsaa'' (白菜 báicài, cabbage), ''mantuu'' (馒头 mántou, steamed bun), ''shiigua'' (西瓜 xīguā, watermelon), ''naimaa''/''maimaa'' (买卖 mǎimài, trade), ''goimon'' (挂面 gùamiàn, noodles), ''dan'' (单 dān, single), ''gan'' (钢 gāng, steel), ''lantuu'' (榔头 lángtou, sledgehammer), ''tsonkh'' (窗户 chūanghu, window), ''buuz'' (包子 bāozi, dumplings), ''khuushuur'' (火烧儿 hǔoshāo'er, fried dumpling), ''zutan'' (乳脂汤 rǔzhītāng, cream soup), ''bantan'' (粉汤 fěntāng, flour soup), ''jan'' (酱 jiàng, soy), ''van'' (王 wáng, king), ''gunj'' (公主 gōngzhǔ, princess), ''gun'' (公 gōng, duke), ''janjin'' (将军 jiāngjūn, general), ''taigan'' (太监 tàijiàn, eunuch), ''pyanz'' (片子 piànzi, recorded disk), ''guanz'' (馆子 guǎnzi, restaurant), ''lianhua'' (莲花 liánhuā, lotus), ''khuar'' (花儿 huā'er, flower, used in names), ''toor'' (桃儿 táo'er, peach), ''intoor'' (樱桃儿 yīngtáo'er, cherry), ''zeel'' (借 jie, borrow, lend, with Mongolian denominal verb suffix ''-l-''), ''vandui'' (豌豆 wāndòu, pea), ''yanz'' (样子 yàngzi, manner, appearance), ''shinj'' (性质 xìngzhì, characteristic), ''sampin'' (算盘 suànpán, abacus), ''liir'' (梨儿 lí'er, pear), bai (牌 páizi, target), ''jin'' (斤 jīn, weight),  ''bin'' (饼 bǐng, pancake), ''khuanli'' (皇历 huángli, calendar), ''shaazan'' (烧瓷 shāocí, porcelain), ''khantaaz'' (砍兜肚 kǎndōudu, sleeveless vest), ''puntuuz'' (粉条子 fěntiáozi, potato noodles) and ''tsai'' (茶 chá, tea).

In the 20th century there are numerous daily life words loaned from Russia: ''doktor'' (doctor), ''ostol'' (table), ''shokolad'' (chocolate), ''vagon'' (train wagon), ''kalendar'' (calendar), sistem, ''podvoolk'' (from '''futbolka''' T-shirt), ''yavlaga'' (apple), ''galavsaa'' (sausage), ''galstuk'' ([[red scarf]]) and ''mashin'' (car). In recent times due to fast-phased social and cultural transformations, the Mongolian language loaned numerous words from English; some have gradually evolved as official terms: ''menejment'', ''computer'', ''fail'' (file), ''marketing'', ''kredit'', ''onlain'' (online), ''mesej'' (message). Most of these are confined to the Mongolian state.

Despite having a diverse pool of loanwords Mongolian uses more native vocabulary than languages like Japanese or Korean where words of Chinese origin take up to 60% of vocabulary. Volker Rybatzki points out the relative lexical purity of Mongolian in ''The Mongolic Languages'' (2003)<ref>Juha Janhunen (2003). The Mongolic Languages. London. Chapter 18, Intra-Mongolic Taxonomy, Volker Rybatzki, Pages 385-387.</ref>

{{quote| On the basis of a tentative survey of 452 lexical items it seems that the Mongolic languages can be divided into six categories, depending on how large the proportion of Common Mongolic items in their vocabulary is.
'''(1) Below 50 percent:''' The only language belonging to this category is [[Monguor language|Mangghuer]], in which the proportion of Common Mongolic vocabulary would seem to be as low as 39 per cent. It is obvious that Mangghuer has suffered a massive loss of native vocabulary, making it, at least lexically, a good candidate for a ‘mixed language’.

