What language was actor Hugh Lauri talking in during the movie Flight of the Pheonix?

I was recently watching a few minutes of this movie, never have seen it before, and the actors were in some desert, I think Mongolian, by there wrecked plane, and they see some desert people off in the distance, and Hugh Laurie and Dennis Quaid think this group of desert people might have water because their group is running low on water and need to survive, so Hugh and Dennis Quaid go off and leave the group and cautiously go over to the desert people to see if they can bargain with them and ask for water, and Hugh Laurie speaks some kind of language to the people. What country were they in during that scene and what language was he speaking? Some kind of Nomadic language. That was the only scene I got to see. Any info will help, ty.