Research on Vowel Harmony in Mongolian by Scholars within China
67th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Gotemba 2025
This article reviews the publications in China since 1911 and summarizes the viewpoints of domestic scholars on vowel harmony in Mongolian and the current situation of vowel harmony in various dialects.
I. Theoretical Research on Vowel Harmony
Domestic scholars generally agree on the basic view of vowel harmony in the Inner Mongolia dialect, believing that the vowels in words have the harmony of lax and tense (Yin and Yang), and there are also rounding harmony rules based on it. In academic discourse, the issues of vowel Yin-Yang or lax-tense have been explored from multiple angles, and even the phonetic basis of vowel harmony. Including physiological explanations such as (1) part of the throat is tensed and tongue root is retracted, (2) volume of the pharyngeal cavity, (3) tension of vocal organs, (4) height of the tongue position, (5) movement of the tongue root, and (6) tightness of the vocal cords. Acoustically, analyses include (1) differences in formant amplitude and (2) magnitude of F1 values for loose and tight vowels. Additionally, auditory perception provides an explanation, where tense vowels are perceived as louder.
II. Current Situation of Vowel Harmony Across Dialects
In general, it is widely acknowledged in academia that vowel harmony in Mongolian within China exhibits two primary patterns. West of Alasha, the Oirat dialects of Gansu, Qinghai, and Xinjiang have vowel harmony based on tongue position (front and back), whereas vowel harmony in Inner Mongolia reflects lax-tense. Vowel harmony varies across dialects, with a general trend toward weakening. Vowel harmony in Inner Mongolia dialects can be categorized into three levels: Chahar, Ordos, and Bargu Buriat exhibit relatively strict vowel harmony; the Horchin dialect displays the most lenient vowel harmony, having lost the harmony of non-initial short vowels; the Bārin dialect falls between these extremes.