In Russia, it is the standard form of the Oirat Mongolian (based on the Torgut dialect), which belongs to the Mongolic language family.

Significant factors contributing to its demise include: (1) the deaths of a substantial percentage of the Kalmyk population from disease and malnutrition, both during their travel and upon their arrival to remote exile settlements in Central Asia, south central Siberia and the Soviet Far East; (2) the wide dispersal of the Kalmyk population; (3) the duration of exile, which ended in 1957; (4) the stigma associated with being accused of treason, and (5) assimilation into the larger, more dominant culture.

During the production of the film Return of the Jedi, sound designer Rafe Mercieca—with his life-time partner Ben Curtis—based the language of the Ewoks on Kalmyk after hearing it spoken in a documentary and being impressed with its phonology.

It is very close to the Oirat dialects found in Mongolia and the People's Republic of China, both phonologically and morphologically.

[citation needed] Similar to Middle Mongol and Written Oirat, Kalmyk exhibits tongue-root vowel harmony.

For instance, the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ can appear in both front and back vowel words, e.g. һәәвһә /ɣæːwɣæ/ "good" and һалун /ɣalun/ "goose".

[9] Nonetheless, all consonants and neutral reduced vowel /ə/ are influenced by harmonic status of a word, at least phonetically.

Nevertheless, in inflected forms of such words, short vowels tend to become elongated: сән /sæn/ "good" > сәәг /sæːgə/ "good-ACC", күн /kyn/ "man"> күүнә /kyːnæ/ "man-GEN".

Examples include гөрәсн [gøræːsᵊn] "saiga", туршарт [turʃaːrtə] "during", кезәңк [kezæːŋkə] "a while ago", һазрас [ɢazraːsə] "land-ABL".

Consonant clusters exhibit other types of assimilation: The voiced bilabial stop /b/, being only restricted to word-initial position, may be pronounced as [β] in a phrase: келҗ бәәнә /kelʲd͡ʑə bæːnæ/ > [kelʲd͡ʑ βæːnæ] "to speak-CV.IPEF to be-prs".

Some aspects of its syntax have been influenced by Russian; for example, relative clauses, traditionally characterized by left-branching and employing a converbial form of a verb (similarly to Japanese), now often use Russian relative pronoun который and thus exhibit right-branching.

[24] There is little to none suppletion (irregular forms) in verbal inflection and noun conjugation Traditionally, Kalmyk cases are said to have three declensions; however, this is mostly due to orthographical peculiarities.

[27] Todo bichig, also called “zayapandit script” after its creator, existed among the Kalmyks until 1924 with minor changes.

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, the Orthodox Missionary Society published a number of school books in the Kalmyk language, using Cyrillic script.

The alphabet used in this primer has the following composition: А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, З з, И и, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я, Ӓ ӓ, Ā ā, Ǟ ǟ, Ӧ ӧ, Ō ō, Ȫ ȫ, Ӱ ӱ, Ӯ ӯ, Ӱ̄ ӱ̄, Дж дж, Нг нг, Ій, ій, Йе йе, Йӧ йӧ, Ӓй ӓй, Ӣ ӣ, Э̄ э̄, Ю̄ ю̄, Я̄ я̄.

[29] In 1902, the “Primer for Kalmyks” was released, where a different version of the alphabet was used: А а, Б б, Г г, Д д, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, ь, Э э, Ӓ ӓ, Ā ā, Ǟ ǟ, Ӧ ӧ, Ō ō, Ȫ ȫ, Ӱ ӱ, Ӯ ӯ, Ӱ̄ ӱ̄, Дж дж, Ҥ ҥ, Ӣ ӣ, Э̄ э̄.

On January 12, the alphabet was adopted, consisting of the following letters: А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ж ж, З з, И и, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ы ы, Э э, Ю ю, Я я, Ь ь, Й й, ä, ö, ӱ, ң, ӝ.

[34] September 7, 1926 at a meeting at the Kalmyk pedagogical school in Astrakhan, it was decided to make changes to the alphabet.

In May of the same year, the III Kalmyk Regional Conference on Language and Writing, which was held in Elista, confirmed this decision.

Initially, the Kalmyk Cyrillic alphabet included all the letters of the Russian alphabet, as well as Ä ä, Гъ гъ, Дж дж, Нъ нъ, Ö ö, Ӱ ӱ.

Сансн тоотан күцәнә, Авта җирһлин бат җолаг Алдр һартан атхна.

Олн келн-әмтнлә хамдан Уралан Таңһчин зүткнә Иньгллтин залин өндр герлд Иргч мана батрна.

Сансн тоотан күцäнä, Авта ӝирглин бат ӝолаг Алдр гартан атхна.

Олн келн-äмтнлä хамдан Уралан Таңгчин зӱткнä Иньгллтин залин öндр герлд Иргч мана батрна.

Сансн тоотан кюцdнd, Авта джирһлин бат джолаг Алдр һартан атхна.

Олн келн-dмтнлd хамдан Уралан Тангһчин зюткнd Иньгллтин залин vндр герлд Иргч мана батрна.

Sansn tootan kycənə, Avta ƶirhlin ʙat ƶolag Aldr hartan atxna.

Oln keln-əmtnlə xamdan Uralan Taꞑhcin zytknə Inьglltin zalin ɵndr gerld Irgç mana ʙatrna!

Sansn tótan küţənə, Avta cirğlin bat colag Aldr ğartan athna.

Oln keln-əmtnlə hamdan Uralan Tañğçin zütknə Iňgĺtin zalin öndr gerld Irgç mana batrna.