Get to Know the Buryat language of Lake Baikal

 

The Buryat language is a Mongolic language spoken in the Republic of Buryatia - the region around Lake Baikal on Russia’s border with Mongolia. 

The Buryat language is also spoken in parts of Mongolia, as well as the Province of Inner Mongolia in China.

 

Why learn the Buryat language?

There are thought to be around 280,000 speakers today. The number of speakers had been declining for decades, but thankfully, efforts are being made to revitalise the Buryat language.

There is debate as to whether it is a separate language or a major dialect group of the Mongolian language. 

Such debates depend on how someone defines dialects and languages, and should not detract from a language or dialect’s importance.

A crescent moon at Lake Baikal
The shores of Lake Baikal with mountains in the background

Speakers :

280,000

Where :

Buryatia (Russia), Mongolia, Inner Mongolia (China)

Dialects :

Fifteen dialects, grouped into Khori, Lower Uda, Alar-Tunka, Ekhirit-Bulagat, Bargut

Map of Russian and East Asia showing where the Buryat language is spoken in Russia, Mongolia, and China
 
 

Cover Image

Lake Baikal, Russia

Photo by Sergey Mind on Unsplash

Map

By Fobos92 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38252103

Resources for learning the Buryat language

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How to Learn Russian eBook

The majority of the resources available for learning Buryat are in Russian.

One of the great things about learning Russian is that it makes learning languages like Buryat easier - simply because Buryat is mostly spoken in Russia, and most of the resources are therefore in Russian.

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