Kalmyk (Kalmuck, Calmouk, Oirat) is the language of the Kalmyks, spoken in Kalmykia (Russian Federation), Western China and Western Mongolia. There are about 160,000 Kalmyk speakers in each country. The Republic of Kalmykia (Russian: ; Kalmyk: Хальмг Таңһч) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... Altaic is a proposed language family which includes 66 languages [1] spoken by about 348 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and northeast Asia. ... Altaic is a putative language family which would include 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around central Asia. ... The Mongolic languages are a group of thirteen languages spoken in Central Asia. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... The Oyirad (also spelled Oirat) is an alliance of the western Mongols. ... The Republic of Kalmykia (Russian: Респу́блика Калмы́кия; Kalmyk: Хальм Тангч) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... The Republic of Kalmykia (Russian: ; Kalmyk: Хальмг Таңһч) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ...

Kalmyk belongs to the Kalmyk-Oirat subgroup of the Mongolic languages. It also has some elements in common with the Uralic and Uyghur languages, which reflects Kalmyk's origin as the common language of the Oirats, a union of four Kalmyk tribes that absorbed some Ugric and Turkic tribes during their expansion westward. The Mongolic languages are a group of thirteen languages spoken in Central Asia. ... Ugric languages or Ugrian languages are generally held to be a branch of Finno-Ugric languages. ... The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe to Siberia and Western China with an estimated 140 million native speakers and tens of millions of second-language speakers. ... Oirats (also spelled Oyrats or Oyirads; Mongolian: Ойрадын Ojradyn) refers to both a Western Mongol people of Europe and Asia and, historically, to a Turkic people now known as the Altays. ...

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. As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century was that century which lasted from 1001 to 1100. ... Uyghur (‎//, or ‎//)[1] is a Turkic language spoken by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang (also called East Turkestan or Uyghurstan), formerly also “Sinkiang” and “Chinese Turkestan,” a Central Asian region administered by China. ... The official Kalmyk alphabet named Todo Bichig (Clear Script) was created in the 17th century by a Kalmyk Buddhist monk, Zaya Pandit. ... Zaya Pandit I (1599 - 1662) was an Oirat lama of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and most of the languages of western and central Europe, and of those areas settled by Europeans. ...

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. Soviet redirects here. ... Combatants Red Army Latvian Riflemen White Army (Monarchists) Ukrainian Peoples Republic Green Army (Cossacks) Black Army (Anarchists) Blue Army (Peasants) Czechoslovak Legion Allied intervention Other anti-Bolshevik forces Commanders Leon Trotsky, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Sergei Kamenev, Semyon Budyonny, Mikhail Frunze Alexander Antonov, Anton Denikin, Alexander Kolchak, Lavr Kornilov, Pyotr Wrangel... “Stalin” redirects here. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · The Holocaust · Armenian Genocide · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Blood libel · Black Legend Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Ku Klux Klan National Party (South Africa) American Nazi Party Kahanism · Supremacism Anti... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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

The Kalmyk language has been written in a variety of alphabets over the years. Starting in the 11th century, the Kalmyks used the Uyghur script.

The official Kalmyk alphabet named Todo Bichig (Clear Script) was created in the 17th century by a Kalmyk Buddhist monk called Zaya Pandit. It was used by Kalmyks in Russia until 1924, when it was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet, but Kalmyks in China still use it. In Mongolia, Kalmyk has no official status and does not exist in written form. The official Kalmyk alphabet named Todo Bichig (Clear Script) was created in the 17th century by a Kalmyk Buddhist monk, Zaya Pandit. ... Zaya Pandit I (1599 - 1662) was an Oirat lama of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (pronounced also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages—Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian—and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ...

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

Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

See also

• Languages of the Caucasus

This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

External links

Kalmyk language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Rosetta Project entry for Kalmyk
• Summary from the Ethnologue
• Article on language policy and history in Kalmykia
• Kalmuck Mongolian Buddhist Center