The formation of the Oirat dialect

Osaka: Senri Ethnological Studies 86: 1–7, 2014. (Oirat people: cultural uniformity and diversification)The Oirat dialect is one of the oldest Mongolian dialects and reflects many interesting features of ancient Mongolian. Therefore, studying the Oirat dialect is an important way to examine the development of not only the dialect itself but also Middle, and even Modern, Mongolian. This paper focuses on the phonetic aspects of the Oirat dialect, clarifying differences and similarities between scattered Oirat peoples in Eurasia. Comparative studies like this one have been made possible by democratization.