Classifying Mongolic Languages: The Place of Eastern Yugur in Works of Russian and Foreign Researchers Revisited

Abstract

Eastern Yugur is a Mongolic language spoken in Kangle and Mati districts of Gansu Province, China. Eastern Yugur is one of the languages spoken by the Yellow Uyghurs divided into two groups: the endonym of the Mongolic-speaking group is ‘Šera Yogor’, and that of the Turkic-speaking one is ‘Sarïg Yogïr’. Results. The article introduces data on the history of Eastern Yugur-related investigations and mentions researchers to have provided earliest descriptions of the language. Only in the mid-20th century Eastern Yugur started being explored by many scientists, and before that period only fragmentary data on this language had been available. Despite there are different classifications of Mongolic languages, the place of Eastern Yugur therein still remains a subject of research. The article presents a brief review of works to have approached Eastern Yugur in relation to its place in classifications of Mongolic languages, and describes key methods employed thereto.

Keywords

• eastern yugur language
• eastern yugur dictionary
• yugurs
• šera yugurs
• classification
• mongolian languages