'''(2) 50-64 per cent:''' This category comprises, not surprisingly, two other languages of the Gansu-Qinghai complex, Bonan (50 per cent) and Santa (56 percent), as well as Moghol (52 per cent).

'''(3) 65-84 per cent:''' This category comprises the two remaining languages of the Gansu-Qinghai complex, Mongghul (72 per cent) and Shira Yughur (77 percent), as well as Dagur (81 per cent).

'''(6) Above 95 percent:''' This category comprises the rest of the dialects of Mongol proper, notably Khalkha and Khorchin (as well as, apparently, Modern Written Mongol), in which the proportion of native vocabulary in the sample is as high as 98 per cent. Lexically, at least, these are the ‘most Mongolic’ of all Mongolic idioms.}}

==Writing systems==
{{Main|Mongolian alphabets}}
[[File:Nova N 176 folio 9.jpg|thumb|right|220px|[[Nova N 176]] found in Kyrgyzstan. The manuscript (dating to the 12th century [[Western Liao]]) is written in the Mongolic [[Khitan language]] using cursive [[Khitan large script]]. It has 127 leaves and 15,000 characters.]]
Mongolian has been written in a variety of alphabets, making it a language with one of the largest number of scripts used historically. The earliest stages of Mongolian ([[Xianbei]], [[Wuhuan]] languages) may have used an indigenous runic script as indicated by Chinese sources. The [[Khitan large script]] adopted in 920 CE is an early Mongol (or according to some, para-Mongolic) script.

The traditional [[Mongolian script]] was adapted from [[Old Uyghur alphabet|Uyghur script]] probably at the very beginning of the 13th century and from that time underwent some minor disambiguations and supplementations. Between 1930 and 1932, a short-lived attempt was made to introduce the [[Latin script]] in the Mongolian state, and after a preparatory phase, the [[Mongolian Cyrillic script]] was declared mandatory by government decree. It has been argued that the 1941 introduction of the [[Cyrillic script]], with its smaller discrepancy between written and spoken form, contributed to the success of the large-scale government [[literacy]] campaign, which increased the [[literacy rate]] from 17.3% to 73.5% between 1941 and 1950.<ref name=unesco>Batchuluun Yembuu, Khulan Munkh-Erdene. 2005. [http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001462/146207e.pdf Literacy country study: Mongolia]. Background paper prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2006.
Literacy for Life. P.7-8]</ref> Earlier government campaigns to eradicate illiteracy, employing the traditional script, had only managed to raise literacy from 3.0% to 17.3% between 1921 and 1940.<ref name=unesco/> From 1991 to 1994, an attempt at reintroducing the traditional alphabet failed in the face of popular resistance.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 34, 40–41.</ref> In informal contexts of electronic text production, the use of the Latin alphabet is common.<ref name=MHK>{{cite web|author=Sühbaatar, B|url=http://www.infocon.mn/english/reference/GaligiinTuhai.htm|title=Mongol helnij kirill üsgijg latin üsgeer galiglah tuhaj|publisher=InfoCon|accessdate=2009-01-03}}</ref>

In the [[People's Republic of China]], Mongolian is a co-official language with [[Standard Mandarin|Mandarin Chinese]] in some regions, notably the entire [[Inner Mongolia]] Autonomous Region. The traditional alphabet has always been used there, although Cyrillic was considered briefly before the [[Sino-Soviet split]].<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 34, 40.</ref> There are two types of written Mongolian used in China: the traditional Mongolian script, which is official among Mongols nationwide, and the [[Clear script]], used predominantly among [[Oirats]] in [[Xinjiang]].<ref>Sečenbaγatur ''et al.'' 2005: 398.</ref>

