The Mongol language is a member of the Mongolic language family, a group of related languages that are now spoken across Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, parts of Siberia, and parts of Central Asia. The original Mongol language, sometimes called “Middle Mongol” or “Classical Mongol,” was the language of the Mongol Empire of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and it is the ancestor of the modern Mongolian and Buryat languages.
The Mongol language has been written in a number of different scripts over the centuries, including the Uyghur script, the ‘Phags-pa script, the Tibetan script, the Chinese script, the Cyrillic script, and the traditional Mongolian script. The traditional Mongolian script, which is a modified version of the Uyghur script, is now the official script of Mongolia, and it is one of the most distinctive features of the Mongolian national culture.
The Mongolic Language Family
The Mongolic language family is a branch of the larger Altaic language family, which also includes the Turkic, Tungusic, and (controversially) Korean and Japanese languages. The Mongolic family includes a number of modern languages, of which the most important are Khalkha Mongolian (the official language of Mongolia), Inner Mongolian (spoken in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China), Buryat (spoken in Buryatia and adjacent regions of Russia), Kalmyk (spoken in Kalmykia), and Dagur (spoken in Manchuria and Xinjiang).
The Mongolic languages are characterized by a number of distinctive features, including vowel harmony (a phonological process in which vowels within a word must be of the same class), agglutinative morphology (the use of suffixes to indicate grammatical relationships), and a complex system of case markers. The languages are also characterized by a strong tendency to borrow vocabulary from neighboring languages, including Turkic, Chinese, Tibetan, and (more recently) Russian.
The Origins of the Mongol Language
The origins of the Mongol language are not entirely clear, but the language is generally believed to have originated in the region of modern Mongolia, in the centuries before the rise of Genghis Khan. The earliest recorded forms of the language are found in inscriptions and other texts from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the language was clearly well developed by the time of the Mongol conquests.
The Mongol language of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is best known from the Secret History of the Mongols, a text that was written down (in the Mongolian script adapted from Uyghur) sometime around 1240. The Secret History is one of the most important sources for the language, and it is also an important source for the history and culture of the early Mongol people.
The Writing Systems
The Mongol language has been written in a number of different scripts over the centuries. The earliest writing system used for the language was the Uyghur script, which was adapted for the Mongol language after the conquest of the Uyghur kingdom in 1209. The Uyghur script was the official writing system of the Yuan Dynasty and was used for the writing of the Yassa code of law, the imperial decrees, and the Secret History of the Mongols.
In the late thirteenth century, a new writing system was devised for the Mongol language, this time based on the Tibetan script. The new script, called the ‘Phags-pa script (after the Tibetan monk ‘Phags-pa, who devised it), was used for the writing of the Mongol language and for the writing of the languages of the other khanates. The ‘Phags-pa script was used officially for a few decades, but it was eventually abandoned in favor of adaptations of existing scripts.
In the seventeenth century, the Mongol language began to be written in a new script, this time based on the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic script was introduced by the Russian Empire, which had taken control of the Mongol territories of Buryatia and Kalmykia, and it became the standard script for the Buryat and Kalmyk languages. In Mongolia itself, the Mongolian script continued in use, although it was briefly replaced by the Latin alphabet in the 1930s and then by the Cyrillic alphabet in the 1940s. The Cyrillic script remained the official script of Mongolia until 1990, when the country began a gradual transition back to the traditional Mongolian script.
The Influence of Other Languages
The Mongol language has been heavily influenced by other languages throughout its history. The most important influence has been from Turkic languages, which have contributed a large number of loanwords to Mongolian, particularly in the fields of administration, law, and military terminology. The Mongol language has also borrowed heavily from Chinese, particularly in the centuries during and after the Yuan Dynasty; from Tibetan, particularly in the field of Buddhist religious vocabulary; and from Russian, particularly in the modern period.
The Mongol language has also had a significant influence on other languages. The Turkic languages of Central Asia borrowed heavily from Mongolian during the Mongol period, and a number of Mongolian loanwords are still found in modern Turkish, Uzbek, Kazakh, and other Turkic languages. The Russian language also has a small number of Mongolian loanwords, including the words “yurt,” “horde,” “shaman,” and “tamga” (a brand or clan symbol).
The Modern Mongolian Language
The modern Mongolian language, as spoken in the independent state of Mongolia, is known as Khalkha Mongolian. Khalkha Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia and is spoken by about 2.7 million people in Mongolia and by an additional 3.5 million people in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China (where a closely related but distinct language, Inner Mongolian, is spoken). The Khalkha language has been the subject of considerable linguistic study, and it is the standard form of Mongolian used in education, government, and the media in Mongolia.
The modern Mongolian language has undergone significant changes since the imperial period. The phonological system has been simplified, with the loss of several distinct vowel and consonant sounds that were present in Middle Mongol. The vocabulary has been greatly expanded, particularly in the fields of science, technology, and politics. The grammar has also been simplified, with the loss of several complex case and verb forms that were present in Middle Mongol. Despite these changes, modern Mongolian remains recognizably the same language as the language of Genghis Khan, and the literary and linguistic traditions of the imperial period are still a major part of the cultural heritage of modern Mongolia.
Sources
- Jack Weatherford, The Secret History of the Mongol Queens (New York, 2010).
- Anatoly M. Khazanov, Nomads and the Outside World (2nd ed., Madison, 1994).
- David Morgan, The Mongols (2nd ed., Oxford, 2007).