Chakhar Mongolian

Chakhar is a variety of Mongolian spoken in the central region of Inner Mongolia. It is phonologically close to Khalkha and is the basis for the standard pronunciation of Mongolian in Inner Mongolia.

Location and classification
There are three different definitions of the word Chakhar. First, there is Chakhar proper, spoken in Xilingol League in the Plain Blue Banner, Plain and Bordered White Banner, Bordered Yellow Banner, Taibus Banner in Dolonnuur, and in Ulanqab in Chakhar Right Rear Banner, Chakhar Right Middle Banner, Chakhar Right Front Banner, Šaŋdu and Quvadė, with a number of approximately 100,000 speakers.

In a broader definition, the Chakhar group contains the varieties Chakhar proper, Urat, Darkhan, Muumingan, Dörben Küüket, Keshigten of Ulanqab. In a very broad and controversial definition, it also contains the dialects of Xilingol League such as Üjümchin, Sönit, Abaga, and Shilinhot. The Inner Mongolian normative pronunciation is based on the variety of Chakhar proper as spoken in the Shuluun Köke banner.

Phonology
Excluding the phonology of recent loanwords, Chakhar has the pharyngeal vowel phonemes and the non-pharyngeal vowel phonemes  that adhere to vowel harmony. All have long counterparts and some diphthongs exist as well. has phoneme status only due to its occurrence as word-initial vowel in words like 'to win' (vs.  'to kill'), thus  (<*i) does occur in pharyngeal words as well. Through lexical diffusion, <*e is to be observed in some words such as  < *ene ‘this’, rather than in  'kite (bird)'. However, long monophthong vowels also include < *ei. The maximal syllable structure is CVCC. In word-final position, non-phonemic vowels often appear after aspirated and sometimes after unaspirated consonants. They are more frequent in male speech and almost totally disappear in compounds. The consonant phonemes (again excluding loanwords) are

Palatalized vowels have phoneme status only in pharyngeal words.

Word classes and morphology
The case system of Chakhar has the same number of morphemes as Khalkha with approximately the same forms. There is a peculiar Allative case suffix, , that has developed from *ödö (Mongolian script <ödege>) 'upwards' and that seems to be a free allomorph of the common. The reflexive-possessive suffixes retain their final (thus <*-ban etc., while Khalkha has ).

Large numbers are counted according to the Chinese counting system in powers of 10.000. Collective numerals can be combined with approximative numeral suffixes. So while ' 'about ten' and ' 'as a group of ten' a common in Mongolian,  'as a group of about ten' seems to be peculiar to Chakhar.

The pronominal system is much like that of Khalkha. The colloquial form of the 1. person singular accusative (in which the idiosyncratic accusative stem is replaced) can be ' instead of ', and the alternation of i ~ ig does occur with other pronominal stems as well. This does not lead to confusion as the genitive is formed with mid-opened instead of closed front vowels, e.g. the 2. person singular genitive honorific is in Chakhar and usually  in Khalkha. The 3. person stems don't employ any oblique stems. The 1. person plural exclusive man- has an almost complete case paradigm only excluding the nominative, while at least in written Khalkha anything but the genitive form is rare.

Chakhar has approximately the same participles as Khalkha, but -mar expresses potentiality, not desire, and consequently -xar functions as its free allomorph. On the other hand, there are some distinctive converbs such as -ba (from Chinese 吧 ba) 'if' and -ja (from 也 yè) 'although' which seem to be allomorphs of the suffixes -bal and -bt͡ʃ of common Mongolian origin. The finite suffix -la might have acquired converbal status. Finally, -xlar ('if ... then ...') has turned into -xnar, and the form -man ~ - 'only if', which is absent in Khalkha, sometimes occurs. Chakhar has the same core declarative finite forms as Khalkha, but in addition -xui and -lgui to indicate strong probability.

Lexicon
Most loanwords peculiar to the Chakhar dialect are from Chinese and Manchu.