Kalmyk Oirat

"Kalmyk language" redirects here. For discussion of the language of the Oirat people in general, see Oirat language.
Kalmyk
Kalmyk Mongolian
Хальмг келн
Haľmg keln
ᡍᠠᠯᡅᡏᠠᡎ
ᡍᡄᠯᡄᠨ
Pronunciation[xalʲˈmək keˈlən]
Native toRussia
RegionKalmykia
EthnicityKalmyks
Native speakers
110,000 (2021)[1]
Mongolic
Cyrillic, Latin, Clear script
Official status
Official language in
 Russia

 Kyrgyzstan

Language codes
ISO 639-2xal
ISO 639-3xal
xal-kal
Glottologkalm1244
ELPKalmyk-Oirat
Kalmyk Oirat is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
[2]
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A bilingual (Russian and Kalmyk) sign with the text "Clean zone!" (Russian) and "Overseen zone!" (Kalmyk) at the Elista bus station

Kalmyk Oirat (Kalmyk: Хальмг Өөрдин келн, Haľmg Öördin keln, IPA: [xalʲˈmək øːrˈdin keˈlən]),[3] commonly known as the Kalmyk language (Kalmyk: Хальмг келн, Haľmg keln, IPA: [xalʲˈmək keˈlən]), is a variety of the Mongolian language, natively spoken by the Kalmyk people of Kalmykia, a federal subject of Russia. In Russia, it is the standard form of the Oirat Mongolian (based on the Torgut dialect), which belongs to the Mongolic language family. The Kalmyk people of the Northwest Caspian Sea of Russia claim descent from the Oirats from Eurasia, who have also historically settled in Mongolia and Northwest China. According to UNESCO, the language is "definitely endangered".[4] According to the Russian census of 2021, there are 110,000 speakers out of an ethnic population consisting of 178,000 people.[1]

  1. ^ a b "Kalmyk-Oirat". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  2. ^ "Oirad-Kalmyk-Darkhat in Russian Federation | UNESCO WAL".
  3. ^ Kalmyk is alternatively spelled as Kalmuck, Qalmaq, or Khalimag; Kalmyk Oirat is sometimes called "Russian Oirat", "European Mongolian" or "Western Mongolian"
  4. ^ UNESCO Atlas of the World's languages in danger Retrieved on 2012-10-31 Archived 2019-09-12 at the Wayback Machine