The Khorchin dialect (Mongolian , Chinese 科尔沁 Kē'ěrqìn) is a variety of Mongolian spoken in the east of Inner Mongolia, namely in Hinggan League, in the north, north-east and east of Hinggan and in all but the south of the Tongliao region.Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 565 There were 2.08 million Khorchin Mongols in China in 2000,Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 317 so the Khorchin dialect may well have more than one million speakers, making it the largest dialect of Inner Mongolia.
Phonology
Consonants + Khorchin consonant phonemesBayančoγtu 2002: Todurqayilalta 2-3. Labial Coronal Palatal Velar Nasal Stop Fricative Approximant Trill
Historical has become modern , and in some varieties, is replaced by .Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 327 Then, *u (<*<*u) has regressively assimilated to before *p, e.g. *putaha (Written Mongolian budaγ-a) > pata ‘rice’.Qai yan 2005: 92 However, less systematic changes that pertain only to a number of words are far more notable, e.g. 'capacity'> Khorchin .Bayančoγtu 2002: 79 This last example also illustrates that Khorchin allows for the consonant nuclei and (cp. 'many').Bayančoγtu 2002: 109-110
Vowels Bayančoγtu 2002: 1, 80.
The large vowel system developed through the depalatalization of consonants that phonemicized formerly allomorphic vowels, hence and . On the other hand, *ö is absent, e.g. Proto-Mongolic > Kalmyk , Khalkha 'colour',Svantesson et al. 2005:135, 171 but Khorchin , thus merging with .Bayančoγtu 2002: 15 is absent in the native words of some varieties and is completely restricted to loanwords from Chinese,Bayančoγtu 2002: 28-29 but as these make up a very substantial part of Khorchin vocabulary, it is not feasible to postulate a separate loanword phonology. This also resulted in a vowel harmony system that is rather different from Chakhar and Khalkha: may appear in non-initial syllables of words without regard for vowel harmony, as may (e.g. 'horses' and 'expensive';Bayančoγtu 2002: 89, 91 Khalkha would have 'horses' and ). On the other hand, still determines a word as front-vocalic when appearing in the first syllable, which doesn't hold for and .Sečenbaγatur et al. 2005: 328-329 In some subdialects, and which originated from palatalized and , have changed vowel harmony class according to their acoustic properties and become front vowels in the system, and the same holds for their long counterparts. E.g. *mori-bar 'by horse' > Khorchin vs. Jalaid subdialect .Bayančoγtu 2002: 93
Morphology
Khorchin uses the old comitative to delimit an action within a certain time. A similar function is fulfilled by the suffix that is, however, restricted to environments in the past stratum.Bayančoγtu 2002: 149 In contrast to other Mongolian varieties, in Khorchin Chinese verbs can be directly borrowed; other varieties have to borrow Chinese verbs as Mongolian nouns and then derive these to verbs. Compare the new loan 'to ask for money' < zhāngluó (张罗) with the older loan 'to borrow' < jiè (借)Bayančoγtu 2002: 529, 531-532 that is present in all Mongolian varieties and contains the derivational suffix .
Notes
References Citations
Sources Bayančoγtu (2002): Qorčin aman ayalγun-u sudulul. Kökeqota: Öbür mongγul-un yeke surγaγuli-yin keblel-ün qoriy-a. Qai yan (2003): Qorčin aman ayalγu ba aru qorčin aman ayalγun-u abiyan-u ǰarim neyitelig ončaliγ. In: Öbür mongγul-un ündüsüten-ü yeke surγaγuli 2005/3: 91-94. Sečenbaγatur et al. (2005): Mongγul kelen-ü nutuγ-un ayalγun-u sinǰilel-ün uduridqal. Kökeqota: Öbür mongγul-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriy-a. Svantesson, Jan-Olof, Anna Tsendina, Anastasia Karlsson, Vivan Franzén (2005): The Phonology of Mongolian. New York: Oxford University Press.
Further reading