Kalmyk Oirat Italki has added many languages but nobody seems to post in or about them. As it is the UN Year of Indigenous Languages, I'd like to bring some lesser learnt and lesser known languages to

Miriam

Kalmyk Oirat

Italki has added many languages but nobody seems to post in or about them. As it is the UN Year of Indigenous Languages, I'd like to bring some lesser learnt and lesser known languages to your attention. In February I posted a couple of notebook entries about some languages but didn't receive any corrections, so I hope it's ok to recycle them here as discussion topics and maybe there are one or two people who also have an interest in those languages.

My original notebook entry about Kalmyk can be found here: <a href="https://www.italki.com/notebook/2918439/entry/973383" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.italki.com/notebook/2918439/entry/973383</a>;. There's also a picture. I changed my post slightly for this discussion.

I’m researching heritage language schools in Germany and back in February I dreamt that I found a Kalmyk language school. I didn’t read anything about Kalmyk before so, I asked the teacher in my dream if Russian and Kalmyk were mutually intelligible but I woke up before he replied. So, that day I looked up the language, first thing in the morning to fight my ignorance. As part of an online language challenge I summed up some of my findings and posted them on Instagram:

- Kalmyk is a variant of the Oirat language which belongs to the Mongolic language family (thus not mutually intelligible with Russian) and is spoken mainly in Kalmykia, an autonomous republic in the South of the European part of Russia, Kazakhstan and in diasporas in France and the US.

- Oirat languages are also spoken in parts of Mongolia, China and Kyrgyzstan.

- Kalmyk is endangered with around 80,500 native speakers according to a Russian census.

- Kalmyk is written in an adapted Cyrillic script since 1924 but has been written in the Clear Script (Todo Bichig) that was developed based on the Mongolian Script by the Oirat Buddhist monk Zaya Pandita in the 17th century. The script is still used by Oirat speakers in Xinjiang, China.

- Kalmykia is the only European region where Buddhism is the most practised religion. Chess is the national sport.

- The language of the Ewok in The Return of the Jedi was based on Kalmyk.

- The Kalmyk community in New Jersey has teamed up with the Enduring Voices Project in order to promote Kalmyk and raise awareness for it.

Are you a Kalmyk speaker or learner or just generally interested in this language and culture? Do you have something interesting to share about Kalmyk?

Nov 18, 2019 6:31 AM

Comments · 5

Bald and Bankrupt in Kalmykia

In a timely coincidence, one of my favorite vloggers just arrived in Kalmykia and made a video of his adventures looking for Kalmyk speakers. Hopefully he has a few more videos on the way.

<em>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR_eA_c_Yts&t=8s</em>;

Trivia factoid: B&B claims that the Ewok language in Star Wars is based on the Kalmyk language.

November 20, 2019

Actually history of Kalmyk appearance in Kalmykia is a bit crazy.

Some year they just moved from their lands, and after many months of hunger and defeating numerous nations they found on their way they came to Kalmykia and became neighbours of Russia (defeating powerful Nogai Horde).

Over next 100 years they signed with Russia dozens of peace treaties.

Then for an obscure reason they went back. Again through months of fighting (those who remain in Kalmykia are a remainder).

If you want to visit them you may try April (blooming wild tulips. It is hard to know beforehand when it happens though, it can be early May).

November 18, 2019

These people should be of interest, Miriam: <a href="https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/vlach/team/community-consultants/oirat-kalmyk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/vlach/team/community-consultants/oirat-kalmyk/</a>;

November 20, 2019

Drasvi, thanks! That sounds interesting. I should further look into the Kalmyk history. Btw, I just posted a discussion about Buryat: <a href="https://www.italki.com/discussion/222004" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.italki.com/discussion/222004</a>;. As italki doesn't have Buryat in their language list, I chose Mongolian. Some people might wonder if there are notable learners of Kalmyk and Buryat outside of Russia but there is a very accomplished Japanese polyglot, Naoki Watanabe, who not only learnt Kalmyk and Buryat but also Manchu, Moksha, Erya and Crimean Tatar (among other languages).

November 19, 2019