Dagur

Abstract

Dagur is a Mongolic language spoken mainly in Northeast China. It is said that this language maintains some Middle Mongolian features, such as a verbal negative marker ul and predicative personal markers. The negative marker ul, which is placed before the verb, is found in Middle Mongolian and some other colloquial Mongolic languages, but lost in central Mongolian. Predicative personal markers, which are placed subsequent to the indicative verbal predicate or the nominal predicate and display agreement with the subject, are shown in Northern Mongolic languages such as Buryat. These features might suggest that Dagur contributes to tracing the historical development of Mongolic languages.