Grammatical Descriptors of the Language of The Secret History of the Mongols

Abstract

The article deals with the Chinese characters descriptive of Middle Mongolian suffixes, as used in the interlinear word for word translation of the Chinese transcription of The Secret History of the Mongols. Taking as the starting point the way Ming scholars tackled this problematic, I try to investigate more deeply the Middle Mongolian morphosyntactic phenomena, as reflected in this text.

Conclusions are drawn as to the effective span and function of these particles.

Keywords

• descriptors
• Mongolian language
• The Secret History of the Mongols
• Yuan Dynasty