Kalmyks are the only Mongolic-speaking people living in Europe, residing in the easternmost part of the European Plain.
Kalmyks in the late 19th century. Picture taken in the Salsky Raion of the Don Host Oblast.
Kalmyks
Kalmyk dancers
Kalmyk depicted by Struys Jan Janszoon (1681)
Kalmyk Oirat, commonly known as the Kalmyk language, is a variety of the Oirat language, natively spoken by the Kalmyk people of Kalmykia, a federal subject of Russia. In Russia, it is the standard form of the Oirat language, which belongs to the Mongolic language family. The Kalmyk people of the Northwest Caspian Sea of Russia claim descent from the Oirats from Eurasia, who have also historically settled in Mongolia and Northwest China. According to UNESCO, the language is "Definitely endangered". According to the Russian census of 2021, there are 110,000 speakers of an ethnic population consisting of 178,000 people.
A bilingual (Russian and Kalmyk) sign with the text "Clean zone!" at the Elista bus station