Chakhar Mongolian

The Chakhar (Mongolian: ᠴᠠᠬᠠᠷ Čaqar; simplified Chinese: 察哈尔; traditional Chinese: 察哈爾; pinyin: cháhā'ěr (or Cháhār)) dialect is a variety of Mongolian spoken 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.

There are three different definitions of the word Chakhar. First, there is Chakhar proper, spoken in the banners Shuluun Köke, Shuluun Köböötü Chagaan, Höböötü Shira, Taipusi, Chakhar Right Wing Rear, Chakhar Right Wing Middle, Chakhar Right Wing Front, Shangdu, Dolonnur and Huade 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 Xilin Gol such as Üjümchin, Sönit, Abaga, Shilinhot. The Southern Mongolian normative pronunciation is based on the variety of Chakhar proper as spoken in the Shuluun Köke banner.

Excluding the phonology of recent loanwords, Chakhar has the pharyngeal vowel phonemes /ɑ/, /ɪ/, /ɔ/, /ʊ/ and the non-pharyngeal vowel phonemes /ə/, /i/, /o/, /u/ that adhere to vowel harmony. All have long counterparts and some diphthongs exist as well. /ɪ/ has phoneme status only due to its occurrence as word-initial vowel in words like ɪlɑ̆x ‘to win’ (vs. ɑlɑ̆x ‘to kill’), thus /i/ (<*i) does occur in pharyngeal words as well. Through lexical diffusion, /i/ <*e is to be observed in some words such as /in/ < *ene ‘this’, rather than in /ələ/ ‘kite (bird)’. However, long monophthong vowels also include /e/ < *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

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