Do Mongolians Have Own Language? - Amicus Travel Mongolia

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Do Mongolians have own language?

Does Mongolia Have Its Own Language?

The Mongolian language, spoken primarily in Mongolia, serves as the country’s national language. Additionally, it is spoken by approximately 5 million ethnic Mongols residing in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Related languages within the Mongolic language family include Buryat and Kalmyk, spoken in Russia, and Moghul (also known as Mogul), historically spoken in Afghanistan.

Mongolian grammar shares common characteristics with other Altaic languages, particularly the Subject-Object-Verb sentence structure. Consequently, nouns and verbs typically change form through distinctions, suffixes, and other grammatical conditions.

Historically, Mongolian has employed numerous writing systems, making it notable for having one of the most diverse script histories among world languages. Until the 1940s, Mongolians predominantly used the traditional Mongolian vertical script. On February 1, 1941, Mongolia officially adopted a modified Latin alphabet, successfully used briefly for printing books and newspapers. However, this decision was reversed two months later on March 25, 1941. According to official explanations, the new writing system was inadequately designed, failing to represent all Mongolian sounds clearly and proving difficult to use. Subsequently, in 1946, the Cyrillic script was introduced. Cyrillic better matched the spoken language, significantly contributing to the success of literacy campaigns. As a result, Mongolia’s literacy rate dramatically increased from approximately 17% to around 80% between 1941 and 1950.

Since 1990, there have been continuous efforts to revive the traditional Mongolian script in Mongolia. Although it is now taught to some extent in schools, it remains primarily employed for decorative, artistic, and cultural purposes by artists, designers, calligraphers, and poets. Despite these initiatives, most Mongolians have limited familiarity with the traditional script, whereas literacy in Cyrillic remains widespread. Meanwhile, in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the traditional Mongolian script continues to be actively used.