The Dagur, Daghur, Dahur, or Daur language, is a Mongolic language, as well as a distinct branch of the Mongolic language family, and is primarily spoken by members of the Daur ethnic group.
There is no written standard in use, although a Pinyin-based orthography has been devised; instead the Dagur make use of Mongolian or Chinese, as most speakers know these languages as well.Tsumagari 2003: 129 During the time of the Qing dynasty, Dagur was written with the Manchu alphabet.Engkebatu 2001
Distribution Dagur is a Mongolic language consisting of five dialects:Tsumagari 2003: 129, Sengge 2004: 616 Amur Dagur in the vicinity of Heihe (original homeland). About 400 people. Nonni Dagur on the west side of the Nonni River from south of Qiqihar up to Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner. Speakers of Nonni Dagur are usually grouped into the following four dialects: Morin Daba Dagur, in Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner (Moli Daba) of Hulun Buir League, Inner Mongolia Butha (Buteha) (Northern) Dagur, immediately south of Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner Tsitsikar (Southern) Dagur, in Tsitsikar (Qiqihar) City and surrounding areas Mergen Dagur or Nenjiang Dagur, in Nenjiang County (formerly Mergen County) of Heilongjiang Province Hailar Dagur to the south-east of Hailar in Ewenki Autonomous Banner Sinkiang Dagur in Xinjiang in the vicinity of Tacheng
Phonology
Dagur phonology is peculiar in that some of its dialects have developed a set of labialized consonants (e.g. 'flea' vs. 'moon'),Chuluu 1994: 5, but for example not the Tacheng dialect, see Yu et al. 2008: 25-26 while it shares palatalized consonantsSengge 2004a, Tsumagari 2003: 133 with most Mongolian dialects that have not been developed in the other Mongolic languages. It also has , which is, however, limited to loan words.Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983: 66-67, cp. Tsumagari 2003: 131 Word-final short vowels were lostTsumagari 2003: 131 and historically short vowels in non-initial syllables have lost phoneme status.cp. Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983: 84 Dagur is the only Mongolic language to share this development with Mongolian (i.e. Mongolian proper, Oirat, Buryat). Due to the merger of and with and , vowel harmony was lost.Tsumagari 2003: 131 basically in agreement with Sengge 2004a; in contrast, Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983: 37 give a pretty standard Mongolian vowel harmony system with the pharyngeal vowels , , contrasting with the non-pharyngeal vowels , , , while is neutral. According to Tsumagari (2003), vowel harmony is still a productive synchronic phonotactic aspect of Dagur in which initial syllable long vowels are divided into "masculine" (back), "feminine" (front), and neutral groups. Likewise, suffixal long vowels must agree in harmonic group with the root.
Vowels
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |+ Dagur vowels (Chuluu 1994) ! rowspan="2" | ! colspan="2" |Front ! colspan="2" |Central ! colspan="2"|Back |- ! short ! long !short !long ! short ! long |- ! style="text-align: left;" | Close
! style="text-align: left;" | Mid
! style="text-align: left;" | Open
Consonants
+ Dagur consonants (Chuluu 1994) Labial AlveolarPostalveolar Velar Stop/Affricate Fricative Nasal Trill Lateral Semivowel
Writing system + LettersContextual formsTransliterationInternational Phonetic Alphabet Initial Medial FinalLatinCyrillic———
Grammar
Dagur has a pronominal system that distinguishes between first person plural inclusive and exclusive and, even more archaic, it distinguishes between third person singular and plural .Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983: 211-126, cp. Tsumagari 2003: 141 While the phoneme (< ) has been retained, the second person singular pronoun has become nevertheless,Sengge 2004c: 621 resembling a more thorough sound change in Khorchin Mongolian. The second person plural is retained as . The genitive and accusative have fused in some variants, becoming –ji, and the ablative may assume the form of the instrumental case. The old comitative has been lost, while the innovated comitative is the same as in Mongolian.Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983: 110-121, Sengge 619-620 In addition, several other cases have been innovated that are not shared by Mongolian, including a new allative, -maji.Sengge 2004c: 620
Dagur has a fairly simple tense-aspect system consisting of the nonpast markers - and (marginally) - and the past forms - and (marginally) and the non-finite imperfective marker --. These may be inflected for person. The attributive particle forms are limited to – (< Written Mongolian -γ-a) for imperfective aspect and future tense, -sən (< -γsan) for perfective aspect, - (< -gči) for habituality (instead of -daγ which used to fulfil this function) and - for potential and probable actions. It has acquired a highly complex converbal system containing several innovations. Notably, -mar which is a participle in Mongolian serves as a converb as well.Tsumagari 2003: 144-148 supplemented with Sengge 2004c. The exact form of the plosive in - is unclear as these two sources and Namcarai and Qaserdeni 1983 give different phones.
