Mongolic

Mongolic is a language family of East-Central Asia spoken by the Mongolic peoples of Mongolia, parts of Russia (notably Buryatia and Kalmykia) and northern China (including Inner Mongolia and Qinghai). The most widely spoken member is Mongolian, especially the Khalkha variety, which forms the basis of the standard language used in Mongolia. Other significant Mongolic languages include Buryat, Kalmyk, Oirat, Dagur and Dongxiang. The languages are often mutually intelligible to varying degrees across regional varieties but are not all mutually intelligible.

Linguistically, Mongolic languages share features such as agglutinative morphology, vowel harmony, and subject–object–verb word order. They typically express grammatical relations and affixes via suffixation and use postpositions. The vocabularies show historical contact with neighbouring Tungusic and Turkic languages.

Writing systems have varied over time. Historically, Mongolic languages were written with a vertical script derived from Old Uyghur. In Mongolia, Cyrillic-based Mongolian is standard for most writing, while in Inner Mongolia (China) the traditional vertical script remains widely used in education and public life, with other scripts used for research and minority languages.

Classification and status: Mongolic is recognized as a distinct language family. The proposed broader Altaic relationship linking Mongolic to Turkic and Tungusic is controversial, and most contemporary linguists treat Mongolic as an independent family. The languages have experienced language shift pressures in some areas due to national and regional policies, but continue to be vital in Mongolia and many minority communities.