Kalmyk (Хальмг келн) is a Mongolic language spoken primarily in the Republic of Kalmykia in southern Russia and is closely related to Oirat, with more distant connections to Buryat and Mongolian. The language has three main dialects—Derbet, Torgut, and Buzav—with Derbet and Torgut forming the basis of the modern literary language. Kalmyk is spoken by approximately 80,000 people and is classified by UNESCO as “definitely endangered.” Over its history, the language has been written in several scripts, including Todo Bichig, Latin, and Cyrillic, which was standardized in 1939.
This course introduces conversational Kalmyk through everyday topics such as greetings, family, food, and weather while exploring the language’s distinctive features, including vowel harmony and its agglutinative structure. Created by Dr. Liubov Darzhinova, with recordings by Svetlana Darzhinova and artwork by Olga and Vladimir Darzhinov, the course builds on decades of language revitalization work, including the regional festival The Kalmyk Language is My Language (Хальмг келн – мини келн), which engaged hundreds of young participants. Designed for both Kalmyk youth and diaspora learners, the course makes the language accessible through English while supporting efforts to strengthen and preserve Kalmyk for future generations.