Khamnigan (Khamnigan: ) is a

Mongolic language The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken by the Mongolic peoples in North Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this language f ...

spoken by the

Hamnigan The Khamnigan, Hamnigan Mongols, or Tungus Evenki, are an ethnic subgroup of Mongolized Evenks. Khamnigan is the Buryat language, Buryat–Mongolian language, Mongolian term for all Ewenkis. In the early 16th century, the Evenks of Transbaikalia ...

people east of

Lake Baikal Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...

Usage

The Khamnigan people, called the ''Horse Tungus'' or ''Steppe Tungus'', are natively bilingual, speaking both a Mongolic and a Tungusic language, which are inherited from their mixed ancestry. This bilingualism appears to be several centuries old. Their Tungusic language is Evenki (''Khamnigan'' is the Mongol name for the Evenki), while Khamnigan Mongol is a distinct Mongolic language, not a dialect of Mongol or Buryat as traditionally classified in Mongolia or in Russia. Mongol is the dominant language; the two dialects of Evenki are only used by part of the population, and only within the home. Use of the language has declined in Russia, with few speakers left, but both Khamnigan Mongol and Evenki bilingualism remain vigorous in China. Khamnigan Evenki, though not a distinct language from other Evenki, is heavily influenced by Mongol, especially in vocabulary. Khamnigan Mongol, on the other hand, is the most conservative Mongolic language, little different from Middle Mongolian, though the system of

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...

has been disrupted. There is little influence from Evenki: although Khamnigan Evenki has a grammatical plural, for example, Khamnigan Mongol does not. Khamnigan in Mongolia has strongly assimilated to Khalkha Mongolian, and even though some Buryat-like and idiosyncratic features are to be found (e.g. the very particular mood system lacking in Khamnigan in China), it overall resembles a dialect of Khalkha, and it has lost its particular Tungusic lexicon.cf. Yu, Wonsoo. 2011. A Study of the Mongol Khamnigan spoken in Northeastern Mongolia. Seoul: Seoul National University Press.

Orthography

Khamnigan is written using the

Mongolian script The traditional Mongolian script, also known as the Hudum Mongol bichig, was the first Mongolian alphabet, writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic script, Cy ...

References

External links

Summary of Khamnigan
in the ''

World Atlas of Language Structures The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) is a database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials. It was first published by Oxford University Press as a book with CD-RO ...

'' {{Languages of China Central Mongolic languages Languages of China Indigenous languages of Siberia Languages of Mongolia Mixed languages Indigenous languages of Asia Endangered languages of China Endangered languages of Asia

Usage

Orthography

See also

References

External links