Language name: | KHALKHA |
UPSID number: | 2166 |
Alternate name(s): | MONGOLIAN |
Classification: | Ural-Altaic, Mongolian |
This language has | 33 segments |
Its Frequency index is | 0.284821609 (average percentage of segments; 0.1: many very rare segments; 0.39: average; 0.7: many common segments) |
The language has these sounds: | ph b "th "d kh g "tsh "dz tSh dZ P B "s S x m "n "l "r i U O j I a "hl u o+ ae Oi ui Ui e_ |
Comment: | Khalkha is spoken primarily in Mongolia People's Republic but there are few speakers in USSR. All simple vowels appear both long and short. Khalkha Mongolian has a vowel harmony system probably based on pharyngeal cavity size (Svantesson 1985). /i, u, e, o/ have expanded pharynx ([+ATR]), though /i/ is neutral to vowel harmony in non-initial syllables. /g/ and /x/ are treated as allophones by Hangin (1968). Treatment of diphthongs is varied in sources. |
Source(s): | Hangin, J.G. 1968. Basic Course in Mongolian (Indiana University Publications, Uralic and Altaic Series 73). Indiana University, Bloomington. Luvsanvandan, S. 1964. The Khalkha-Mongolian phonemic system. Acta Orientalia (Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae) 17: 175-85. Street, J.C. 1963. Khalkha Structure (Indiana University Publications, Uralic and Altaic Series 24). Indiana University, Bloomington. Svantesson, J. 1985. Vowel harmony shift in Mongolian. Lingua 67:283-327. |