Monguor language

The Monguor language (Chinese: 土族语; pinyin: Tǔzúyǔ; also written Mongour and Mongor) is a Mongolic language of its Shirongolic branch and is part of the Gansu–Qinghai sprachbund (also called the Amdo sprachbund). There are several dialects, mostly spoken by the Monguor people. A writing system was devised for Huzhu Monguor (Mongghul) in the late 20th century but has been little used.

Monguor
Dēd Mongol, Tu
moŋɡuer
Native to	China
Region	Qinghai, Gansu
Native speakers	(150,000 cited 2000 census)[1]
Language family	Mongolic Southern Mongolic Shirongol Monguor
Dialects	Mongghul (Huzhu) Mangghuer (Minhe)
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mjg
Glottolog	tuuu1240
Glottopedia	Mangghuer[2]

A division into two languages, namely Mongghul in Huzhu Tu Autonomous County and Mangghuer in Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, is considered necessary by some linguists. While Mongghul was under strong influence from Amdo Tibetan, the same holds for Mangghuer and Sinitic languages, and local varieties of Chinese such as the Gangou language were in turn influenced by Monguor.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

• Vowel sounds may also be nasalized when preceding a nasal consonant, in different environments.
• Vowels /i, e, u/ may also undergo a devoicing process in certain phonetic environments.

Phoneme/Sound	Allophones	Notes
/i/ [i]	[ɪ]	in stressed syllables
	[ɨ]	when following alveolar sibilants or affricates
	[ɨ˞]	when following a retroflex consonant
/e/ [e]	[ə]	in stressed syllables without onset clusters or coda consonants
	[ɛ]	in a syllable with a palatal onset or palatal coda
	[ə̝]	in a syllable with a nasal coda consonant
/a/ [ä]	[ɑ]	in a syllable closed by a velar nasal coda /ŋ/
	[ɐ]	before a syllable-final /j/
	[æ]	when a syllable is closed by an alveolar nasal /n/
	[ɛ]	when following a palatal onset consonant, and preceding an alveolar nasal /n/
/o/ [o]	[ɵ]	may be closer in different environments
/u/ [u]	[ʊ]	when in unstressed syllables
	[ʉ]	when following palatal consonants

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Plosive	voiceless	p	t				k	q
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ				kʰ	qʰ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s	t͡ɕ	t͡ʂ
	aspirated		t͡sʰ	t͡ɕʰ	t͡ʂʰ
Fricative		f	s	ɕ	ʂ			χ
Nasal		m	n				ŋ
Approximant	liquid		l		ɻ
	central					j	w

• /χ/ can also be heard as allophones [h] or [x], occurring in free variation.
• /ɻ/ can be heard as a voiced fricative [ʐ] within the onset of a stressed syllable, or of a word-initial syllable. It can also be heard as a flap sound [ɾ] intervocalically in the onset of an unstressed syllable. In a syllable-coda position, it is heard as a rhotic [ə˞] vowel sound.
• /j/ can have a spirantized allophone of [ʝ] strongly in stressed syllables.^[3]

Writing system

Cyrillic alphabet

In 1958, a Cyrillic-based alphabet was developed for Monguor, but it's practical use did not begin for political reasons.

 The Cyrillic alphabet for Monguor had the following letters:

Letter
а	а̄	б	в	г	γ	д	е	е̄	ж	җ	з	и	ӣ	ј	к	л	м	н	ң	о	о̄	п	р	с	т	у	ӯ	ф	х	ц	ч	ҷ	ш	щ	э
IPA
/a/	/aː/	/b/	/w/	/k/	/q/	/d/	/e/	/eː/	/t͡ʂ/	/t͡ɕ/	/t͡s/	/i/	/iː/	/j/	/kʰ/	/l/	/m/	/n/	/ŋ/	/o/	/oː/	/p/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/uː/	/f/	/χ/	/t͡sʰ/	/t͡ʂʰ/	/t͡ɕʰ/	/ʂ/	/ɕ/	/ə/

^[4]

Latin alphabet

From the 1970s to the 1980s, the current Latin alphabet for Monguor based on Pinyin was developed. It consists of 31 letters.

 The following list shows the letters of the Monguor Latin alphabet along with their pronunciation in the IPA:

• A a (/a/)
• B b (/p/)
• C c (/tsʰ/)
• D d (/t/)
• E e (/e/)
• F f (/f/)
• G g (/k/)
• H h (/χ/)
• I i (/i/)
• J j (/tɕ/)
• K k (/kʰ/)
• L l (/l/)
• M m (/m/)
• N n (/n/)
• O o (/o/)
• P p (/pʰ/)
• Q q (/tɕʰ/)
• R r (/ɻ/)
• S s (/s/)
• T t (/tʰ/)
• U u (/u/)
• W w (/w/)
• X x (/ɕ/)
• Y y (/j/)
• Z z (/ts/)
• Zh zh (/tʂ/)
• Ch ch (/tʂʰ/)
• Sh sh (/ʂ/)
• Ng ng (/ŋ/)
• Gh gh (/q/)
• Kh kh (/qʰ/)

 The letter V is not used. Long vowels are written with double vowel letters.

Numerals

Mongolian numerals such as the following^[5] are only in use in the Mongghul dialect, while Mangghuer speakers have switched to counting in Chinese.^[5] Note that while the Mongolian script has only arban for 'ten', Middle Mongolian *harpa/n including *h can be reconstructed from the scripts.^[6]

Numeral	Classical Mongolian	Monguor
1	nigen	nige
2	qoyar	ghoori
3	ghurban	ghuran
4	dörben	deeran
5	tabun	tawun
6	jirghughan	jirighun
7	dologhan	duluun
8	naiman	niiman
9	yisün	shdzin
10	arban	haran