Also Known As:
Kalmyk, West Mongolian, Xal‘mg keln, Kalmuk, Kalmuck, Kalmack, Qalmaq, kalmytskii jazyk, Khal:mag, Oirat, Volga Oirat, European Oirat, Western Mongolian, Weilate, Xinjiang Mongolian, Western Mongol, Oiratisch, Kalmückisch, Western Mongul, Xal'maq, Calmucki, Хальмг келн, калмыцкий язык
Dialects & Varieties
- Sart Qalmaq
- Buzawa
- Oirat
- Torgut
- Dörböt
Oirat Tones and Break Indices (O-ToBI) Intonational Structure of the Oirat Language
Elena Indjieva. 2009. Oirat Tones and Break Indices (O-ToBI) Intonational Structure of the Oirat Language. PhD dissertation. Department of Linguistics, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
Vulnerable
80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
323,857
Native Speakers Worldwide
Speaker Number Trends
Speaker Number Trend 2
A majority of community members speak the language. Speaker numbers are gradually decreasing.
2
Transmission
Transmission 1
Most adults in the community, and some children, are speakers.
1
Speakers
Native or fluent speakers:
No results found.
Second-language speakers and learners
No results found.
Semi-speakers or rememberers
No results found.
Children:
No results found.
Young adults
No results found.
Older adults
No results found.
Elders
No results found.
Ethnic or community population
No results found.
Year information was gathered
No results found.
Comments on speakers
No results found.
Location and Context
Countries
Russia; Kyrgyzstan; Mongolia; China
Location Description
No results found.
Government Support
No results found.
Institutional Support
No results found.
Speakers' Attitude
negative in China
Other Languages Used By The Community
Mongolian, Mandarin, Russian
Number of Other Language Speakers:
None
Domains of Other Languages:
None
Writing Systems
Standard orthography:
No results found.
Writing system:
clear script
Other writing systems used:
Classical Mongolian script
Comments on writing systems:
"In order to create a unified educational system for all the Mongolian tribes in China, in 1982 the authorities launched a reform towards so-called "standardization" of the Mongolian language. Chakhar, one of the Mongolian languages spoken in Inner Mongolia, was chosen to be the "standard" Mongolian in China. As a result, in all the existing Mongolian schools the traditional Oirat writing system, "Clear Script" or Todo Bichig, was replaced with the Classical Mongolian writing system ("Original Script") that fails to reflect morpho-syntactic properties of Spoken Oirat." (p.56)
Recent Resources
100-word Swadesh list
2000, Elista, Republic of Kalmykia
A website compiled by a linguistic field methods class at U. Massachusetts Amherst.
Title: Our Relatives.