The chief member of the Mongolian group of the Altaic family of languages, spoken by c. 5 million people mainly in the Mongolian People's Republic, where it is the official language with further speakers in adjoining areas of China (chiefly in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region) and Russia; also called Mongol.
Mongolian was first attested in the 13th century, when the language was already equipped with a sophisticated writing system, derived from Semitic alphabet used for Aramaic, and a literary identity. Modern Mongolian is based on the Khalkha dialect.
In 1941 the Cyrillic alphabet (consisting of 35 characters) was introduced, but the traditional Mongolian script is still predominantly used in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region in China.
CLASSIFICATION = Altaic family, SCRIPT = Cyrillic and Mongolian
Dictionaries |
Angli-Mongol, Mongol-Angli aj akhuin duimen = English-Mongol, Mongol-English animal husbandry glossary |
MON DICO 1 |