Alasha (, in some Mongolian varieties ; Mongolian script:, Mongolian Cyrillic: Алшаа Alaša, ), or Alaša-Eǰen-e, is a Mongolic variety with features of both Oirat and Mongolian that historically used to belong to Oirat but has come under the influence of Mongolian proper. It has more than 40,000 speakers in Alxa League, Inner Mongolia, China and consists of two sub-dialects, Alasha proper and Eǰene.

Classification

Alasha was initially classified as an Oirat language, but has lost many of these features in a process known as de-Oiratization

Phonology

Alasha shows characteristic features of Oirat, such as preservation of /k/ in some contexts and imperative suffixes. However, it also has several features more typical of Khalkha or some Inner Mongolian dialects, such /j/ in place of Oirat /z/ and some forms of personal pronouns.

Literature