Editing Mongolia (section)

=== Languages ===
[[File:Mörön Public Library and Museum.jpg|thumb|Public Library and Museum in Mörön, [[Khövsgöl Province|Khövsgöl]] province showing signage in Mongolian (Mongolian Script and Cyrillic) and English]]
Mongolia's official and [[national language]] is [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]]. A member of the [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic language]] family, the standard dialect is [[Khalkha Mongolian|Khalkha Mongol]]. It coexists with various other, largely mutually intelligible varieties of Mongolic such as [[Oirat language|Oirat]], [[Buryat language|Buryat]], and [[Khamnigan Mongol|Khamnigan]]. Several dialects have been morphing to become more like the central Khalkha dialect in recent years.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Marzluf |first1=Philip |title=The Routledge international handbook of language education policy in Asia |last2=Saruul-Erdene |first2=Myagmar |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-1-317-35449-9 |editor-last=Kirkpatrick |editor-first=Andy |series=Routledge international handbooks |location=London; New York |chapter=Mongolia: Language education policy |editor-last2=Liddicoat |editor-first2=Anthony J.}}</ref> Most speakers of these dialects are located in the western part of the country, namely [[Bayan-Ölgii Province|Bayan-Ölgii]], [[Uvs Province|Uvs]], and [[Khovd Province|Khovd]]. [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], a [[Turkic languages|Turkic language]], is the majority language in Bayan-Ölgii, while [[Tuvan language|Tuvan]] is another Turkic language spoken in [[Khövsgöl Province|Khövsgöl]]. [[Mongolian Sign Language]] is the principal language of the deaf community.

Today, Mongolian is mainly written using the [[Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic alphabet]], introduced during the 1940s. Since the [[Mongolian Revolution of 1990|1990 revolution]] there has been a minor revival of the historic [[Mongolian script]], which is still the official script used by [[Mongols in China|Mongols in neighboring]] [[Inner Mongolia]]. Although Mongolian script has officially been declared the ''national script'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Монгол хэлний тухай хууль |url=https://legalinfo.mn/ |access-date=2024-05-19 |website=Эрх зүйн мэдээллийн нэгдсэн систем |language=mn}}</ref> and is taught from the sixth grade onward at schools,<ref>{{Cite web |title=University and college students to learn Mongolian script from upcoming academic year |url=https://montsame.mn/en/read/250154 |access-date=2024-05-19 |website=MONTSAME News Agency |language=en |archive-date=19 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240519063138/https://montsame.mn/en/read/250154 |url-status=live }}</ref> it remains mostly confined to ceremonial usage in daily life.<ref name=":1" /> In 2025, Mongolia began using both the Cyrillic and traditional Mongolian scripts for legal papers and official documents.<ref>{{cite news|last=Huaxia|date=2 January 2025|url=https://english.news.cn/asiapacific/20250102/8b680b455e18408bbde04b07870fe493/c.html|title=Mongolia adopts dual scripts for legal, official documents|work=Xinhuanet|access-date=4 January 2025|archive-date=4 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250104095800/https://english.news.cn/asiapacific/20250102/8b680b455e18408bbde04b07870fe493/c.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Mongols-map.png|thumb|right|alt=Map of Asia|This map shows the boundary of the 13th-century [[Mongol Empire]] compared to today's [[Mongols]]. The red area shows where the majority of [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]] speakers reside today.]]

Since 1990, English has quickly supplanted Russian as the most popular foreign language in Mongolia.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Shinjee |first1=Bolormaa |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003198345/routledge-handbook-sociolinguistics-around-world-martin-ball-rajend-mesthrie-chiara-meluzzi |title=The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World |last2=Dovchin |first2=Sender |author-link2= Sender Dovchin|date=2023-07-28 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-19834-5 |editor-last=Ball |editor-first=Martin J. |edition=2 |location=London |chapter=SOCIOLINGUISTICS IN MONGOLIA |doi=10.4324/9781003198345 |editor-last2=Mesthrie |editor-first2=Rajend |editor-last3=Meluzzi |editor-first3=Chiara |archive-date=19 May 2024 |access-date=19 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240519063137/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003198345/routledge-handbook-sociolinguistics-around-world-martin-ball-rajend-mesthrie-chiara-meluzzi |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Цыбенова |first1=Ч. С. |last2=Жалсанова |first2=В. Г. |date=2022-08-31 |title=Русский язык в повседневном дискурсе монголов (данные экспертного опроса) |url=https://www.nauka-dialog.ru/jour/article/view/3964 |journal=Научный диалог |language=ru |volume=11 |issue=6 |pages=158–181 |doi=10.24224/2227-1295-2022-11-6-158-181 |issn=2227-1295 |doi-access=free |archive-date=19 May 2024 |access-date=19 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240519063136/https://www.nauka-dialog.ru/jour/article/view/3964 |url-status=live }}</ref> In the [[Mongolian People's Republic|communist era]], Russian was a vital language for mobility and professional communication, with a large number of students studying in the [[Soviet Union]] as well as a large number of Soviet professionals and soldiers located within Mongolia.<ref name=":1" /> Since then, Mongolia's education system has reoriented away from the Soviet Union to the West, and English has become the dominant foreign language, aided by liberalized media, international aid agencies, the rise of private education and tutoring, as well as official government policy. In the 2014–2015 academic year, 59% of the overall student population studied English at public secondary schools.<ref name=":1" /> In 2023, English was declared the "first foreign language", and to be taught from the third grade.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Б.Анхтуяа |date=2023-08-02 |title=Mongolia makes English the first foreign language in secondary education - News.MN |url=https://news.mn/en/799615/ |access-date=2024-05-19 |website=News.MN - The source of news |language=en |archive-date=19 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240519063136/https://news.mn/en/799615/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

As of the 2014–2015 academic year, the most popular foreign language in specialized language courses were (ordered by popularity), English, [[Chinese language|Chinese]], Russian, [[Japanese language|Japanese]], and [[Korean language|Korean]]. Korean in particular has gained popularity as tens of thousands of [[Mongolians in South Korea|Mongolians work in South Korea]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Han |first=Jae-hyuck |date=May 5, 2006 |title=Today in Mongolia: Everyone can speak a few words of Korean |publisher=Office of the President, Republic of Korea |url=http://english.president.go.kr/cwd/en/archive/archive_view.php?meta_id=en_dip_2006&category=164&id=923b8c655856408486c7764f |url-status=dead |access-date=2007-08-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930015517/http://english.president.go.kr/cwd/en/archive/archive_view.php?meta_id=en_dip_2006&category=164&id=923b8c655856408486c7764f |archive-date=September 30, 2007}}</ref> forming the [[Mongolian diaspora|largest group of Mongolians abroad]].