| Moghol | |
|---|---|
| Mogholi, Mogul, Mongul, Mongolen | |
| مُغُلی | |
| Native to | Afghanistan |
| Region | Herat Province |
| Ethnicity | Moghols |
| Extinct | 2013[1] 200 (2003)[2] |
Mongolic
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Perso-Arabic script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mhj |
| Glottolog | mogh1245 |
| ELP | Mogholi |
 Moghol | |
 Moghol is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Moghol (orMogholi;Dari:مُغُلی) is a critically endangered and possibly extinctMongolic language spoken in the province ofHerat,Afghanistan, in the villages ofKundur andKarez-i-Mulla. The speakers were theMoghol people, who numbered 2,000 members in the 1970s. They descend from the Mongol army ofGenghis Khan who conquered Afghanistan (then part of theKhwarazmian Empire) in the 13th century.[3]
In the 1970s, when the German scholar Michael Weiers did fieldwork on the language, few people spoke it, most knew it passively and most were older than 40. It is unknown if there are still speakers of the language,[4] and it is listed as dormant by Ethnologue.[5]
The language has been strongly influenced byPersian in its phonology, morphology and syntax, causing Weiers to state that it has the appearance of a "true Inner Asiancreole language".[4]
Moghol's phonology is influenced byPersian. It has a system of six vowel qualities with no length contrast:/ieauoɔ/.[4]
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar/ Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | q | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | x | ɦ | |
| voiced | z | ʒ | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||
| Trill | r | ʀ | |||||
/ɦ/ may range between voiced [ɦ] and voiceless [h].
Historically, the Moghol language was written using thePerso-Arabic script.[6] Extant Moghol literature included Islamic texts, poetry, Mogholi-Persian vocabularies, and Mogholi grammars.[7]
| ح | چ | ج | ث | ت | پ | ب | ا |
| ش | س | ژ | ز | ر | ذ | د | خ |
| ق | ف | غ | ع | ظ | ط | ض | ص |
| ی | و | ه | ن | م | ل | گ | ک |
Moghol grammar shows substantial influence from Persian languages, having borrowed even word classes not found in other Mongolic languages: the parts of speech are nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, adverbs and conjunctions.
Nouns are marked for number and case. Verbs are marked for person, number, tense-aspect and mood. Adjectives inflect for the comparative and superlative degree with the Persian suffixes -tar and -tariin, but not for number and case.
The Moghol personal pronouns are:[4]
| person | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | bi | bidah ~bidat (inclusive); mån (exclusive) |
| 2nd | ci | tå ~ tåd |
| 3rd | i ~ ih | tid ~ tit |
The demonstrative pronouns are:[4]
The interrogative pronouns are:[4]
The reflexive pronouns are:[4]
The Moghol numerals are Janhunen (2003):
| English gloss | Moghol[4] | Proto-Mongolic[8] | Modern Mongolian | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | one | nikah ~ nika/n | *nike/n | neg |
| 2 | two | qeyår ~ qiar | *koxar ~ *koyar | khoyor |
| 3 | three | ghorbån ~ qurban | *gurba/n | gurav |
| 4 | four | dorbån ~ durba/n | *dörbe/n | döröv |
| 5 | five | tåbun ~ tabun | *tabu/n | tav |
| 6 | six | åsun ~ essun ~ jurghan ~ shish | *jirguxa/n | zurgaa |
| 7 | seven | dålån ~ húft | *doluxa/n | doloo |
| 8 | eight | sålån ~ húshtu | *na(y)ima/n | naym |
| 9 | nine | tåsån ~ no | *yersü/n | yös |
| 10 | ten | arbån ~ arban ~ dá | *xarba/n | arav |
Weiers noted down the following poem by the Moghol poet Abd Al-Qadir.
Weiers' Moghol text:
| English translation from Weiers' German:
|
Another Moghol poem or song of Abd Al-Qadir written in Arabic alphabet (from Weiers):
Weiers' Moghol text:
| English translation from Weiers' German:
|
status extinct since 2013
