The Phonology of Mongolian (The Phonology of the World's Languages)

335 Pages·2005·17.74 MB·English

by  Jan-Olof Svantesson

The Phonology of Mongolian
THE PHONOLOGY OF THE WORLD'S LANGUAGES
General editor: Jacques Durand
Each volume in this series offers an extensive treatment of the phonology of one language
within a modern theoretical perspective, and provides comprehensive references to recent
and more classical studies of the language.
Published in the series:
The Phonology of Dutch
Geert Booij
The Phonology of Standard Chinese
San Duanmu
The Phonology of English
Michael Hammond
The Phonology of Norwegian
Gjert Kristoffersen
The Phonology of Portuguese
Maria Helena Mateus and Ernesto d Andrade
The Phonology and Morphology ofKimatuumbi
David Odden
The Lexical Phonology of Slovak
Jerzy Rubach
The Phonology of Hungarian
Peter Siptar and Miklos Torkenczy
The Phonology of Mongolian
Jan-Olof Svantesson, Anna Tsendina,
Anastasia Mukhanova Karlsson, and Vivan Franzen
The Phonology of Armenian
BertVaux
The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic
Janet C. E.Watson
The Phonology of German
Richard Wiese
In preparation:
The Phonology of Danish The Phonology of Spanish
Hans Basb011 Iggy Roca
The Phonology of Tamil The Phonology of
Prathima Christdas Catalan
The Phonology of Polish Max Wheeler
Edmund Gussman
THE
PHONOLOGY
OF
MONGOLIAN
Jan-Olof Svantesson, Anna Tsendina,
Anastasia Mukhanova Karlsson, and Vivan Franzen
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© J.-O. Svantesson 2005
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Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published 2005
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A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
(Data available)
ISBN 0199260176
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset by Peter Kahrel Ltd., Lancaster
Printed and bound in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
Biddies Ltd., www.biddles.co.uk
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
List of Tables x
List of Figures xi
Abbreviations and symbols xii
Transcription xv
Introduction xvi
1. VOWELS 1
1.1 Acoustic properties of monophthongs 1
1.1.1 The phonetic basis for vowel harmony 7
1.1.2 The vowel/i/ 8
1.2 Diphthongs 9
1.3 Palatalized vowels 10
2. CONSONANTS 12
2.1 Stops and affricates 12
2.1.1 Stops in other Mongolian dialects 17
2.1.2 Buriad and Kalmuck stops 17
2.2 Fricatives 18
2.3 Nasals 18
2.4 Liquids 19
2.5 Glides 20
2.6 Palatalized consonants 20
3. PHONEMES 22
3.1 Vowel phonemes 22
3.1.1 Non-initial vowels 23
3.2 Consonant phonemes 25
3.2.1 Palatalized consonants 28
3.2.2 Velar and uvular consonants 28
3.2.3 Labials 29
3.3 Loan-word phonology 30
4. WRITING SYSTEMS 34
4.1 Cyrillic Mongolian 34
4.2 Cyrillic Buriad and Kalmuck 40
4.3 Modern Written Mongolian 40
Vi CONTENTS
5. PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES 43
5.1 Phonological representation 43
5.2 Vowel harmony 46
5.2.1 Transparent i 48
5.2.2 Opaque vowels 50
5.2.3 The domain of vowel harmony 52
5.2.4 Vowel harmony as feature spreading 53
5.2.5 Velar ~ uvular alternation and epenthetic consonants 55
5.2.6 Cyclic vowel harmony 56
5.3 Velar nasal assimilation 57
5.4 Reduplication 58
5.4.1 Adjective reduplication 58
5.4.2 Noun reduplication 59
6. SYLLABIFICATION AND EPENTHESIS 62
6.1 Syllable structure 62
6.1.1 Syllable types 63
6.1.2 Codas, sonority, and epenthesis 65
6.2 Syllabification of morphologically simple words 68
6.3 Schwa ~ zero alternation 71
6.4 Cyclic syllabification 73
6.4.1 The verb suffix –(d)x 75
6.5 The phonemic status of palatal glides 76
6.6 Word structure 78
6.7 Final consonant combinations 79
7. PROSODY 85
7.1 Focal accent 85
7.2 Final prominence tone 90
7.3 Boundary signalling 91
