Languages
Native
Mongolian
95%
Language Samples
Сайн байна уу, та сайн байна уу?
Sain baina uu, ta sain baina uu?
Hello, how are you?
Сайн байна, баярлалаа.
Sain baina, bayarlalaa.
I am well, thank you.
Нэг, хоёр, гурав, дөрөв, тав, зургаа, долоо, найм, ес, арав
Neg, khoyor, gurav, döröv, tav, zurgaa, doloo, naim, yes, arav
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Linguistic History
Mongolian belongs to the Mongolic language family and is the official language of Mongolia. Historically written in the Classical Mongolian script — a vertical script written top-to-bottom and left-to-right — Mongolia switched to the Cyrillic alphabet in 1941 under Soviet influence. The traditional vertical script is still used in Inner Mongolia (China) and is undergoing a revival in Mongolia itself. Mongolian achieved international prominence as the language of the vast Mongol Empire in the 13th century, which at its height stretched from the Pacific to Eastern Europe.
Similar Languages
Buryat
75%
Kalmyk
65%
Kazakh
30%
Turkic languages
25%
Media
A traditional Mongolian ger (yurt) camp on the steppe, where the nomadic culture that shaped the Mongolian language has flourished for millennia.
Photo: Myrzabek Ozubekov · CC BY-SA 4.0
Did You Know
01
Mongolia switched from its own classical vertical script to Cyrillic in 1941 under Soviet pressure — today the government is reviving the traditional script in official use.
02
The Mongolian word 'ger' (гэр) for the traditional circular felt tent is distinct from the Turkish 'yurt' — both words refer to the same structure, but Mongolians prefer their own term.
03
Classical Mongolian script runs vertically from top to bottom, with columns going left to right — one of only a few scripts in the world still written vertically.