Grammatical case suffix table
+CaseMarkerNoteExampleMeaning Genitive -ei Added to words ending in a consonant (except j, q, x) битегей biteg + ei → bitegei of the book хелегей heleg + ei → helegei адусей adus + ei → adusei аолэй aol + ei → aolei of the mountain -ii Added to words ending in j, q, x кайчий kaiq + ii → kaiqii of shears оржий orj + ii → orjii тульший tulx + ii → tulxii -i Added to words ending in a short vowel морий mori + i → morii of the horse новуй nowu + i → nowui of the dog дангай danga + i → dangai of smoke -yi Appended to words ending in long vowels and diphthongs акааий akaa + yi → akaayi older brother's касооий kasoo + yi → kasooyi of iron даоий dao + yi → daoyi of the song Accusative Same as genitive case Locative -d Added to the stem (if ending in a consonant d, t, k, s, j, q, x add an appropriate vowel before -d) ширээд xiree + d → xireed on the desk хорвуд horwu + d → horwud in/on the cabinet тосод tos + d → tosod in the oil Instrumental -aar, -eer, -oor Added to words ending in consonants (except j, q, x) according to vowel harmony сарпаар sarp + aar → sarpaar using chopsticks лэкээр lek + eer → lekeer топоор topoor + oor → topooroor using an axe -ier Added to words ending in j, q, x онкиэр onq + ier → onqier using a knife оржиэр orj + ier → orjier -ar, -er, -or Added according to vowel harmony to words ending in short vowels дангаар danga + ar → dangaar using smoke галиэр gali + er → galier using fire мориэр mori + er → morier using a horse новуор nowu + or → nowuor using a dog -yaar, -yeer Added according to vowel harmony to words ending in long vowels and diphthongs чолоояар qoloo + yaar → qolooyaar using a stone касоояар kasoo + yaar → kasooyaar using iron Ablative Same as instrumental case The ablative form is sometimes -aas, -ees, -oos, -ies, -as, -es, -os, -yaas, -yees. Comitative -tii Added to the word stem акаатий akaa + tii → akaatii together with older brother эвээтий ewee + tii → eweetii together with mom Terminative -qaar, -qeer Added to the word stem according to vowel harmony соочаар soo + qaar → sooqaar up to the armpits сакчаар sak + qaar → sakqaar up to the ankles
Personal reflexive relationship suffixes
+ Pronoun Number Marker Example Meaning 1st Singular mini жакмини jakmini my stuff/thing хороомини horoomini my finger Plural (exclusive) -maani себмаани sebmaani our teacher Plural (inclusive) -naani себнаани sebnaani our teacher 2nd Singular -xini васкалшини waskalxini your clothing Plural -taani гэритаани geritaani your home 3rd Singular -ini агини agini his brother -yini экээйини ekeeyini his sister Plural -inaani этэвуйнаани eteewuinaani their grandmother -yinaani ачайинаани aqaayinaani their father
Imperative verb suffixes
+ Pronoun Number Volitional Imperative Prohibitive 1st Singular -яа -yaa -гаан, -гээн -gaan, -geen -гаамини -gaamini -гэмини -geemini Plural (exclusive) -гаамани -gaamaani -гээмани -geemaani Plural (inclusive) -гааннаани -gaannaani -гээннаани -geennaani 2nd Singular -гаание -gaanie (word stem) -гааншини -gaanxini -геение -geenie -гээншини -geenxini Plural -гаантие -gaantie -ту -tu -гаантаани -gaantaani -геентие -geentie -геентаани -geentaani 3rd Singular & plural -тгай -tgai -гаанини -gaanini -гээнини -geenini
Declarative verb suffixes
+ Time Suffix Example Meaning Present future tense -bei идбей (иден) idbei (iden) (he) will eat -n яобей (явун) yaobei (yawun) (she) will go Past tense -sen идсен idsen (she) ate яосен yaosen (he) went
Pronouns' verb suffixes
Present future tense
+ Pronoun Number Marker Example Meaning 1st Singular -wei(-w) Би харивей. Bi hariwei(hariw). I return. -nbi Би харинби. Bi harinbi. I return. Plural (exclusive) -waa Баа хариваа. Baa hariwaa. We return. -nbaa Баа харинбаа. Baa harinbaa. We return. Plural (inclusive) -wdaa Бид харивдаа. Bid hariwdaa. We return. -ndaa Бид хариндаа. Bid harindaa. We return. 2nd Singular -beixi(-bxi) Ши харибейши. Xi haribeixi. You return. -nxi Ши харинши. Xi harinxi. You return. Plural -beitaa (-btaa) Таа харибейтаа. Taa haribeitaa (haribtaa). You return. -ntaa Таа харинтаа. Taa harintaa. You return.