==Linguistic history==
[[File:Phagspa imperial edict dragon year.jpg|thumb|left|350px|alt=White page with black Phags-pa characters and two seals, one being in the middle of and one on the right sight of the text. All lines start at the top of the page|Edict of [[Yesün Temür Khan, Emperor Taiding of Yuan]] (1328). Only the [['Phags-pa script]] retains the complete [[Middle Mongol language|Middle Mongol]] vowel system.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 111.</ref>]]
The earliest surviving Mongolian text may be the {{ill|Stele of Yisüngge|ru|Чингисов_камень}}, a report on sports composed in [[Mongolian script]] on stone, which is most often dated at 1224 or 1225.<ref>E.g. Garudi 2002: 7. But see Rachewiltz 1976)</ref> The Mongolian-[[Armenian language|Armenian]] wordlist of 55 words compiled by [[Kirakos of Gandzak]] (13th century) is the first written record of Mongolian words.<ref>Djahukyan 1991: 2368</ref> 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 the [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]] alphabet), [['Phags-pa script]] (Ph) (used in decrees), [[Chinese characters|Chinese]] (SM) (''[[The Secret History of the Mongols]]''), and [[Arabic script|Arabic]] (AM) (used in dictionaries).<ref>Rybatzki 2003: 58</ref> While they are the earliest texts available, these texts have come to be called "[[Middle Mongol language|Middle Mongol]]" in scholarly practice.<ref>See Rachewiltz 1999 for a critical review of the terminology used in periodizations of Mongolic; Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 98–99 attempt a revision of this terminology for the early period.</ref> The documents in UM script show some distinct linguistic characteristics and are therefore often distinguished by terming their language "Preclassical Mongolian".<ref>Rybatzki 2003: 57"</ref>

The Yuan dynasty referred to the Mongolian language in Chinese as "Guoyu" ({{zh|t=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|Xianbei language]] during the [[Northern Wei]].

The next distinct period is [[Classical Mongolian language|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]]<ref>Janhunen 2003a: 32.</ref> as well as several chronicles.<ref>Okada 1984.</ref> In 1686, the [[Soyombo alphabet]] ([[Buddhist texts]]) was created, giving distinctive evidence on early classical Mongolian phonological peculiarities.<ref>Nadmid 1967: 98–102.</ref>
{{Clear}}

===Changes in phonology===

====Consonants====
The research into the reconstruction of the consonants of Middle Mongol has engendered several controversies. Middle Mongol had two series of plosives, but there is disagreement as to which phonological dimension they lie on, whether aspiration<ref>e.g. Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005</ref> or voicing.<ref>e.g. Tömörtogoo 1992</ref> The early scripts have distinct letters for velar plosives and uvular plosives, but as these are in complementary distribution according to vowel harmony class, only two back plosive phonemes, *''/k/'', *''{{IPA|/kʰ/}}'' (~ *''[k]'', *''{{IPA|[qʰ]}}'') are to be reconstructed.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 118–120</ref> One prominent long running disagreement concerns certain correspondences of word medial consonants among the four major scripts (UM, SM, AM, and Ph, which were discussed in the preceding section). Word medial ''/k/'' of Uyghur Mongolian (UM) has, not one, but two correspondences with the three other scripts: either /k/ or zero. Traditional scholarship has reconstructed *''/k/'' for both correspondences, arguing that *''/k/'' got lost in some instances, which raises the question of what the conditioning factors of those instances were.<ref>e.g. Poppe 1955</ref> More recently, the other obvious possibility has been assumed, namely that the correspondence between UM ''/k/'' and zero in the other scripts points to a distinct phoneme, ''/h/'', which would correspond to the word-initial phoneme ''/h/'' that is present in those other scripts.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 118–124.</ref> ''/h/'' (sometimes also called ''/x/'') is sometimes assumed to derive from *''{{IPA|/pʰ/}}'', which would also explain zero in SM, AM, Ph in some instances where UM indicates /p/, e.g. ''[[Deel (clothing)|debel]]'' > Khalkha ''deel''.<ref>Janhunen 2003c: 6</ref>