7.4 Questions 93
7.5 Word stress 94
8. OLD MONGOLIAN 98
8.1 Uigur Mongolian 99
8.2 Sino-Mongolian 102
8.2.1 Sino-Mongolian consonants 102
8.2.2 Sino-Mongolian vowels 106
8.3 Arabic Mongolian 107
8.4 'Phags-pa Mongolian 108
8.5 Old Mongolian vowels 111
8.5.1 Primary long vowels 113
CONTENTS Vii
8.6 Vowels in non-initial syllables and vowel harmony 113
8.6.1 Rounding assimilation 114
8.6.2 Alternation of velar and uvular consonants 115
8.6.3 utral*i 116 116
8.6.4 Proto-Mongolic *W? 117
8.7 Old Mongolian consonants 118
8.7.1 Stops and affricates 119
8.7.2 The fricative *h 121
8.7.3 Sonorants and *s 124
8.7.4 Coda consonants 124
8.8 Morphophonological processes 125
8.9 Old Mongolian vocabulary 126
9. THE MONGOLIC LANGUAGES 140
9.1 Mongolian 141
9.2 Buriad 144
9.3 Kamnigan 146
9.4 Oirad 147
9.5 Dagur 149
9.6 ShiraYugur 150
9.7 Monguor 151
9.8 Santa 152
9.9 Bonan 153
9.10 Kangjia 153
9.11 Moghol 154
9.12 Other related languages 154
9.13 Comparative vocabulary 155
10. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN MONGOLIC
LANGUAGES 178
10.1 The Mongolic vowel shifts 178
10.2 Vowel splits and mergers 182
10.3 Long vowels 183
10.4 */-diphthongs 185
10.5 Vowel deletion and reduction 185
10.5.1 Reduction of short non-initial vowels 186
10.5.2 Deletion of initial vowels 188
10.6 Non-initial vowels and vowel harmony 188
10.6.1 Vowel harmony shifts 189
10.6.2 Vowel harmony in Old Mongolian and Halh 190
10.7 Vowel assimilation 194
10.7.1 Progressive rounding assimilation and
the development of rounding harmony 194
viii CONTENTS
10.7.2 Regressive rounding assimilation 194
10.7.3 Regressive *i-assimilation 195
10.7.4 Breaking of word-initial*i 196
10.7.5 Breaking of *u in Dagur 197
10.8 Onset consonants 197
10.8.1 Stops 198
10.8.2 Affricates 200
10.8.3 Fricatives 202
10.8.4 Sonorants 203
10.9 Coda consonants 203
10.9.1 Unstable *n 205
10.10 Deaspiration and related processes 205
10.11 Palatalization 208
10.11.1 Consonant palatalization 208
10.11.2 Vowel palatalization 210
10.11.3 Vowel palatalization and vowel harmony 212
10.12 Syllable and word structure 214
10.13 Conclusion 216
Appendices 218
References 230
Index 299
Index of Old Mongolian words 311
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank all those who helped us in various ways, especially the Mongolian speak-
ers Basbajar, Davaadorz, Hurelbaatar, Sarantujaa, Sarancacral, and several others,
who willingly let us do rather lengthy and sometimes boring tape recordings of
their language. Several teachers and students at the Mongolian State University
in Ulaanbaatar helped us with arranging recordings and in other ways, including
L. Lhagva, B. Sarantujaa, Ju. Monh-Amgalan, Francois Jacquesson, and Judith
Bertalan. We were helped with the acquisition of literature and visits to differ-
ent libraries by Tamara Esenova and Petr Bitkeev (Elista), Veronica Veil (Bonn),
Juha Janhunen (Helsinki), Saito Yoshio and Sakaedani Haruko (Tokyo), Kuriba-
yashi Hitoshi (Sendai), Coyijongjab, Kogjiltu, and Koke (Kokeqota), Secencogtu
(Peking), Tat'jana Skrynnikova (Ulan-Ude), and several others. Special thanks to
James Bosson who supported this project from its start and read parts of the man-
uscript at various stages, and to Saito Yoshio who read the entire manuscript and
gave many valuable comments, as did the series editor Jacques Durand and one
anonymous reviewer.
Part of the project was financed by the Swedish Research Council for the Human-
ities and Social Sciences (HSFR) and by the Swedish Institute. Travel grants to
Mongolia and other parts of the world were given also by Vetenskapssocieteten i
Lund, Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet i Lund, the Elisabeth Rausing
Memorial Foundation, and the Ido Foundation.