Sart Kalmyk language
{{Short description|Central Mongolic language}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Sart Kalmyk
| altname =
| nativename = {{lang|xal|Сарт хальмг келн}} {{tlit|xal|Sart xalmg keln}}
| states = Kyrgyzstan
| region = Issyk-Kul
| ethnicity = {{circa|12,000}} {{nowrap|Sart Kalmyks}}{{citation|title = President of Mongolia received the Kalmyk citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic|website = President of Mongolia|date = 2012-04-08|url = http://www.president.mn/eng/newsCenter/viewNews.php?newsId=697| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161206105008/http://www.president.mn/eng/newsCenter/viewNews.php?newsId=697 | archive-date=2016-12-06 }}
| speakers = 200
| date =
| ref =
| familycolor = Altaic
| fam1 = Mongolic
| fam2 = Central Mongolic
| fam4 = Mongolian
| fam5 = Oirat
| script =
| glotto = sart1247
| glottorefname = Sart Qalmaq
| nation = * File:Flag of Issyk-Kul Region.svg Issyk-Kul Region
| ietf = xal-x-HIS11428
}}
Sart Kalmyk ({{langx|xal|Сарт хальмг келн|translit=Sart xalmg keln}}) is an endangered and underdocumented Central Mongolic Oirat language variety spoken by the Sart Kalmyks in Ak-Suu District, Issyk-Kul Region, Kyrgyzstan.
History
Sart Kalmyk emerged as a distinct variety after its speakers separated from a larger Oirat-speaking community in today's Xinjiang around 1864 and moved to the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul. Since then, the language has been developing in isolation from other Mongolic varieties and in intense contact with Kyrgyz, a Turkic language. Recent research shows a significant influence of Kyrgyz morphology, phonology and lexicon on Sart Kalmyk.{{citation|last1 = Borlykova|first1 = Boskha|last2 = Menyaev|first2 = Badma|year = 2020|title = Morphological peculiarities of the Sart-Kalmyk language|journal = Izvestia VGPU. Filologia|volume = 148|issue = 5|pages = 128–134|lang = ru|url = https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/o-nekotoryh-morfologicheskih-osobennostyah-sart-kalmytskogo-yazyka}}
==Language situation==
Sart Kalmyk is a severely threatened language. Its domains of use are largely confined to informal communication between the elderly in rural areas. Virtually all speakers are trilingual, having a good command of Kyrgyz and Russian in addition to their ethnic language. Younger members of the ethnic community often speak little to no Sart Kalmyk.{{citation|last1 = Borlykova|first1 = Boskha|last2 = Menyaev|first2 = Badma|year = 2022|title = Sart-Kalmyks of Kyrgyzstan: a Brief Ethnographic Essay|journal = Nauchniy Dialog|volume = 11|issue = 1|pages = 362–278| doi=10.24224/2227-1295-2022-11-1-362-378 | s2cid=246393195 |lang = ru|url = https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sart-kalmyki-kirgizii-kratkiy-etnograficheskiy-ocherk|doi-access = free}}
Orthography
Historically, Sart Kalmyk was written with the Clear script and, occasionally, a local version of the Arabic script. Both scripts have fallen out of use by the early 1940s. In 1934, a short-lived Latin alphabet-based orthography was introduced. Today, Sart Kalmyk is rarely used in writing, but when it is written, the Kalmyk version of Cyrillic is employed.{{citation|last = Tenishev|first = Edkhyam|author-link = Edkhyam Tenishev|year = 1976|title = About the Language of Sart Kalmyks of Issyk-Kul|journal = Voprosy Jazykoznanija|volume = 1|pages = 82–87|lang = ru|url = https://altaica.ru/Articles/tenishev.pdf}}