ИСТИНА

Languages, functioning in a linguistic environment of related languages, are a specific phenomenon of linguistic reality conducive to research aiming to discover the characteristic forms and ways of their development. It is of relevance along these lines to focus on a study of the cultural and linguistic dynamics of Oirat ethnic groups in Mongolia, a small part of the population of the country living in compact settlements for a number of centuries. They include such ethnic groups as the Derbet, Torgut, Zakhchin, Mingat, Bayit, Uryankhay, Elyut, Khotogoyt, Khoshut, Khoyt and Khoton. A specific character of the linguistic situation characterized by close interactions with Khalkha Mongolian taken into consideration, the Oirat language of these groups manifests a number of distinct features in its development. The present study, focusing on the dynamics of their linguistic and cultural development, fills another gap in the study of Oirat history and culture, contributing to a deeper insight into issues of the ethnic history of both Oirats of Mongolia and Oirat Kalmyks. The Oirat language belongs to the west branch of Mongolian languages (Altaic language family). It is an old-written language, the Oirat writing “Todo bichg” (Clear writing) was worked out in 1648 by the Oirad scholar Zaya Pandita. The paper is aimed to find out the evolution of Oirat dialects in Mongolia, to define whether they are able to develop in cognate environment, to specify the role of demographic capacity, communicative capacity of the languages and language vitality. The most characteristic feature of the linguistic situation in Mongolia is that the majority of languages are Mongolian and thus they are surrounded by other languages closely related to them. Of importance here is an observation made by B.Y. Vladimirtsov who pointed out that “there is no such thing as common Mongolian…. All the Mongolian groups speak languages and dialects which differ from each other to a greater or less extent but still it should be noted that most of the time they are very close so that speakers of different tongues are able to communicate with each other without much difficulty. This closeness of two or more dialects may proceed from the fact that they belong to one and the same branch of the Mongolian family of languages, i.e. they have one and the same parent language. Sometimes, however, their closeness and possibility of mutual understanding between the speakers may be justified by the fact of their familiarity with the tongues of neighboring ethnic groups with whom they may have a long history of constant interactions [Vladimirtsov 1929: 4]. It is well known that interactions between related languages may result in the assimilation of the language of a smaller speech community, changing into a dialect of a larger community language. This process is quite characteristic of Mongolian languages. However, it should be noted that this is not a specific feature of the Buryat or any other dialect of Mongolian but rather a general linguistic pattern in the development of languages in contact, though assimilation may take less time in the case of related languages for a number of reasons. First, a psychological factor should be taken into consideration: the speakers of the language being assimilated do not, as a rule, have any psychological barriers to the process; moreover, being in an ethnically and linguistically familiar environment, they do not feel any moral or psychological pressure on the part of the dominant group. Second, as the structural closeness of the languages in contact takes its toll minority languages tend to be reduced in their functional sphere, giving way to the dominant language and thus becoming less prestigious. Still, in such situations the psychological factor plays a decisive role. The article relies on the data collected during the field research in Ulan-Bator, the Khovd and Bayan-Ulgii aimaks in 2012 and 2019.