The palatal affricates *''č'', *''čʰ'' were fronted in Northern Modern Mongolian dialects such as Khalkha. {{IPA|*''kʰ''}} was [[spirantization|spirantized]] to {{IPA|/x/}} in Ulaanbaatar Khalkha and the Mongolian dialects south of it, e.g. Preclassical Mongolian ''kündü'', reconstructed as ''{{IPA|*kʰynty}}'' 'heavy', became Modern Mongolian {{IPA|/xunt/}}<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 133, 167.</ref> (but in the vicinity of [[Bayankhongor]] and [[Baruun-Urt]], many speakers will say {{IPA|[kʰunt]}}).<ref>Rinchen (ed.) (1979): 210.</ref> Originally word-final *''n'' turned into /ŋ/; if *''{{IPA|n}}'' was originally followed by a vowel that later dropped, it remained unchanged, e.g. ''{{IPA|*kʰen}}'' became {{IPA|/xiŋ/}}, but ''{{IPA|*kʰoina}}'' became {{IPA|/xɔin/}}. After i-breaking, {{IPA|*[ʃ]}} became phonemic. Consonants in words containing back vowels that were followed by ''{{IPA|*i}}'' in Proto-Mongolian became [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] in Modern Mongolian. In some words, word-final ''{{IPA|*n}}'' was dropped with most case forms, but still appears with the ablative, dative and genitive.<ref>Svantesson ''et al.'' 2005: 124, 165–166, 205.</ref>

Only foreign origin words start with the letter L and none start with the letter R.<ref name="Ramsey1987">{{cite book|author=S. Robert Ramsey|title=The Languages of China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2E_5nR0SoXoC&pg=PA206#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1987|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-01468-X|pages=206–}}</ref>

====Vowels====
The standard view is that Proto-Mongolic had ''{{IPA|*i, *e, *y, *ø, *u, *o, *a}}''. According to this view, ''{{IPA|*o}}'' and ''{{IPA|*u}}'' were [[pharyngealization|pharyngealized]] to {{IPA|/ɔ/}} and {{IPA|/ʊ/}}, then ''{{IPA|*y}}'' and ''{{IPA|*ø}}'' were [[velarization|velarized]] to {{IPA|/u/}} and {{IPA|/o/}}. Thus, the vowel harmony shifted from a velar to a pharyngeal paradigm. ''{{IPA|*i}}'' in the first syllable of back-vocalic words was [[Assimilation (linguistics)|assimilated]] to the following vowel; in word-initial position it became {{IPA|/ja/}}. ''{{IPA|*e}}'' was rounded to {{IPA|*ø}} when followed by ''{{IPA|*y}}''. VhV and VjV sequences where the second vowel was any vowel but ''{{IPA|*i}}'' were monophthongized. In noninitial syllables, short vowels were deleted from the phonetic representation of the word and long vowels became short.<ref>Svantesson 2005: 181, 184, 186–187, 190–195.</ref>

E.g. ''{{IPA|*imahan}}'' (''{{IPA|*i}}'' becomes {{IPA|/ja/}}, ''{{IPA|*h}}'' disappears) > ''{{IPA|*jamaːn}}'' (unstable ''n'' drops; vowel reduction) > /jama(n)/ 'goat'

and ''{{IPA|*emys-}}'' (regressive rounding assimilation) > ''{{IPA|*ømys-}}'' (vowel velarization) > ''{{IPA|*omus-}}'' (vowel reduction) > /oms-/ 'to wear'

This reconstruction has recently{{When|date=November 2016}} been opposed, arguing that vowel developments across the Mongolic languages can be more economically explained starting from basically the same vowel system as Khalkha, only with ''{{IPA|*[ə]}}'' instead of ''*[e]''. Moreover, the sound changes involved in this alternative scenario are more likely from an [[Articulatory phonetics|articulatory]] point of view and early Middle Mongol loans into [[Korean language|Korean]].<ref>Ko 2011</ref>

