Editing Mongolic languages (section)

=== Languages ===
{{Main list|List of Mongolic languages}}

Contemporary Mongolic languages are as follows. The classification and numbers of speakers follow Janhunen (2006),<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Janhunen|2006|pp=232–233}}</ref> except for Southern Mongolic, which follows Nugteren (2011).<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Nugteren|2011}}</ref>

{{tree list}}
* '''Mongolic'''
** [[Dagur language|Dagur]] (96,000 speakers)
** Central Mongolic
*** [[Khamnigan Mongol]] (2,000 speakers)
*** [[Buryat language|Buryat]] (330,000 speakers)
*** [[Mongolian language|Mongolian proper]] (5.2 million speakers)
*** [[Mongolian language in Inner Mongolia|Peripheral Mongolian]] (as [[Ordos Mongolian|Ordos]])
*** [[Kalmyk Oirat|Kalmyk]]–[[Oirat language|Oirat]] (360,000 speakers)
** Southern Mongolic (part of a Gansu–Qinghai [[Sprachbund]])
*** [[Eastern Yugur language|Shira Yugur]] (4,000 speakers)
*** [[Shirongol languages|Shirongol]]
**** [[Monguor language|Monguor]] (150,000 speakers)
***** Mongghul/Huzhu Monguor
***** Mangghuer/Minhe Monguor
**** Baoanic
***** [[Bonan language|Bonan]] (6,000 speakers)
***** [[Santa language|Santa]] (Dongxiang) (200,000 speakers)
***** [[Kangjia language|Kangjia]] (1,000 speakers)
** [[Moghol language|Moghol]] (extinct)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Glottolog 4.7 – Mogholi |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/mogh1245 |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=glottolog.org}}</ref>
{{tree list/end}}

In another classificational approach,<ref>e.g. Sečenbaɣatur et al. (2005:193–194)</ref> there is a tendency to call Central Mongolian a language consisting of Mongolian proper, Oirat and Buryat, while Ordos (and implicitly also Khamnigan) is seen as a variety of Mongolian proper. Within Mongolian proper, they then draw a distinction between Khalkha on the one hand and the [[Mongolian language in Inner Mongolia]] (containing everything else) on the other hand. A less common subdivision of Central Mongolic is to divide it into a Central dialect (Khalkha, Chakhar, Ordos), an Eastern dialect (Kharchin, Khorchin), a Western dialect (Oirat, Kalmyk), and a Northern dialect (consisting of two Buryat varieties).<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Luvsanvandan|1959}} quoted from Sečenbaɣatur et al. (2005:167–168)</ref>

The broader delimitation of Mongolian may be based on [[mutual intelligibility]], but an analysis based on a [[Phylogenetic tree#Limitations of phylogenetic analysis|tree diagram]] such as the one above faces other problems because of the close contacts between, for example, Buryat and Khalkha Mongols during history, thus creating or preserving a [[dialect continuum]]. Another problem lies in the sheer comparability of terminology, as Western linguists use ''language'' and ''dialect'', while Mongolian linguists use the [[Brothers Grimm|Grimmian]] trichotomy ''language'' (kele), ''dialect'' (nutuɣ-un ayalɣu) and ''Mundart'' (aman ayalɣu).

Rybatzki (2003: 388–389)<ref>Rybatzki, Volker. 2003. "Intra-Mongolic taxonomy." In Janhunen, Juha (ed). ''The Mongolic Languages'', 364–390. Routledge Language Family Series 5. London: Routledge.</ref> recognizes the following 6 areal subgroups of Mongolic.
* Northeastern Mongolic (NE) = [[Dagur language|Dagur]]
* Northern Mongolic (N) = [[Khamnigan Mongol]]–[[Buryat language|Buryat]]
* Central Mongolic (C) = [[Mongolian language|Mongol proper]]–[[Ordos Mongolian|Ordos]]–[[Oirat language|Oirat]]
* South-Central Mongolic (SC) = [[Eastern Yugur language|Shira Yughur]]
* Southeastern Mongolic (SE) = [[Monguor language|Mongghul]]–[[Monguor language|Mangghuer]]–[[Bonan language|Bonan]]–[[Santa language|Santa]] – [[Kangjia language|Kangjia]]
* Southwestern Mongolic (SW) = [[Moghol language|Moghol]]

Additionally, the [[Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology]] refers to Central Mongolic as "Eastern Mongolic" and classifies the group as follows, using data from Rybatzki (2003) as the basis:<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/oira1260 |title=Glottolog 4.8 - Eastern Mongolic |date=2023-07-10 |access-date=2024-01-17 |website=[[Glottolog]] |last1=Hammarström |first1=Harald |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117134205/https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/oira1260 |archive-date=2024-01-17 |url-status=live |publisher=[[Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology]] |author-link=Harald Hammarström |last2=Forkel |first2=Robert |publication-place=[[Leipzig]] |doi=10.5281/zenodo.7398962 |last3=Haspelmath |first3=Martin |author-link3=Martin Haspelmath |last4=Bank |first4=Sebastian |doi-access=free}}</ref>

{{Tree list}}
* Eastern Mongolic
** Khalkha–Buriat
*** [[Buryat language|Buriat]]
**** China Buriat
**** Mongolia Buriat
**** Russia Buriat
*** [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]]
**** [[Khalkha Mongolian|Halh Mongolian]]
**** [[Oirat language|Oirad–Kalmyk–Darkhat]]
**** [[Mongolian language in Inner Mongolia|Peripheral Mongolian]]
** [[Khamnigan Mongol|Khamnigan]]
{{Tree list/end}}