The Kalmyk language, also known as Kalmyk-Oirat, is a language of the Mongolic family spoken in the Republic of Kalmykia, Russian Federation, and in diaspora communities in the United States and Europe. Once existing as a confederation of nomadic states, the Oirats have been scattered as ethnic minorities in Mongolia, China, and Russia since the 18th century. Historically, the Kalmyk-American diaspora was formed by immigrants escaping the Russian Revolution and World War II, many settling in New Jersey. In 2022, many young Kalmyk families left the Russian Federation to escape war and mobilization and resettled in the US.

Since the late 18th century, the Russian Empire has gradually chipped away at the autonomy of Kalmyk statehood and weakened the vitality of the Kalmyk language. Under Soviet Russia, the classical script of the Kalmyk language, Todo Bichig, was replaced by Cyrillic. In 1943-1957, the entire Kalmyk population was exiled to Siberia; upon their return in 1957, the Kalmyk language was replaced by Russian as the language of instruction in schools. More recently in 2015, the Russian government (Duma) adopted a resolution that made the study of minority languages in public schools optional, making it more difficult to teach and learn the Kalmyk language as part of the school curriculum. These actions have profoundly impacted the health of the language today: there are an estimated 80,000 native speakers, mostly aged, out of 170,000 Kalmyks living in the Russian Federation.

In recent years, language activists in Kalmykia have begun taking steps toward language documentation and revitalization. However, there are no revitalization efforts focused on the English-speaking Kalmyk-American diaspora, primarily living in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Ghilyana Dordzhieva has been filling this gap by organizing online Kalmyk conversational classes since 2020. During this cohort year with Wikitongues, Ghilyana and her colleagues will continue developing this work by creating Kalmyk language course materials, starting with a 21-unit textbook. The textbook will be geared towards all types of language learners, with texts and dialogue for reading and speaking practice, vocabulary lists, homework exercises, and a website with supplementary audiovisual material.