Past tense
+ Pronoun Number Marker Example Meaning 1st Singular -senbi Би харисенби. Bi harisenbi. I returned. Plural (exclusive) -senbaa Баа харисенбаа. Baa harisenbaa. We returned. Plural (inclusive) -sendaa Бид харисэндаа. Bid harisendaa. We returned. 2nd Singular -senxi Ши харисенши. Xi harisenxi. You returned. Plural -sentaa Таа харисентаа. Taa harisentaa. You returned.
Adverb suffixes
+ Suffix Notes Example Meaning -j Indicates parallel actions Ийчиж ужсенби. iiqij ujsenbi. I went to see (it). -jie (dii) Indicates that two actions are performed simultaneously Саожие (дий) усвулжьжабей. Saojie (dii) uswuljjabei. (She) sits while talking. -aar, -eer, -oor Indicates that the behavior occurred successively Гараар ирсэн. Garaar irsen. (He) came out. Энкуер яосэн. Enkuer yaosen. (She) ate it. -jii Signifies the end of the act Ужьжий яосэн. Ujjii yaosen. (He) left after reading (it). Иджий яо! Idjii yao! Let's eat and (then) go. -n ...-n Indicates behaviors that occur together Гуйн кариен яосэн. Guin karien yaosen. (He) jumped and bounced away. -mkii,-mklii Indicates that the behavior occurs immediately Мадемький (мэдемький) ичсэн. Medemkii (medemklii) iqsen. (She) went as soon as (she) knew it. -mder Indicates that the behavior occurs immediately Медемдерь (меднмкьлий) ичсэн. Medemder (medemklii) iqsen. (She) went as soon as she knew it. -wueter Indicates readiness Елвуетерь медсен. Elwueter medsen. (She) will know as soon as (he) says it. -aajaar, -eejeer (-eejaar), -oojaar Indicates simultaneous act Бариежаараа алдсэн. Bariejaaraa aldsen. (He) grabbed it and let it go. -rsaar, rseer Indicates continuation and recurrence of behavior Элерсеерь араан болсен. Elerseer araan bolsen. How many times have you said it? -aas, -ees, -oos Express the condition of the behavior Элеесшини укубей. Eleesxini ukubei. If you say so, I'll give it to you. -tgai q Indicates concessive act Учийкэн аатгай чукаатий. Uqiiken aatgai qukaatii. Small but wise. -worg, -wuar Indicates the act to follow Хийвуерь тортсен. Hiiwuer tortsen. (She) decided to do (it). -gaanie, -geenie Expresses purpose Уйгеени игсен. Uigeenie igsen. (He) went to see (it). -tel Indicates behavioral boundaries Яотельмини аасен. Yaotelmini aasen. (He'll) be there until (she) leaves. -tlaa(-tlaanie), tlee(-tleenie) Expresses choice Элтлеение хиисехдь уль денген. Eltleenie hiisehd ul dengen. It's better to do (so). -maak(-maaken), meek(-meken) Indicates the proximity of behavior Ванамаак (ванамаакен) болсен. Wanamaak (wanamaaken) bolsen. (It's) about to fall.
Personal pronouns
+ Tsumagari 2003: 141 1st Person 2nd Person 3rd Person singular plural singular plural singular plural exclusive inclusive Nominative бий bii биэде biede баа baa ший xii таа taa инг ing аанг aang Genitive миний