Language Information

Buryat is spoken in southern Siberia, in the area surrounding Lake Baikal. The great majority of its speakers live in the Russian Republic of Buryat (capital: Ulan-Ude), while others are to be found in the nearby Aginsk Buryat and Ust-Ordynsk Buryat national districts.

Buryat is one of the Mongolian and is closely related to Mongolian proper, spoken across the border in Outer Mongolia.

*** There are about 375,000 speakers.

Buryat Republic, Russia.

Family: Altaic
Subgroup: Mongolian

Writing Sample

Translation

Dorzho missed his smoky, dimly lit yurt. For the first time he felt a tender nagging loneliness for his mother. She was the loveliest, smartest mother in the world, Dorzho's mother! Perhaps she too was lying awake at this moment. She probably missed her little bird who had left his nest. What was she doing and what was she sewing? At that moment she was probably milking a cow. Or perhaps knitting warm stockings to send to Dorzho before winter? Perhaps she was making the payments for her brother's shirts. And perhaps through the eye of the needle she seemed to see the face of her dear Dorzho?

—CHIMIT TSYDENDAMBAYEV, Dorzho, Son of Banzar