| Oirat | |
|---|---|
| Oirat Mongolian | |
| ᡆᡕᡅᠷᠠᡑ ᡘᡄᠯᡄᠨ Oirad kelen Өөрд келн ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠬᠡᠯᠡᠨ ᠦ ᠣᠶᠢᠷᠠᠳ ᠠᠶᠠᠯᠭᠤ Mongɣol kelen-ü Oyirad ayalɣu Моңһл келнә Өөрд айлһ | |
| Pronunciation | [øːˈɾətkʰeˈlən] |
| Native to | Mongolia,Russia,China,Kyrgyzstan[1] |
| Region | Khovd,Uvs,[2]Bayan-Ölgii,[3]Kalmykia,Xinjiang,Gansu,Qinghai,Siberia |
| Ethnicity | 655,372Oirats |
Native speakers | 368,000, 58% of ethnic population (2007–2010)[4] |
Standard forms | |
| Clear script (China and Mongolia: official),Cyrillic (Russia and Mongolia: official) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Kalmykia,Russia (in the form of Kalmyk);Siberia,Russia;Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture inQinghai,China;Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture andBortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture inXinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | xal Kalmyk |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:xal – Kalmyk Oiratxwo – Written Oirat |
xwo Written Oirat | |
| Glottolog | kalm1243 |
| Linguasphere | of 44-BAA-b part of 44-BAA-b |
 | |
 Manchurian Ölöt is classified as Severely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Oirat (Clear Script:ᡆᡅ᠋ᠷᡆᡑ
ᡍᡄᠯᡄᠨ,Oyirod kelen;Kalmyk:Өөрд,Öörd[øːˈɾət];Khalkha:Ойрад,Oirad[ˈœe̯ɾət]) is aMongolic language spoken by the descendants ofOirat Mongols, now forming parts ofMongols in China,Kalmyks in Russia andMongolians. Largelymutually intelligible to other core Central Mongolic languages, scholars differ as to whether they regard Oirat as a distinctlanguage[6] or a majordialect of theMongolian language.[7] Oirat-speaking areas are scattered across the far west ofMongolia,[8] the northwest ofChina[8] andRussia'sSiberia region andCaspian coast, where its major variety isKalmyk.[9] In China, it is spoken mainly inXinjiang, but also among theDeed Mongol ofQinghai andSubei County inGansu.[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, isTorgut.[1][8] The termOirat or more precisely,Written Oirat is sometimes also used to refer to the language of historical documents written in theClear script.[10]
In Mongolia, there are seven historical Oirat dialects, each corresponding to a different tribe:[11]
There are some varieties of Oirat that are difficult to classify. TheAlasha dialect inAlxa League,Inner Mongolia, originally belonged to Oirat[12] and has been classified as such by some because of itsphonology.[1] However, it has been classified by others as Mongolian proper because of itsmorphology.[13] TheDarkhad dialect in Mongolia'sKhövsgöl Province has variously been classified as Oirat, Mongolian proper, or (less often)Buryat.[14]
Oirat isendangered in all areas where it is spoken. In Russia, the killing of a large fraction of the Kalmyk population and the destruction of their society as consequences of theKalmyk deportations of 1943, along with the subsequent imposition among them ofRussian as the soleofficial language have rendered the language obsolescent: it is almost exclusively the elderly who have afluent command of Kalmyk.[15] In China, while Oirat is still quite widely used in its traditional ranges and there are manymonolingual speakers,[16] a combination of government policies and social realities has created an environment deleterious to the use of this language: the Chinese authorities' adoption ofSouthern Mongolian as thenormative Mongolian language,[17] new educational policies which have led to the virtual elimination of Mongolian schools in Xinjiang (there were just two left as of 2009), policies aiming to curtailnomadism, and the limited occupational prospects in Chinese society for graduates of Mongolian schools.[18] As for Mongolia, the predominance ofKhalkha Mongolian is bringing about the Khalkhaization of all other varieties of Mongolian.[19]
Oirat has been written in two script systems: the Mongolian scripts and Cyrillic.
Historically, theClear script, which originated from theMongolian script, was used. It uses modified letters shapes e.g. to differentiate between different rounded vowels, and it uses a small stroke on the right to indicate vowel length. It was retained longest in China where it can still be found in an occasional journal article. However, in China,Buryat and Oirat are considered non-standard compared toSouthern Mongolian and are therefore supposed to use theMongolian script and Southern Mongolian grammar for writing. In practice the people use neither and resort to learningMandarin Chinese and usinghànzì to communicate with others in China.
In Kalmykia, aCyrillic-based script system has been implemented. It does not representepenthetic vowels, and thus does not show syllabification.
In Mongolia, Central Mongolian minority varieties have no status, so Oirats are supposed to useMongolian Cyrillic which de facto only representsKhalkha Mongolian.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
