Kalmyk Oirat

Kalmyk
Kalmyk Oirat
Kalmyk Mongolian
Хальмг келн
Khalmg keln
ᡍᠠᠯᡅᡏᠠᡎ
ᡍᡄᠯᡄᠨ
PronunciationOirat pronunciation: [xalʲˈmək keˈlən]
Native toRussia
RegionKalmykia
EthnicityKalmyks
Native speakers
110,000 (2021)
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

Kalmyk Oirat (Хальмг Өөрдин келн, IPA: [xalʲmə́k ɵːrd̥íɴ kʰelə́ɴ]), also known as the Kalmyk language (Хальмг келн) and formerly anglicized as Calmuck, is a variety of the Oirat 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". According to the Russian census of 2021, there are 110,000 speakers out of an ethnic population consisting of 178,000 people.