A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Buryat | |
|---|---|
| Buriat | |
| буряад хэлэн buryaad khelen ᠪᠤᠷᠢᠶᠠᠳ ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠬᠡᠯᠡᠨ | |
| Native to | Eastern Russia (Buryatia Republic, Ust-Orda Buryatia, Aga Buryatia), northern Mongolia, Northeast China (Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia) |
| Ethnicity | Buryats, Barga Mongols |
Native speakers | 440,000 (2017–2020)[1] |
| Cyrillic, Mongolian script, Vagindra script, Latin | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Buryatia (Russia) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | bua Buriat |
| ISO 639-3 | bua – inclusive code BuriatIndividual codes: bxu – Inner Mongolian (China) Buriatbxm – Mongolia Buriatbxr – Russia Buriat |
| Glottolog | buri1258 |
| ELP | |
 | |
 Buryat is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Buryat or Buriat,[1][2][note 1] known in foreign sources as the Bargu-Buryat dialect of Mongolian, and in pre-1956 Soviet sources as Buryat-Mongolian,[note 2][4] is a variety of the Mongolic languages spoken by the Buryats and Bargas that is classified either as a language or major dialect group of Mongolian.
Geographic distribution
The majority of Buryat speakers live in Russia along the northern border of Mongolia. In Russia, it is an official language in the Republic of Buryatia and was an official language in the former Ust-Orda Buryatia and Aga Buryatia autonomous okrugs.[5] In the Russian census of 2002, 353,113 people out of an ethnic population of 445,175 reported speaking Buryat (72.3%). Some other 15,694 can also speak Buryat, mostly ethnic Russians.[6] Buryats in Russia have a separate literary standard, written in a Cyrillic alphabet.[7] It is based on the Russian alphabet with three additional letters: Ү/ү, Ө/ө and Һ/һ.
There are at least 100,000 ethnic Buryats in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China, as well.[8]
Dialects
The delimitation of Buryat mostly concerns its relationship to its immediate neighbors, Mongolian proper and Khamnigan. While Khamnigan is sometimes regarded as a dialect of Buryat, this is not supported by isoglosses. The same holds for Tsongol and Sartul dialects, which rather group with Khalkha Mongolian to which they historically belong. Buryat dialects are:
- Khori group east of Lake Baikal comprising Khori, Aga, Tugnui, and North Selenga dialects. Khori is also spoken by most Buryats in Mongolia and a few speakers in Hulunbuir.
- Lower Uda (Nizhneudinsk) dialect, the dialect situated furthest to the west and which shows the strongest influence from Turkic
- Alar–Tunka group comprising Alar, Tunka–Oka, Zakamna, and Unga in the southwest of Lake Baikal. Tunka extends into Mongolia.
- Ekhirit–Bulagat group in the Ust’-Orda National District comprising Ekhirit–Bulagat, Bokhan, Ol’khon, Barguzin, and Baikal–Kudara
- Bargut group in Hulunbuir (which is historically known as Barga), comprising Old Bargut and New Bargut[9]
Based on loan vocabulary, a division might be drawn between Russia Buryat, Mongolia Buryat and Inner Mongolian Buryat.[10] However, as the influence of Russian is much stronger in the dialects traditionally spoken west of Lake Baikal, a division might rather be drawn between the Khori and Bargut group on the one hand and the other three groups on the other hand.[11]
Phonology
Buryat has the vowel phonemes /i, ʉ, e, a, u, o, ɔ/ (plus a few diphthongs),[12] and the consonant phonemes /b, g, d, tʰ, m, n, x, l, r/ (each with a corresponding palatalized phoneme) and /s, ʃ, z, ʒ, h, j/.[13][14] These vowels are restricted in their occurrence according to vowel harmony.[15] The basic syllable structure is (C)V(C) in careful articulation, but word-final CC clusters may occur in more rapid speech if short vowels of non-initial syllables get dropped.[16]
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː ‹и ии› |
ʉ ʉː ‹ү үү› |
u uː ‹у уу› | |
| Mid | eː ‹ээ› |
(ə) | ɤ ‹э› | oː ‹өө› |
| ɔ ɔː ‹о оо› | ||||
| Open | a aː ‹а аа› |
|||
Other lengthened vowel sounds that are written as diphthongs, namely ай (aj), ой (oj), and үй (yj), are heard as . Also, эй (ej) is also rendered homophonous with ээ (ee). In unstressed syllables, /a/ and /ɔ/ become , while unstressed /ɤ/ becomes . These tend to disappear in fast speech.[17]
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | ||||
| Plosive | aspirated | tʰ | tʰʲ | ||||||
| voiced | b | bʲ | d | dʲ | ɡ | ɡʲ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ʃ | x | xʲ | h | |||
| voiced | z | ʒ | |||||||
| Nasal | m | mʲ | n | nʲ | (ŋ)[a] | ||||
| Lateral | l | lʲ | |||||||
| Rhotic | r | rʲ | |||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||||
