MWW 8: дээл

A girl wearing a deel, the Mongolian national costume. Hidden in the pattern of her deel are the words for various traditional Mongolian clothes, written in эвхмэл бичиг.

Since we recently had Mongolian National Deel Day, дээл (deel, often spelled del) is a fine word for this issue. In this case, “Mongolian National Deel Day” is not really a “day.” Nor was it a “week.” True to the way of doing things here, which sometimes seems strange to me, Deel Day was actually four days long, lasting from Monday through Thursday (but not Friday). Also, it was not a nation-wide celebration. It was our school’s idea to do it and as far as I know only we did it. “National” here instead is meant to refer to the fact that the дээл is the national dress, for both men and women. The point of Mongolian National Deel Day was probably to stir up pride in traditional culture. More concretely, it was to get all the faculty, staff, and students to wear the national costume for four days.

Cyrillic	дээл
Transcription	deel
IPA	[te:ɬ]
Layman’s Pronunciation	DALE
Translation	del/deel, traditional Mongolian robe
In Genghis Khan’s time it was debel.

The дээл is a kind of robe, but instead of being buttoned in front like American clothes, it’s fastened on the side. Putting on a deel, first the right side of the robe is pulled over the front of the body, all the way over to one’s left side. Then, the left side of the deel is pulled over the right side. On the edge of that left flap are tiny cloth loops. There are also tiny cloth knots on the right side of the deel, under the sleeve and on the shoulder. To fasten the deel you slips the knots through the loops, just as you would slip a button through a buttonhole. Then a бүс (deel belt) - like a long scarf - is wrapped snuggly around the waist. Your deel is fastened!

The left and right flaps of the deel and the belt create a large pocket on your chest. Deels have collars, that can also be fastened by loops and knots. The bottom of the deel usually goes all the way down to the top of one’s boots, covering the legs too. The sleeves are much longer than a person’s arms. Traditionally Mongolians didn’t wear gloves. When they went ouside they just let the edge of the sleeve hand over their hands, and when they needed to do fine handwork, they flipped back the sleeve.

Deels can be made out of different kinds of fabric. There are also different seasonal deels. Summer deels are thin and light. Winter deels can be very heavy and are often lined with felt. Both men and women wear deels, although the fashions for each of them differ. Everyday deels are usually a dull blue or green, but festive deels come in all colors and usually have geometric patterns embroidered on them. All Mongolians used to wear deels, but under Soviet influence and modernization, professional people began to wear suits. Since the nation’s democratization many people follow Western fashions, and kids dress a lot like kids in the U.S. Nowadays some herders still wear deels on a day-to-day basis, but for everyone else, deels are usually worn on special occasions, sort of like tuxedoes, or like kimonos in Japan.

Mongolian students wearing deels