===Changes in morphology===

====Nominal system====
[[File:Secret history.jpg|thumb|right|250px|alt=white page with several lines of black Chinese characters running top-down and separated into small groups by spaces. To the left of some of the characters there are small characters such as 舌　and 中. To the right of each line, groups of characters are indicated as such by a "<nowiki>]]</nowiki>"-shaped bracket, and to the right of each such bracket, there are other medium-sized characters|''[[The Secret History of the Mongols]]'' which goes back to a lost Mongolian script original is the only document that allows the reconstruction of agreement in social gender in Middle Mongol.<ref>Tümenčečeg 1990.</ref>]]

In the following discussion, in accordance with a preceding observation, the term "Middle Mongol" is used merely as a cover term for texts written in any of three scripts, Uighur Mongolian script (UM), Chinese (SM), or Arabic (AM).

The case system of Middle Mongol has remained mostly intact down to the present, although important changes occurred with the comitative and the dative and most other case suffixes did undergo slight changes in form, i.e., were shortened.<ref>Rybatzki 2003: 67, Svantesson 2003: 162.</ref> The Middle Mongol comitative -''luγ-a'' could not be used attributively, but it was replaced by the suffix -''taj'' that originally derived adjectives denoting possession from nouns, e.g. ''mori-tai'' 'having a horse' became ''mor<nowiki>'</nowiki>toj'' 'having a horse/with a horse'. As this adjective functioned parallel to ''ügej'' 'not having', it has been suggested that a "privative case" ('without') has been introduced into Mongolian.<ref>Janhunen 2003c: 27.</ref> There have been three different case suffixes in the dative-locative-directive domain that are grouped in different ways: -''a'' as locative and -''dur'', -''da'' as dative<ref>Rybatzki 2003: 68.</ref> or -''da'' and -''a'' as dative and -''dur'' as locative,<ref>Garudi 2002: 101–107.</ref> in both cases with some functional overlapping. As -''dur'' seems to be grammaticalized from ''dotur-a'' 'within', thus indicating a span of time,<ref>Toγtambayar 2006: 18–35.</ref> the second account seems to be more likely. Of these, -''da'' was lost, -''dur'' was first reduced to -''du'' and then to -''d''<ref>Toγtambayar 2006: 33–34.</ref> and -''a'' only survived in a few frozen environments.<ref>Norčin ''et al.'' (ed.) 1999: 2217.</ref> Finally, the directive of modern Mongolian, -''ruu'', has been innovated from ''uruγu'' 'downwards'.<ref>Sečenbaγatur ''et al.'' 2005: 228, 386.</ref> Social gender agreement was abandoned.<ref>Rybatzki 2003: 73, Svantesson 2003: 166.</ref>

====Verbal system====
Middle Mongol had a slightly larger set of declarative finite verb suffix forms<ref>Weiers 1969: Morphologie, §B.II; Svantesson 2003: 166.</ref> and a smaller number of participles, which were less likely to be used as finite predicates.<ref>Weiers 1969: Morphologie, §B.III; Luvsanvandan 1987: 86–104.</ref> The linking converb -''n'' became confined to stable verb combinations,<ref>Luvsanvandan (ed.) 1987: 126, Činggeltei 1999: 251–252.</ref> while the number of converbs increased.<ref>Rybatzki 2003: 77, Luvsanvandan (ed.) 1987: 126–137</ref> The distinction between male, female and plural subjects exhibited by some finite verbal suffixes was lost.<ref>The reconstruction of a social gender distinction is fairly commonplace, see e.g. Rybatzki 2003: 75. A strong argument for the number distinction between -''ba'' and -''bai'' is made in Tümenčečeg 1990: 103–108 (also see Street 2008), where it is also argued that this has been the case for other suffixes.</ref>

===Changes in syntax===
Neutral word order in clauses with pronominal subject changed from object–predicate–subject to subject–object–predicate, e.g.,