Voiced plosives are half-voiced syllable finally on the first syllable (xob 'calumny', xobto 'chest'), but completely devoiced on the second syllable onwards (tyleb 'shape', harapša 'shed').[18] Velar stops are "postvelarized" in words containing back vowel harmony: gar 'hand', xog 'trash', but not as in ger 'house', teeg 'cross-beam'. Also, /g/ becomes between back vowels (jaagaab 'what has happened?').[19] The phoneme /n/ becomes before velar consonants, while word finally it may cause nasalization of the preceding vowel (anxan 'beginning') In the Aga dialect, /s/ and /z/ are pronounced as non-sibilants and , respectively. /tʃ/ in loans was often substituted by simple /ʃ/.[20]
Stress
Lexical stress (word accent) falls on the last heavy nonfinal syllable when one exists. Otherwise, it falls on the word-final heavy syllable when one exists. If there are no heavy syllables, then the initial syllable is stressed. Heavy syllables without primary stress receive secondary stress:[21]
Stress pattern IPA Gloss ˌHˈHL ˌøːɡˈʃøːxe "to act encouragingly" LˌHˈHL naˌmaːˈtuːlxa "to cause to be covered with leaves" ˌHLˌHˈHL ˌbuːzaˌnuːˈdiːje "steamed dumplings (accusative)" ˌHˈHLLL ˌtaːˈruːlaɡdaxa "to be adapted to" ˈHˌH ˈboːˌsoː "bet" LˈHˌH daˈlaiˌɡaːr "by sea" LˈHLˌH xuˈdaːliŋɡˌdaː "to the husband's parents" LˌHˈHˌH daˌlaiˈɡaːˌraː "by one's own sea" ˌHLˈHˌH ˌxyːxenˈɡeːˌreː "by one's own girl" LˈH xaˈdaːr "through the mountain" ˈLL ˈxada "mountain"[22]
Secondary stress may also occur on word-initial light syllables without primary stress, but further research is required. The stress pattern is the same as in Khalkha Mongolian.[21]
Writing systemsedit
 | This section may be very hard to understand. (September 2023) |
From the end of the 17th century, Classical Mongolian was used in clerical and religious practice.[citation needed] The language of the end of the 17th—19th centuries is conventionally referred to as the Old Buryat literary and written language.[citation needed]
Before the October Revolution, clerical records of the Western Buryats were made in the Russian language, and not by the Buryats themselves, but by representatives of the tsarist administration, the so-called clerks. The old Mongolian script was used only by ancestral nobility, lamas and traders Relations with Tuva, Outer and Inner Mongolia.[23]
In 1905, on the basis of the Old Mongolian script, Agvan Dorzhiev developed a script known as Vagindra, which by 1910 had at least a dozen books printed. However, use of vagindra was not widespread.
In 1926, an organized scientific development of the Buryat Latinized writing began in the USSR. In 1929, the draft Buryat alphabet was created. It contained the following letters: A a, B b, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, Ә ә, Ɔ ɔ, G g, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Y y, Z z, Ƶ ƶ, H h, F f, V v.[24] However, this project was not approved. In February 1930, a new version of the Latinized alphabet was approved. It contained letters of the standard Latin alphabet (except for h, q, x), digraphs ch, sh, zh, and also the letter ө. But in January 1931, its modified version was officially adopted, unified with other alphabets of peoples within the USSR.
- Buryat Latin alphabet (1931–39)
| A a | B b | C c | Ç ç | D d | E e | F f | G g |
| H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | M m | N n | O o |
| Ө ө | P p | R r | S s | Ş ş | T t | U u | V v |
| X x[25] | Y y | Z z | Ƶ ƶ | ь[25] |
In 1939, the Latinized alphabet was replaced by Cyrillic with the addition of three special letters (Ү ү, Ө ө, Һ һ).
- Modern Buryat Cyrillic alphabet since 1939
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж |
| З з | И и | Й й | К к | Л л | М м | Н н | О о |
| Ө ө | П п | Р р | С с | Т т | У у | Ү ү | Ф ф |
| Х х | Һ һ | Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш | Щ щ | Ъ ъ | Ы ы |
| Ь ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |
Buryats changed the literary base of their written language three times in order to approach the living spoken language. Finally, in 1936, the Khorinsky oriental dialect, close and accessible to most native speakers, was chosen as the basis of the literary language at the linguistic conference in Ulan-Ude.
| Cyrillic (official) | Latin (modern) | Latin (historical) |
|---|---|---|
| А, а | A, a | A, a |
| Б, б | B, b | B, в |
| В, в | V, v | V, v |
| Г, г | G, g | G, g |
| Д, д | D, d | D, d |
| Е, е / Э, э | E, e | E, e |
| Ё, ё | Yo, yo | Jo, jo |
| Ж, ж | J, j | Ƶ, ƶ |
| З, з | Z, z | Z, z |
Buryat alphabet tableedit
| Cyrillic (с. 1939) |
Latin (1930–1939) |
Latin (1910) |
Mongolian Script |
|---|---|---|---|
| А а | A a | A a | ᠠ |
| Б б | B b | B b | ᠪ |
| В в | V v | - | ᠸ |
| Г г | G g | G g | ᠭ |
| Д д | D d | D d | ᠳ |
| Е е | - | - | - |
| Ё ё | - | - | - |
| Ж ж | Ƶ ƶ | J j | ᠵ |
| З з | Z z | Z z | - |
| И и | I i | I i | ᠢ |
| Й й | J j | Y y | ᠶ |