Kalmykia, Russia (in the form of Kalmyk); Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, China; Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture and Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China
Language codes
ISO 639-2
xal
ISO 639-3
Either: xal – Modern Oirat xwo – Written Oirat
Linguist List
xwo Written Oirat
Glottolog
kalm1243
Linguasphere
part of 44-BAA-b
A map (in Russian) showing the distribution of Oirat outside Kalmykia. Varieties in dispute have not been included.[5]
Oirat (Clear script: ᡆᡕᡅᠷᠠᡑ ᡘᡄᠯᡄᠨ, Oirad kelen, IPA:[œːˈrdəcɛˈlən]; Kalmyk: Өөрд, Őrd; Khalkha Mongolian: Ойрад, Oirad, Mongolian pronunciation:[œˈrət]) is a Mongolic language spoken by the descendants of Oirat Mongols, now forming parts of Mongols in China, Kalmyks in Russia and Mongolians. Largely mutually intelligible to other core Central Mongolic languages, scholars differ as to whether they regard Oirat as a distinct language[6] or a major dialect of the Mongolian language.[7] Oirat-speaking areas are scattered across the far west of Mongolia,[8] the northwest of China[8] and Russia's Caspian coast, where its major variety is Kalmyk.[9] In China, it is spoken mainly in Xinjiang, but also among the Deed Mongol of Qinghai and Subei County in Gansu.[8]
In all three countries, Oirat has become variously endangered or even obsolescent as a direct result of government actions or as a consequence of social and economic policies. Its most widespread tribal dialect, which is spoken in all of these nations, is Torgut.[1][8] The term Oirat or more precisely, Written Oirat is sometimes also used to refer to the language of historical documents written in the Clear script.[10]
^ abSvantesson et al. 2005: 148
^Svantesson et al. 2005: 141
^Coloo 1988: 1
^Modern Oirat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Written Oirat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^cp. the distribution given by Svantesson et al. 2005: 141
^Birtalan 2003. Note that she is not altogether clear about that matter as she writes: "For the present purpose, Spoken Oirat, from which Kalmuck is excluded, may therefore be treated as a more or less uniform language." (212). See also Sanžeev 1953
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Kalmyk Khanate in the 17th century. The Oiratlanguage belongs to the western branch of the Mongolic language family, whose speakers include numerous...
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just todo) is an alphabet created in 1648 by the Oirat Buddhist monk Zaya Pandita for the Oiratlanguage. It was developed on the basis of the Mongolian...
Sart Kalmyk is an endangered and underdocumented Central Mongolic Oiratlanguage variety spoken by the Sart Kalmyks in Ak-Suu District, Issyk-Kul Region...
approach, there is a tendency to call Central Mongolian a language consisting of Mongolian proper, Oirat and Buryat, while Ordos (and implicitly also Khamnigan)...
the Oiratlanguage spoken in Xinjiang, in western Mongolia and in eastern Kalmykia (where it was the basis for Kalmyk, the literary standard language of...
(1599–1662) was a Buddhist missionary priest and scholar of Oirat origin who is the most prominent Oirat Buddhist scholar. Among his accomplishments is the invention...
Uyghur language in the Karluk group of Turkic languages. Khoton learners are decreasing every year and considered an extinct language. Khotons use Oirat dialect...
Khotons spoke a Turkic language Khoton until the 19th century, the majority now speak the Dörbet dialect of the Oiratlanguage. Khotons often avoid mainstream...
protection of the Russian garrison at Astrakhan. The remaining nomadic Mongol Oirat tribes became vassals of the Kalmyk Khan. The Kalmyks settled in the wide-open...
the Mongolian words züün gar, meaning 'left hand') are the many Mongol Oirat tribes who formed and maintained the Dzungar Khanate in the 17th and 18th...
used to speak Sart Kalmyk, a dialect of the Oiratlanguage, but have largely switched to the Kyrgyz language by now. As a result of their long co-inhabitance...
region. The Mongolian Dzungars were the collective identity of several Oirat tribes which formed and maintained, one of the last nomadic empires. The...
Dorbet Oirat, and Dzungar) of the Dzungar Khanate. They originally spoke the Zakhchin dialect of the Oiratlanguage, but actually pure Oiratlanguage is used...
Although this correlated with the increased amount of published Kalmyk language works and a literacy rate of 70.8% among Kalmyk population aged over nine...
639-3 language code for the Oiratlanguage xal, the ISO 639 code for Kalmyk Oirat Xal, a traditional Kurdish tattoo eXtensible Application Language, the...
exhibits the same developmental tendency as exhibited by Oirat. On the other hand, the spoken language also makes use of paradigms that are based on the stems...
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