:{| style="width:80%; height:60px"
|Kökseü||sabraq||ügü.le-run||ayyi||yeke||uge||ugu.le-d||ta||...||kee-jüü.y''
|-
|K.||s.||speak-{{smallcaps|converb}}||alas||big||word||speak-{{smallcaps|past}}||you||...||say-{{smallcaps|nonfuture}}
|}
:"Kökseü sabraq spoke saying, 'Alas! You speak a great boast....' "<ref>Street 1957: 14, ''Secret History'' 190.13v.</ref>

The syntax of verb negation shifted from negation particles preceding final verbs to a negation particle following participles; thus, as final verbs could no longer be negated, their paradigm of negation was filled by particles.<ref>Yu 1991.</ref> For example, Preclassical Mongolian ''ese irebe'' 'did not come' vs. modern spoken Khalkha Mongolian ''ireegüj'' or ''irsengüj''.

==See also==
{{Portal|Mongolia|Language}}
*[[Mongolian name]]
*[[Mongolian Sign Language]]

==References==
{{Reflist|20em}}

==Bibliography==
''For some Mongolian authors, the Mongolian version of their name is also given in square brackets, e.g., "Harnud [Köke]". Köke is the author's native name. It is a practice common among Mongolian scholars, for purposes of publishing and being cited abroad, to adopt a surname based on one's [[patronymic]], in this example "Harnud"; compare [[Mongolian name]].'' <br>
''Some library catalogs write Chinese language titles with each syllable separate, even syllables belonging to a single word.''

List of abbreviations used. ''TULIP'' is in official use by some librarians; the remainder have been contrived for this listing.<br>
Journals
*''KULIP''  ''Kyūshū daigaku gengogaku ronshū'' [Kyushu University linguistics papers]
*''MKDKH''  ''Muroran kōgyō daigaku kenkyū hōkoku'' [Memoirs of the Muroran Institute of Technology]
*''TULIP''  ''Tōkyō daigaku gengogaku ronshū'' [Tokyo University linguistics papers]

Publishers
*ÖMAKQ  Öbür mongγul-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriy-a {{bracket|[[Inner Mongolia People's Publishing House]]}}
*ÖMSKKQ  Öbür mongγul-un surγan kümüǰil-ün keblel-ün qoriy-a {{bracket|[[Inner Mongolia Education Press]]}}
*ÖMYSKQ  Öbür mongγul-un yeke surγaγuli-yin keblel-ün qoriy-a {{bracket|[[Inner Mongolia University#Inner Mongolia University Press|Inner Mongolia University Press]]}}
*ŠUA  [Mongol Ulsyn] Šinžleh Uhaany Akademi {{bracket|[[Mongolian Academy of Sciences]] (MAS)}}

