Mongolia Languages

The official language of Mongolia is Mongolian, the modern dialect of which originated in the 13th and 14th Century during the Mongol Empire. Mongolian was found to be related to an extinct language that was known as Khitan after previous opinions of the language being related to Turkic, Japanese, or Korean were debunked. Written literature in the language has existed since the 13th century but this is seen as an evolution of the Khitan language. Mongolian has a complex evolution and history and is one of the oldest living languages on the planet.

Approximately 95% of the country speaks Mongolian as a native language which equates to roughly 2.95 million people. There are around 5.2 million speakers of the language worldwide and many are located in China and Kazakhstan. The Khalkha dialect is the most prevalent and is written in Cyrillic in Mongolia, conversely, in Inner Mongolia, the language is more diverse and is written in the traditional Mongolian script.

Mongolian is an extremely hard language to learn to read, but after pronunciation has been mastered, the language is not as difficult to say basic phrases in. Hello is said as "sa-in ba-in-a uu", thank-you is said as "bay-ar-la-la-a", and goodbye is said as "ba-yar-ta-i". A helpful phrase is "chi angliar yaridaguu?", which means "do you speak English?".

Minority languages in the country include Korean and this is due to the high number of migrants from Mongolia to South Korea. Russian is one of the most spoken minority languages and this is a consequence of Mongolia sharing a border with Russia as well as the fact Mongolia became the second socialist republic in the world in 1924. English has been encouraged in recent years as a reflection on the post-socialist era of the nation and is gaining on Russian as one of the most prevalent minority languages.

This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018

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Published on 2019-11-06


Capital	Ulan Bator
Languages	Mongolian 90% (official) (Khalkha dialect is predominant), Turkic, Russian (1999)
Ethnic Groups	Khalkh 81.9%, Kazak 3.8%, Dorvod 2.7%, Bayad 2.1%, Buryat-Bouriates 1.7%, Zakhchin 1.2%, Dariganga 1%, Uriankhai 1%, other 4.6% (2010 est.)
Religion	Buddhist 53%, Muslim 3%, Shamanist 2.9%, Christian 2.2%, other 0.4%, none 38.6% (2010 est.)
Government	Semi-presidential republic
Independance	29 December 1911 (independence declared from China; in actuality, autonomy attained); 11 July 1921 (from China)
Area	1,564,116.00 km²
Water Area	10,560.00 km²
Land Area	1,553,556.00 km²
Population	3,031,330.00 Sparsely distributed population throughout the country; the capital of Ulaanbaatar and the northern city of Darhan support the highest population densities
Location	Northern Asia, between China and Russia
No. Bordering Countries	2
Bordering Countries	China 4,630 km, Russia 3,452 km
GDP(PPP)	$37,000,000,000.00 (USD)
GDP (Per Capita)	$12,200.00 (USD)
Export Partners	Its major export partners are China and Switzerland.
Export Commodities	Its main exports are copper, apparel, livestock, and animal products.
Import Partners	Its major import partners are China, Russia, and Japan.
Import Commodities	Its major imports include machinery and equipment, fuel, cars, food products, and industrial consumer goods.
Climate	Desert; continental (large daily and seasonal temperature ranges)
Terrain	Vast semidesert and desert plains, grassy steppe, mountains in west and southwest; Gobi Desert in south-central
Learn More	Mongolia

Mongolia Languages

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