The Oirat Alphabet

Oirat ^[2] is a Western Mongolic language of the Oirat people, who historically constituted a confederation of western Mongolic tribes centred in western Mongolia, the Dzungaria region of Central Asia and the Volga steppe of Russia. WALS Online (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) documents Oirat as a distinct branch of the Mongolic language family. The best-preserved modern form of Oirat is Kalmyk (ISO 639-3: xal), spoken in the Republic of Kalmykia, Russia.

Kalmyk ^[1] is the western branch of Oirat — the form of the Oirat Mongolic language spoken by the Kalmyk people of the Republic of Kalmykia, Russia. The Kalmyk people are descended from Oirat Mongols who migrated westward to the Volga steppe in the 17th century. The Kalmyk Scientific Centre documents Kalmyk as the primary modern descendant of the Oirat Mongolic language tradition, sharing its ISO 639-3 code xal with related Oirat varieties.

The Oirat people ^[2] were a confederation of western Mongolic tribes who rose to prominence after the decline of the Mongol Empire. At their peak in the 17th century under the Dzungar Khanate, the Oirats controlled a vast territory from western Mongolia to Central Asia. WALS Online documents the Oirat historical sphere as one of the most significant in the post-Mongol era. Today, the descendants of the Oirats include the Kalmyks of Russia and the Oirat communities of Xinjiang, China, and western Mongolia.

Todo Bichig ^[1] (Clear Script) was the traditional Oirat writing system created in 1648 by the Oirat Buddhist scholar Zaya Pandita. The Kalmyk Scientific Centre documents Todo Bichig as a reformed version of the traditional Mongolian script, modified to better represent the phonology of the Oirat language. Todo Bichig was used across all Oirat communities — Kalmyks on the Volga, Dzungars in Central Asia — until the Soviet era replaced it with Latin (1930) and then Cyrillic (1938) scripts. The Kalmyk Scientific Centre promotes knowledge of Todo Bichig as a symbol of Kalmyk-Oirat cultural identity.

Oirat (Kalmyk) ^[2] and Mongolian are both Mongolic languages but belong to different subgroups: Oirat/Kalmyk is Western Mongolic; standard Mongolian is Eastern Mongolic. WALS Online documents phonological differences that developed after the western Oirat groups separated from the eastern Mongolian communities following the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire in the 14th century. The separation has produced distinct vowel systems, consonant inventories and vocabulary, making Oirat/Kalmyk and Mongolian not readily mutually intelligible despite their shared ancestry.

Oirat (Kalmyk) ^[3] is endangered in its Kalmyk branch. The Endangered Languages Project documents approximately 80,000–100,000 Kalmyk people in Russia, but fluent speakers of traditional Kalmyk are fewer, particularly among younger generations who predominantly use Russian. Oirat varieties in Xinjiang (China) and western Mongolia also face pressure from dominant national languages. The Kalmyk Scientific Centre ^[1] conducts active preservation work to maintain the Kalmyk branch of Oirat for future generations.

Descendants of the Oirat Mongols speaking Oirat varieties live in three main areas today ^[3]: (1) the Republic of Kalmykia, Russia (Kalmyk branch — the European Oirats); (2) the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China (Oirat communities including Torghut and Dörbet); and (3) western Mongolia (Oirat-speaking minorities such as the Durvud and Bayad). The Kalmyk branch in Russia is the westernmost and best-documented of these communities, documented extensively by the Kalmyk Scientific Centre.

The Kalmyk branch of Oirat ^[1] uses a Cyrillic alphabet of 36 letters standardised in 1938, with the unique letters Ң, Ő and Ü. The Oirat communities in Xinjiang, China use a modified form of the traditional Todo Bichig (Clear Script) developed by Zaya Pandita in 1648. In western Mongolia, some Oirat speakers use the traditional Mongolian script. The Kalmyk Scientific Centre promotes awareness of all three writing traditions as part of the broader Oirat cultural heritage.