{{Refbegin|3}}
*{{mn icon}} Amaržargal, B. 1988. ''BNMAU dah' Mongol helnij nutgijn ajalguuny tol' bichig: halh ajalguu''. Ulaanbaatar: ŠUA.
* Apatóczky, Ákos Bertalan. 2005. On the problem of the subject markers of the Mongolian language. In Wú Xīnyīng, Chén Gānglóng (eds.), ''Miànxiàng xīn shìjìde ménggǔxué'' [The Mongolian studies in the new century : review and prospect]. Běijīng: Mínzú Chūbǎnshè. 334–343. ISBN 7-105-07208-3.
*{{jp icon}} Ashimura, Takashi. 2002. Mongorugo jarōto gengo no {{IPA|-lɛː}} no yōhō ni tsuite. ''TULIP'', 21: 147–200.
*{{mn icon}} Bajansan, Ž. and Š. Odontör. 1995. ''Hel šinžlelijn ner tom"joony züjlčilsen tajlbar toli''. Ulaanbaatar.
*{{mn icon}} Bayančoγtu. 2002. ''Qorčin aman ayalγun-u sudulul''. Kökeqota: ÖMYSKQ. ISBN 7-81074-391-0.
*{{mn icon}} Bjambasan, P. 2001. Mongol helnij ügüjsgeh har'caa ilerhijleh hereglüürüüd. ''Mongol hel, sojolijn surguul: Erdem šinžilgeenij bičig'', 18: 9–20.
* Bosson, James E. 1964. ''Modern Mongolian; a primer and reader''. Uralic and Altaic series; 38. Bloomington: Indiana University.
* Brosig, Benjamin. 2009. Depictives and resultatives in Modern Khalkh Mongolian. ''Hokkaidō gengo bunka kenkyū'', 7: 71–101.
* Chuluu, Ujiyediin. 1998. [https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/12389 ''Studies on Mongolian verb morphology'']. Dissertation, University of Toronto.
*{{mn icon}} [[Činggeltei]]. 1999. ''Odu üj-e-jin mongγul kelen-ü ǰüi''. Kökeqota: ÖMAKQ. ISBN 7-204-04593-9.
*{{mn icon}} Coloo, Ž. 1988. ''BNMAU dah' mongol helnij nutgijn ajalguuny tol' bichig: ojrd ajalguu''. Ulaanbaatar: ŠUA.
*{{en icon}} Djahukyan, Gevork. (1991). Armenian Lexicography. In Franz Josef Hausmann (Ed.), ''An International Encyclopedia of Lexicography'' (pp.&nbsp;2367–2371). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
*{{zh icon}} [Dobu] Dàobù. 1983. ''Ménggǔyǔ jiǎnzhì. Běijīng: Mínzú.''
*{{mn icon}} Garudi. 2002. ''Dumdadu üy-e-yin mongγul kelen-ü bütüče-yin kelberi-yin sudulul''. Kökeqota: ÖMAKQ.
* [[Stefan Georg|Georg, Stefan]], Peter A. Michalove, [[Alexis Manaster Ramer]], Paul J. Sidwell. 1999. Telling general linguists about Altaic. ''Journal of Linguistics'', 35: 65–98.
* Guntsetseg, D. 2008. [http://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/opus/volltexte/2008/3548/pdf/SinSpeC1_4_Guntsetseg.pdf Differential Object Marking in Mongolian]. ''Working Papers of the SFB 732 Incremental Specification in Context'', 1: 53–69.
* Hammar, Lucia B. 1983. ''Syntactic and pragmatic options in Mongolian - a study of'' bol ''and'' n<nowiki>'</nowiki>. Ph.D. Thesis. Bloomington: Indiana University.
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*{{jp icon}} Hashimoto, Kunihiko. 1993. <-san> no imiron. ''MKDKH'', 43: 49–94. Sapporo: Dō daigaku.
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{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
* Janhunen, Juha A. 2012: ''Mongolian.'' (London Oriental and African Language Library, 19.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. {{ISSN|1382-3485}}. ISBN 978-90-272-3820-7

==External links==
{{InterWiki|code=mn}}
{{Incubator|code=mvf|language=Inner Mongolian}}
{{wiktionarycat}}
{{wikibook|Mongolian}}
{{Wikivoyage|Mongolian phrasebook|Mongolian|a phrasebook}}
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.linguamongolia.com/ Lingua Mongolia (a website dedicated to the Mongolian language, mostly as written in the Mongolian Uyghur script)]
* [http://www.studymongolian.net/ StudyMongolian]: online lessons in Standard Southern Mongolian
* [http://dic.on-toli.com/ On dictionary] English/German/Korean/Japanese/Russian to Mongolian translation equivalents
* [http://www.bolor-toli.com/ Bolor Mongolian-English dictionary]
* [http://www.mongolfont.com/en/ Traditional Mongolian Unicode Fonts] OpenType and Apple Advanced Typography formats
* [http://www.mglip.com/ Inner Mongolia Mongolian Information Processing Laboratory by the Computer College of Inner Mongolia University] {{zh-cn}}

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