Buryat is a
MongolicThe Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in East-Central Asia, mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas plus in Kalmykia. The best-known member of this language family, Mongolian, is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia and the Mongolian residents of Inner...
variety spoken by the
BuryatsThe Buryats or Buriyads , numbering approximately 436,000, are the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia and are mainly concentrated in their homeland, the Buryat Republic, a federal subject of Russia...
that is either classified as a language or as a major dialect group of
MongolianThe Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...
. The majority of Buryat speakers live in
RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
along the northern border of
MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
where it is an official language in the Buryat Republic,
Ust-Orda BuryatiaUst-Orda Buryat Okrug , or Ust-Orda Buryatia, is an administrative division of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.It was a federal subject of Russia from 1993 to January 1, 2008, when it merged with Irkutsk Oblast Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug , or Ust-Orda Buryatia, is an administrative division of Irkutsk...
and
Aga BuryatiaAgin-Buryat Okrug , or Aga Buryatia, is an administrative division of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia. It was a federal subject of Russia until it merged with Chita Oblast to form Zabaykalsky Krai on March 1, 2008. Prior to merger, it was called Agin-Buryat Autonomous Okrug...
. In the Russian census of 2002, 353,113 people out of an ethnic population of 445,175 could speak Buryat (72.3%). Some other 15,694 can also speak Buryat, mostly ethnic Russians. There are at least 100,000 ethnic Buryats in
MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
and the
People's Republic of ChinaChina , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
as well. Only Buriats of Russia have their own
literary languageA literary language is a register of a language that is used in literary writing. This may also include liturgical writing. The difference between literary and non-literary forms is more marked in some languages than in others...
, written in a Cyrillic alphabet.
Dialects
The delimitation of Buryat mostly concerns its relationship to its immediate neighbors, Mongolian proper and Khamnigan. While Khamnigan is sometimes regarded as a dialect of Buryat, this is not supported by isoglosses. The same holds for Tsongol and Sartul dialects, which rather group with
Khalkha MongolianKhalkha Mongolian may refer to* the Khalkha dialect of Mongolian* the Mongolian language itself, as the Khalkha dialect is the standard variety spoken in Mongolia* the literary standard language used in the Mongolian state...
to which they historically belong. Buryat dialects are:
- Khori group east of Lake Baikal comprising Khori, Aga, Tugnui, and North Selenga dialects. Khori is also spoken by most Buryats in Mongolia and a few speakers in Hulunbuir
Hulunbuir is a region that is governed as a prefecture-level city in northeastern Inner Mongolia, in the People's Republic of China. Its administrative center is located at Hailar District, its largest urban area. Major scenic features are the high steppes of the Hulun Buir grasslands, the Hulun...
.
- Lower Uda (Nizhneudinsk) dialect, the dialect situated furthest to the west and which shows the strongest influence by Turkic
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
- Alar–Tunka group comprising Alar, Tunka–Oka, Zakamna, and Unga in the southwest of Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...
in the case of Tunka also in Mongolia.
- Ekhirit–Bulagat group in the Ust’-Orda National District comprising Ekhirit–Bulagat, Bokhan, Ol’khon, Barguzin, and Baikal–Kudara
- Bargut group in Hulunbuir (which is historically known as Barga), comprising Old Bargut and New Bargut
Based on loan vocabulary, a division might be drawn between Russia Buriat, Mongolia Buriat and China Buriat. However, as the influence of Russian is much stronger in the dialects traditionally spoken west of Lake Baikal, a division might rather be drawn between the Khori and Burgut group on the one hand and the other three groups on the other hand.
Phonology
Buryat has the
vowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
phonemeIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s /i, ə, e, a, u, ʊ, o, ɔ/ (plus a few diphthongs), short /e/ being realized as [ɯ], and the
consonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
phonemes /b, g, d, th, m, n, x, l, r/ (each with a corresponding
palatalizedIn linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
phoneme) and /s, ʃ, h, j/. These vowels are restricted in their occurrence according to
vowel harmonyVowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
. The basic syllable structure is (C)V(C) in careful articulation, but word-final CC clusters may occur in more rapid speech if short vowels of non-initial syllables get lost.
Grammar
Buryat is an
SOVSOV is an acronym for several terms:in organizations*Same Old Vanderbilt, usually refers to Vanderbilt Commodores football by their fans due to lack of success over the years*Stade Olympique Voironnais, a French rugby union club...
language, and makes extensive use of
vowel harmonyVowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
. Instead of using prepositions, Buryat uses postpositions. Buryat is equipped with eight grammatical cases:
nominative, accusative, genitive,
instrumentalAn instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
, ablative,
indefiniteIndefinite may refer to:*In mathematics:**When talking about positive or negative indefinite forms in multilinear algebra, see definite bilinear form.**"Indefinite integral" refers to the antiderivative....
, comitative and the dative-locative.
Stress
Lexical
stressIn linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
(word accent) falls on the last
heavyIn linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical poetry, both Greek and Latin, distinctions of syllable weight were fundamental to the meter of the line....
nonfinal
syllableA syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
when one exists. Otherwise, it falls on the word-final heavy syllable when one exists. If there are no heavy syllables, then the initial syllable is stressed. Heavy syllables without primary stress receive
secondary stressSecondary stress is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the pronunciation of a word; the stronger degree of stress is called 'primary'. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for secondary stress is a short vertical line preceding and at the foot of the stressed syllable: the nun in ...
:
| ˌHˈHL |
[ˌøːɡˈʃøːxe] |
"to act encouragingly" |
| LˌHˈHL |
[naˌmaːˈtuːlxa] |
"to cause to be covered with leaves" |
| ˌHLˌHˈHL |
[ˌbuːzaˌnuːˈdiːje] |
"steamed dumplings (accusative)" |
| ˌHˈHLLL |
[ˌtaːˈruːlaɡdaxa] |
"to be adapted to" |
| ˈHˌH |
[ˈboːˌsoː] |
"bet" |
| LˈHˌH |
[daˈlaiˌɡaːr] |
"by sea" |
| LˈHLˌH |
[xuˈdaːlinɡˌdaː] |
"to the husband's parents" |
| LˌHˈHˌH |
[daˌlaiˈɡaːˌraː] |
"by one's own sea" |
| ˌHLˈHˌH |
[ˌxyːxenˈɡeːˌreː] |
"by one's own girl" |
| LˈH |
[xaˈdaːr] |
"through the mountain" |
| ˈLL |
[ˈxada] |
"mountain" |
Secondary stress may also occur on word-initial
lightIn linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical poetry, both Greek and Latin, distinctions of syllable weight were fundamental to the meter of the line....
syllables without primary stress, but further research is required. The stress pattern is the same as in
Khalkha MongolianThe Khalkha dialect is a dialect of Mongolian widely spoken in Mongolia and according to some classifications includes such South Mongolian varieties such as Shiliin gol, Ulaanchab and Sönid...
.
Numerals
| |
English |
Classical Mongolian |
Buryat |
| 1 |
One |
Nigen |
Negen |
| 2 |
Two |
Qoyar |
Khoyor |
| 3 |
Three |
Ghurban |
Gurban |
| 4 |
Four |
Dorben |
Dyrben |
| 5 |
Five |
Tabun |
Taban |
| 6 |
Six |
Jirghughan |
Zurgaan |
| 7 |
Seven |
Dologhan |
Doloon |
| 8 |
Eight |
Naiman |
Nayman |
| 9 |
Nine |
Yisun |
Yuhen |
| 10 |
Ten |
Arban |
Arban |
External links