Khalkha is the official language of Mongolia and is spoken by approximately 90 percent of its population, about 2.4 million in 2000. Khalkha is actually a dialect of Mongol. In addition to Khalkha, other important Mongol dialects include Dariganga, spoken in southern Mongolia, and Chakhar, Urat, Kharchin-Tumet, Khorchin, Ujumchin, and Ordos, all spoken in Inner Mongolia. Khalkha encompasses a number of dialect variants, but differences are as minor as the differences between Khalkha and the other Mongol dialects, all of which are mutually comprehensible. The real differences are historical rather than linguistic. When Khalkha's direct connection with China ended after 1911, Russian became a dominant influence; the other languages of the Mongol group, with the exception of Dariganga, continued to be influenced by Chinese. The Mongol languages of China also continued to use the Uighur script and a spelling that is somewhat archaic and less precise but has the advantage of deemphasizing phonological variations.
Prior to 1940, Khalkha was also written with the Uighur script, but since that time a slightly modified Cyrillic script has been used that better reflects the phonological patterns of everyday speech. Since 1991, the Uighur script has made a comeback. From the standpoint of Mongolian linguistic nationalism, a general return to the Uighur script would be extremely important. All speakers of Mongol would write the same way, although terminological differences would persist.
After more than sixty years of development as a distinct literary language, Khalkha has now become a sophisticated medium of exchange and a Mongolian national language in every sense. The evolution of Khalkha has accelerated since the end of Communist rule, with the introduction of new social and economic institutions and vocabularies to support them. Whole new sectors associated with concepts that simply did not exist in Mongolia prior to the 1990s, such as modern banking and computer science, have developed their own vocabulary. Most of the new terminology is based on Mongolian roots rather than borrowings. Nonetheless, in many highly technical areas the Mongols still have recourse to English, which has replaced Russian for them as the preferred language of international communication, at least until established Mongolian terminology has emerged.
Further Reading
Bawden, Charles. (1997) Mongolian-English Dictionary. London and New York: Kegan Paul.
Poppe, Nicholas. (1965) Introduction to Altaic Linguistics. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz.
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