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The official language of Mongolia is Mongolian. Approximately 75 per cent of the population speak Khalka Mongolian, while another 15 per cent speak other Mongolian languages. Ethnic minorities are mainly speakers of Turkic languages, such as Kazakh, Tuvinian, Uriankhai and Khoton. The Mongolian language belongs to the Ural-Altaic family of languages, which includes Finnish, Turkish, Kazak, Uzbek and Korean. The modern Mongol language evolved after the communist revolution in 1921 derived principally from the Khalkh dialect. Russian is spoken by many graduates formerly educated in Russia (most Mongolians over the age of 25 can speak Russian). But English is replacing Russian as the second Language. German and other Eastern European languages are spoken by many graduates, and a little Spanish and French is spoken. Mongolians learn other languages quite easily. In the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, it is not unusual to find a Mongolian who can speak two to four additional languages.

The dominant script in Mongolia is Cyrillic, due to Russian influences, but a return to traditional script has begun in schools. Mongols had developed their own script (the classical Uighur Mongolian script) back in 13th century. But over 50 years ago, during the communist era, it was banned and the Russian Cyrillic alphabet was imposed as the official script. After the Democratic Revolution of 1990, the Parliament voted to return to the old script as an affirmation of national identity and in recognition of Mongolia's rich traditional culture.

The Mongol script was adopted about 800 years ago by Genghis Khan's decree. Based on the ancient Uighur script of Turkish tribes that had lived near Mongolia, the Mongols developed it and it evolved into today's script, which is why it is called Uighur Mongol script. This script has been taught in all secondary schools since 1994. Fifty percent of Mongols can read it, while only thirty percent can write it.

The Mongol script is a "vertical" script, written from the top to the bottom, and the only "vertical" script still in use today. The Mongol language belongs to the Mongolian branch of Altaic Family, and it is an alphabetic language, with the letters of any given word written continuously. The Mongolian alphabet has 23 basic letters (7 vowels and 16 consonants) and employs several other letters to stand for foreign words. Over the course of its long history, the Mongols have tried to use other scripts. Kublai Khan ordered Tibetan Lama Paspa to create a new script, which is known as "Square-shaped" Mongolian script. Zhanabazar, the first Khutugtu Gegen (what is that?) created a type of Mongol script the Soyombo script. Latin was even used during the 1930s. But none of these scripts were as popular as the Uighur Mongol script.

Classical Mongolian hand written script

Classical Mongolian printed script

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