Torgut Oirat

Torgut (also known as Torghut or Torghud) is a dialect of the Oirat language spoken in Xinjiang, in western Mongolia and in eastern Kalmykia (where it was the basis for Kalmyk, the literary standard language of that region). Thus, it has more speakers than any other variety of Oirat. It is better researched than any other Oirat variety spoken in China.

The Torgut dialect is spoken in Russia in Eastern Kalmykia, in Bulgan sum in Khovd Province in Mongolia and in the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang, mainly in three separate areas in its north-western part. Sečenbaγatur et al. give an exhaustive list of the areas of Xinjiang where Oirat (in many cases Torgut) is spoken that also includes some places in north-eastern Xinjiang: the autonomous prefectures of Bayangol and Bortala, the counties Hoboksar and Dörbiljin and the city of Wusu in Tacheng Prefecture, the counties Küriye, Tekes and Nilka in the Ili Prefecture, the prefectures Altay, Hamil and Changji and Xinjiang's capital city, Ürümqi. To some degree, this distribution can be associated with the history of the Torgut tribe, one of the four crucial members of the clan federation "Dörben Oirat".