MWW 7: гэр

Cyrillic	гэр
Transcription	ger
IPA	[ker]
Layman’s Pronunciation	GAIR
Translation	1. home 2. yurt
In Genghis Khan’s time it was ger.

Since I wrote about my ger in the last post, why not make ger the next word of the fortnight?

My ger

Ger in the snow

Ger has both a general meaning and a specific meaning. In the specific sense, it refers to the traditional Mongolian nomadic dwelling made of felt over a wooden frame - otherwise known as a “yurt” in English. But aside from that, in the general sense, ger means simply “home.” Of course for many Mongols, possibly the majority, the two senses coincide and no distinction need be made. But wherever you live is your ger, whether it’s a yurt, a house, an apartment, or a palace. Even the president of the United States, as he heads to the White House, would be justified in uttering this common phrase,

Би гэрлүүгээ явлаа.

Bi gerlüügee yavlaa.

“I’m going home.”

in which gerlüügee is the same as the English adverb “home” - composed of ger, “home,” lüü, “to” (an allative case suffix), and ee, the reflexive possessive suffix, which is really interesting, but basically means that the thing it’s attached to belongs to the subject of the sentence.

Rural ger decked out with solar panel and satellite dish.

гэрлүүгээ харих

to return (to one's own) home

гэрийн даалгавар

homework

гэрийн ажил хийх

to do housework

гэр барих

to build a ger

гэр дулаалдах 

to winterize a ger (link)

I could go on with this word, but why not stretch it out and save some of the more interesting derived forms for later posts?

Gers should be cleaned out regularly.