The Eastern and Western groups

The split between Eastern Mongolian (Khalkha, Buryat, and the dialects of Inner Mongolia) and Western Mongolian (Oirat and Kalmyk) occurred at a later stage than that between the peripheral, archaizing languages and the central group. So many features—the loss of initial /h/, reduction of vowel sequences to long vowels, development of rounded vowels in noninitial syllables, assimilation of /i/ to the vowel of the next syllable, and so on—are shared by the Eastern and Western groups that most contemporary linguists no longer consider the east-west split the primary division in the genealogy of the Mongolian languages. Eastern and Western Mongolian languages differ primarily in regard to a few relatively recent innovations, such as the development of labial harmony in the Eastern group. For example, where Khalkha rounds a to o following o, as in mor’or ‘by horse,’ Kalmyk retains a in the ending -ar.

The terms Oirat (not to be confused with Oirot [Altai], a Turkic language) and Kalmyk have been used in various ways, sometimes as synonyms. Historically, this Mongol group lived west of Lake Baikal, in southeastern Siberia. Subsequently they spread to Dzungaria (now in China’s Xinjiang autonomous region). In the early 17th century a portion of the Dzungarian Kalmyk migrated and established a kingdom on the Volga, near the Caspian Sea. When, in 1771, these people returned east to the Ili River valley in Dzungaria, a portion were unable to leave; the descendants of those who remained (the only Mongolian-speaking people of Europe) are called Kalmyk, though the Ili Oirat are also referred to as Kalmyk by some. After World War II Stalin exiled the entire Kalmyk group to Siberia for alleged collaboration with the Germans, but in 1957 they were restored to Kalmykia.

Linguistically speaking, the designation Kalmyk refers to the Cyrillic written language of the European Mongols and their spoken dialects, while the designation Oirat refers to the vertical script language and its associated dialects in Asia. Spoken Oirat so defined is, however, little differentiated from Kalmyk as a spoken language, save in vocabulary.

The separate political and cultural histories of the east-central Mongolian peoples (the Buryat were conquered by the Russians in the mid-17th century and Inner Mongolia by the Manchu; the Manchu did not conquer Outer Mongolia until a half century later; Outer but not Inner Mongolia obtained independence from China in the 20th century) are reflected in their choices of script and in their distinctive vocabularies, and they justify reference to separate Buryat and Mongol languages, as well as, perhaps, to Inner and Outer (Khalkha) Mongolian, though the closely related spoken dialects hardly warrant such distinctions.

Buryat differs from Mongol principally in its Russified vocabulary and in a few features of its phonology and morphology, most notably the change of /s/ to /h/ and the development of personal endings on the verb. The spoken languages of Inner and Outer (Khalkha) Mongolia, apart from vocabulary, likewise do not constitute distinct groupings.

Consequently, while all scholars recognize a Mongol or (Eastern) Mongolian spoken language, they disagree on whether or not spoken Buryat is a language distinct from it. Further, although scholars are generally agreed in recognizing at least the following dialects—Chakhar, Darkhan, Ju Uda, Khalkha, Kharchin, Khorchin, Ordos (Urdus), and Ulan Tsab (Urat)—the number of dialects and their allocation to yet larger groupings remain a source of controversy.