Mongolian
Language · official in 1 country
Mongol khel, the Mongolian language, has been written in the vertical traditional script since 1204, in Cyrillic by decree since 1941, and in both at once in Mongolia today. It descends from the Middle Mongol of the 13th-century empire, builds words from chains of suffixes, and is the official language of Mongolia and of China's Inner Mongolia.
The language on record
- Own name
- монгол
- ISO 639-1
- MN
- ISO 639-3
- MON
- Script
- Cyrillic
- Family
- Mongolic
- Official in
- 1 country
Where Mongolian is official
Mongolia is the only sovereign state on the list. Inner Mongolia also makes Mongolian official alongside Mandarin, but as an autonomous region of China it has no record of its own.
About Mongolian
What the oldest texts record
The earliest surviving text may be the Stele of Yisüngge, a stone report on an archery contest usually dated 1224 or 1225. Between the 13th and 15th centuries Mongolian was written in four scripts: Uyghur Mongolian, 'Phags-pa for decrees, Chinese characters for The Secret History of the Mongols, and Arabic in dictionaries. Scholars call the language of these texts Middle Mongol. Classical Mongolian, a closely standardised written language, followed from the 17th to the 19th century and carried the Mongolian Kangyur and Tengyur.
Why Mongolia switched to Cyrillic
The traditional script came from Uyghur, taught to the Mongol imperial clan by Uyghur scribes. Mongolia tried the Latin alphabet from 1930 to 1932 and again in 1941, when it lasted two months. Cyrillic was then made compulsory by a government decree of 1941. Because Cyrillic spelling sat closer to speech, literacy rose from 17.3% to 73.5% between 1941 and 1950, against a rise from 3.0% in two decades of campaigns in the old script. An attempt to bring back the traditional alphabet from 1991 to 1994 failed. In March 2020 the government announced that official documents would use both scripts by 2025.
How the two standards differ
Mongolia's standard rests on the northern Khalkha dialects, including that of Ulaanbaatar. Inner Mongolia's rests on Chakhar, spoken in the Plain Blue Banner, and keeps the traditional script. The two differ in sounds, with umlauts in the south and palatalised consonants in the north, and in loanwords, which come from Russian in Mongolia and from Chinese in Inner Mongolia.
Common questions
Questions about Mongolian
Is Mongolian written in Cyrillic or the traditional script?
Both. Mongolia has used Cyrillic since 1941 and planned to use it together with the traditional vertical script in official documents by 2025. Inner Mongolia has always kept the traditional script.
Is Mongolian related to Turkish or Korean?
The old Altaic theory grouped it with Turkic, Tungusic, Korean and Japonic, but a majority of comparative linguists now regard that as obsolete. Its proven relative is the extinct Khitan language.
Where is Mongolian official in China?
Across the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where it shares official status with Mandarin. It is a recognised language in Xinjiang and Qinghai, and in Russia's Buryatia.
What does the name Mongol khel mean?
Khel means tongue or language, from Old Mongolic *kelen. Mongol may come from the Middle Chinese Mengwu or from an Old Mongolic word for brave.