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Mongolian language
While the precise classification of the Mongolian language remains disputed by linguists, Mongolian is clearly derived from a Turkic root and belongs to the same family as other Central Asian ("Altaic") languages such as Kazakh and Manchu. Mongolian is an agglutinative language, with most words formed by a combination of a root and one or more suffixes.
Language of the Mongols' ancestors
The ethnic origins and linguistic affiliation of the Xu'nnu', who rose to prominence among the Central Asian nomads in the 2nd century BCE and who are believed by many Mongolian scholars to be the direct ancestors of the Mongols, have yet to be conclusively identified, with competing theories positing that the Xu'nnu' belonged either to the Turkic or to the Mongol language families; but it is generally agreed that the Turkic, Mongol and Manchu-Tungus language families had already become distinct from one another at the time of the Xu'nnu'’s rise to power in the third century BCE.
Evolution of the Mongolian language
The Mongolian language went through a number of different stages during its process of divergence from the Altaic language. Although there is no direct evidence of this evolution, inferrals about the nature of Old Mongolian can be made on the basis of our knowledge of Middle Mongolian and of the various related languages. It appears that Old Mongolian contained, as in the contemporary language, a division of vowels into "masculine" (a, y, o and u) and "feminine" (e, i, o and u); but it also included a similar division among nearly all consonants. Like the modern language, the consonants p, f and x were inserted prior to words beginning with vowels, with the phonemes k, g, b and v intercalated between vowels. Verbs were also distinguished as masculine and feminine, with an agreement in number between the verb and its subject, and the third-person pronoun could be declinated for all cases. Linguists disagree, however, over the dates to which this Old Mongolian corresponds. According to Vladimirtsov Early Mongolian was the dialect that served as the foundation of the written language; Luvsandendev, on the other hand, laid weight on the theory that the development of a written language itself led to the formation of a literary language, suggesting therefore that the earliest form of the Mongolian literary language existed from an unknown time until approximately the fifth century CE.
Historical sources reveal that the Tabagachi, an Old Mongolian-speaking people derived from the Sianbe, composed more than one thousand new characters in 425 CE; prior to that time, according to the view of the Hungarian scholar Rona-Tash and others, this people may have used the Orxon "runic" script. The Tabagachi developed a literary language, through the adoption of this alphabet, that not only served the purposes of the state, but that also led to the production of many literary works which have been preserved to this date – True Song of the State Language; Song of the Emperor Written in the State Language; Missives, Decrees, and One Chapter of Writings by Chzhou Emperor U-Dig; 18 Chapters of State Writings and so on.
The second stage of the development of Mongolian literature continued to the middle of the 16th century, and can be subdivided into two parts. The first of these sub-periods occurred from the 5th to 14th centuries, and corresponded to the writing of the Secret History of the Mongols, as well as various other documents and inscriptions in Mongol "square" script and Arabian script, in addition to a fair number of Xitan words transcribed using Chinese characters. The second period extended from the 14th to 17th centuries, and saw a refinement of the literary language, as well as the development of the "Clear" and "Soyombo" scripts, which closely reflected the spoken language of that time. Also in this period the Mongolian, Daguur, Mongor, Baoani and Dunsiani dialects split off into distinct languages, while the Kalmyk and Buryat dialects began to develop on more independent lines. These various ethnic Mongol peoples who split off linguistically from the main Mongolian language came to disperse during this period throughout Central Asia and some parts of Europe, with some remaining nomads and others taking up a sedentary lifestyle; some have preserved their languages in an extremely ancient form, while others now speak much more modern languages.
Principal Mongolian dialects
Baoani
Speakers of this language can be found in Gansu and Xinhai provinces of the People's Republic of China, and have a total population of approximately 12-thousand (1990 census).
Buryat
Speakers of the Buryat dialect are primarily found in the Republic of Buryatia in the Russian Federation, constituting a population of approximately 490-thousand (1989 census); Buriats can also be found in the Irkutsk and Chita regions of Russia, as well as in parts of Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and China.
Daurian
Speakers of this language reside in Xo'lo'nbuir aimag and in Hailar, Chichigar city and in the Nen Jiang (Nonni) River Valley in the Xar Gol aimag of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and at Lulja in Xinjiang province of the People's Republic of China. Their total population exceeds 121-thousand (1990 census).
Dunsyani
Speakers of this language reside in Gansu aimag of the People's Republic of China, and have a total population of approximately 374-thousand (1990 census).
Kalmyk (Xal'mag)
The Kalmyks are Oirad Mongols who migrated westward from Mongolia towards the Volga River in the early 17th century. The majority of their population is located in Kalmykia in the Russian Federation, although some Kalmyks also reside in the Astraxan', Rostov, Don, and Volgograd areas, as well as in some border regions of Stavropol. A small number of Kalmyks also live in the area of Issyk-kul' Lake in Kirghizstan, and are known as the "Sart-Kalmyk". As of 1990 there were approximately 174-thousand Kalmyk speakers in Kalmykia; the precise numbers of the ethnic Kalmyk populations in other areas have not been determined.
Mogol
Speakers of this language reside in Heart, Badaktan and Maimana provinces of Afghanistan, but their total population is unknown.
Mongolian ("Central" dialect)
The majority of the speakers of this dialect reside in Mongolia, constituting a population of some 2.5 million.
Mongor
The Mongors reside in Xinhai and Gansu provinces of the People's Republic of China, and have a total population of approximately 191-thousand (1990 census).