Basic vocabularies of several Khamnigan communities in China, Mongolia and Russia
Gruntov I., Ivanov V., Mazo O., Syuryun A.
Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale. 2025,may (published online ahead of print 2025).
DOI: 10.1163/19606028-bja10051
Khamnigan is a poorly documented and endangered Mongolic language. This study examines basic word lists from eight Khamnigan communities in China, Mongolia and Russia, revealing strong lexical similarities indicative of dialectal variation within a single language. Specific affinities were found between certain pairs of communities, with the China variety closely related to Tarbaljei and Mogoitui (in Russia), the Mongolian Bayan-Uul variety to Dadal (in Mongolia) and Tarbaljei (in Russia), and the Tarbaljei variety to Mogoitui (in Russia). Lexical analysis places Khamnigan in the Northern Mongolic subgroup, with a division into the Buriad-Khamnigan and Mongol-Oirat-Ordos-Barga clusters. Geographical patterns suggest later influences on idiom evelopment, with common lexical innovations linking Khamnigan varieties to neighboring languages: East Buriad, Khalkha, and Old and New Barga.