Kalmyk language

From MedBib.com - Medicine & Nature

The Kalmyk language (Хальмг келн; also known as Kalmuck, Calmouk, Qalmaq, Kalmytskii Jazyk, Khal:mag, Volga Oirat, Weilate, Western Mongol) is the language spoken by the Kalmyks, that is, the Oirats of Kalmykia (Russian Federation). Kalmyk belongs to the Oirat subgroup of the Mongolic language family.

The Kalmyks suffered greatly during the Soviet period. Half of all Kalmyk speakers died during the Russian Civil War. Stalin's ethnic cleansings also significantly reduced the population of the Kalmyk people. Until recently, the Kalmyk population in Russia was at lower levels than it had been in 1913. Russian was made the primary official language of Kalmykia, and in 1963 the last Kalmyk language classes were closed and Russian became the language of education for Kalmyk children.

As a result of these policies, many Kalmyks do not speak their ethnic language. Kalmyk linguists, in collaboration with the Kalmyk government, are working to improve this situation. Beginning in 1993, school education in the Kalmyk language was restored.

Writing systems

It has some elements in common with the Uralic and Uyghur languages, which reflects its origin from the common language of the Oirats, a union of four Oirat tribes that absorbed some Ugric and Turkic tribes during their expansion westward.

The literary tradition of Kalmyk reaches back to 11th century when the Uyghur script was used. The official Kalmyk alphabet named Todo Bichig (Clear Script) was created in the 17th century by a Kalmyk Buddhist monk called Zaya Pandit. In 1924 this script was replaced by a Cyrillic script, which was abandoned in 1930 in favor of a Latin script. The Latin script was in turn replaced by another Cyrillic script in 1938. These script reforms effectively disrupted the Kalmyk literary tradition.

in Mongolia

• See Kalmyk language#in Russia

in China

• Clear script - de facto
• Mongolian script - official

in Russia

The modified Cyrillic alphabet used for the Kalmyk language is as follows:

Notes

See also

• Languages of the Caucasus

External links

Kalmyk language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Ethnologue entry for Kalymk-Oirat
• Article on language policy and history in Kalmykia