The oirad groups living scattered throughout the territory of four countries (mongolia, China, Russia and Kyrgyzstan) in wide areas of Eurasia can be divided according to several considerations: geographic location, historical background, linguistic features, ethnic and cultural environments. All these factors exercise influence on their present situation and language, and altogether specify six sepa-rate oirad groups:
– oirads of Western mongolia (Uws, xowd and Bayan-Ölgii provinces)
– oirads living in Eastern turkestan or xinjiang (mainly Bortala and Bayangol mongol Autonomous Prefectures)
– Kalmyks living in Kalmykia (Russia, Eastern Europe) and its vicinity – Sart Kalmyks at the yssyk-köl in Kyrgyzstan
– oirad population of Inner mongolia’s Alasha League
– oirad groups living on the territory of historical Amdo area (Deed mongols in Gansu and Qinghai provinces of China)
1 Department of Inner Asian Studies, Eötvös Loránd University
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In: Oirad and Kalmyk Lingustic Essays. Edited by Ágnes Birtalan. Budapest, 2012, ELtE Eötvös Kiadó. /tálentum 11./ 25–58.
According to their ethnic and cultural environment the oirads can be divided into two main groups:
– oirad population living in larger groups and/or in close vicinity of other mon-golians
– isolated groups being under the strong influence of the surrounding nationalities The oirads of Western mongolia, Eastern turkestan and Alasha region as well
as Kalmyks belong to the first group, while Sart Kalmyks and various units of Deed mongols are classified into the second one. The size of the oirad speaking population, as well as the ethnic and cultural environment, strongly influences the vitality of particular oirad dialects. Linguistic, cultural and ethnic assimila-tion and the speed of its progress highly depend on these factors.
The oirad dialects are divided in different ways by scholars and there is no consensus on these classifications. Vladimircov classes oirad dialects into the western branch of mongolian languages (together with moghol) and he divides them on mostly territorial basis. The westernmost group is Kalmyk which has two dialects by his opinion: Dörwöd and torguud. He divides Dörwöd into the subdialect spoken in the Yeke Dörböd ulus and the subdialect of Don Buzawas, while torguud into Uralian and orenburgian.
According to Vladimircov the oirads of Western mongolia form another larger group which includes Khowd Dörwöd, Bayid, Altai torguud, Altai Uri-ankhai, Zakhchin, Dambi-Ööld and mingad. Vladimircov divides these dialects into northern (Dörwöd, Bayid) and southern groups (the others). He also estab-lishes three subdialects of the Khalkhaized Bayids, Dörwöds and Zakhchins.
The smaller oirad groups scattered throughout Inner Asia do not form an independent group in Vladimircov’s system – due to the lack of enough informa-tion he did not classified them. He just meninforma-tions that the oirads living in the Alasha and Khobuq sayir region speak a dialect similar to torguud of Western mongolia.2
Although Vladimircov divided the language of oirads into numerous groups, he did not state that any of them could be considered as an independent language.
He admits the existence of one mongolian language only, and asserts that each mongolian dialect (including oirad dialects) is the dialect of one and the same language.
Poppe takes a different position and states that Kalmyk is an independent lan-guage, which is very close to other oirad dialects, but due to the strong Russian and turkic influence exercised on its vocabulary it should be separated from them.
In Poppe’s opinion Kalmyk has three dialects: Dörwöd, torguud and Buzawa, but
2 Vladimircov 1929: 6–7.
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he counts to Kalmyk the so-called Sart Kalmyk in Kyrgyzstan, too. According to Poppe, the oirad dialects (without Kalmyk) form a separate language, which has Dörwöd, Bayid, torguud, Uriankhai, Zakhchin, Dambi-Ööld and mingad dialects in Western mongolia, and torguud in Alashan, Qinghai and Jungaria.3 Ágnes Birtalan uses a division of mongolian languages which has a west-ern group containing Kalmyk and oirad. Kalmyk has three dialects (Dörwöd, torguud, Buzawa), while oirad has seven (Dörwöd, torguud, Bayid, Uriankhai, Khoton, Zakhchin, Ööld). As she states, mingad is a transitional dialect between oirad and Khalkha.4
It seems to be obvious that dialects and languages should be separated by their differences, but it is very difficult to decide what kind and amount of differences are enough to classify the speech of a group of people as a separate dialect or language. Beside the linguistic arguments also the self-determination of oirad groups should be taken into consideration.
There are 7–8 oirad groups living in Western mongolia, which have a distinc-tive self-identification. These groups differ from each other in their language to varying extent and even the speech of individual members of the same group can differ, too. There are rather tendencies characteristic to a particular dialect instead of exclusive and consistent features. We can observe several exceptions in one and the same dialect, as well as the existence of features peculiar to another dialect.
Sart Kalmyks living in the vicinity of yssyk-köl in Kyrgyzstan and migrated there in the 19th century are an isolated oirad group, mostly converted to Islam.
Their relation to other oirads, especially to the Kalmyks is interpreted somewhat controversially. Some authors classify their language as a dialect of Kalmyk and even emphasize their common self-identification with the Kalmyks5, while others have an opposite view, stating that Sart Kalmyks distinguish themselves definitely from the Kalmyks of Kalmykia. Anyway, it seems that beside their ethnonyms there is nothing common in Sart Kalmyks and Kalmyks what could suggest closer relationships between them than with any other oirad group.
The position of dialects spoken by mongols of oirad origin living in the Ala-sha league of Inner mongolia is also an open question. These dialects show some characteristic features of oirad (preservation of /k/ in front-vowel words, some imperative suffixes, elements of vocabulary, etc.), but also have several features more typical of Khalkha or some Inner mongolian dialects (e.g. affricate /j/ in con-trast with oirad /z/, forms of personal pronouns, labial attraction, etc.). Actually the Alasha dialect seems to be a transitional form between oirad and mongolian proper. Deed mongol also behaves similarly to Alasha dialects in many respects.6
3 Poppe 1955: 18–19. 4 Birtalan 1996: appendix. 5 tenišev 1976: 87.
6 See todajeva 1960b for both Alasha and Deed mongol (‘huhu-norskij’) data.
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According the material available on oirad dialects and ethnic groups the fol-lowing division can be established:
– Altai oirad (oirads of Western mongolia), dialects are Dörwöd, Bayid, Zakhchin, Ööld, Uriankhai, torguud, Khoshuud, Khoton and mingad
– Jungarian oirad (oirads living in Eastern turkestan or xinjiang), dialects are torguud, Ööld, Khoshuud
– Kalmyk, dialects are torguud, Dörwöd and Buzawa – Sart Kalmyk (oirads living at the yssyk-köl in Kyrgyzstan) – Alasha oirad (spoken in Inner mongolia’s Alasha League)
– Deed mongol (oirad groups living on the territory of historical Amdo area, today’s Gansu and Qinghai)