Mongolic

For more than 100 years, linguists have debated when, where, and how a group of languages spoken today across central and eastern Asia, including those in the Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic families, emerged.

They speak a Mongolic tongue interspersed with Mandarin, Persian, Arabic and Turkic words, a testament to the people who once passed through this remote pocket of Gansu.

Their origin is doubtful, but there is some ground for believing that they may be a cross between the aboriginal Mongolic element of northern China and the Chinese proper.

Professor Keane groups man round four leading types, which may be named the black, yellow, red and white, or the Ethiopic, Mongolic, American and Caucasic.

But no admixture, except of Chinese literary terms, is seen in the Manchu language, which, like Mongolic, is a typical member of the agglutinating Ural-Altaic family.