MWW 20: Хашаа

Cyrillic	хашаа
Transcription	hashaa
IPA	[xa.ˈʃa:]
Layman’s Pronunciation	hah-SHAH
Translation	fence, yard
In Genghis Khan’s time it was qasiya.

If ингэ showed the ways in which Mongolian makes finer distinctions than English, today's entry is an example of when Mongolian conflates two concepts that are separate in English. In this case Mongolian conflates the term for an enclosure and the area enclosed. Хашаа can be translated as either "fence" or "yard."

Хашаа is undoubtedly related to the verbs хаших, "enclose, surround, shut in," and хашигдах, "be surrounded, be blocked," and the noun хашил, which seems to mean a million different things, including "quotes," "brackets," "hook," and "roadblock." Amusing, even though хашаа seems to be a noun derived from the verb stem хаш-, it's gotten re-verbed into хашхаалах "to fence, pen up."

This one has been awhile coming, because I've already used it in blogs before without explaining it. Whenever I've mentioned my "hashaa family," what I mean is the Mongolians I live with. Volunteers (except those city-slickers who have apartments) live in their own house or ger - but they live on someone else's land. Peace Corps always places you with some Mongolian coworker who happens to have an extra house or ger in their yard (which, of course, is completely surrounded with a fence). In my case I live on the property Munkhjargal, the social worker, and Enkhtuyaa, the primary school training manager, and their daughter Sainjargal. I live in one ger and they live in the other. Since almost everyone is in this situation, everyone from the country director on down freely drops the noun phrase "hashaa family," and everyone knows what we're talking about. But of course, outsiders don't. Now you know :)

Би Мөнхжаргал.ын хашаан.д амьдра.даг.
I Munkhjargal.GEN yard.DAT live.HABITUAL
I live in Munkhjargal's yard.

Хашаа бари.цгаа.я.
fence build.COLLECTIVE.VOLITION
Let's build a fence.

амьд хашаа
a hedge (literally, "a living fence")