MWW 27: Монгол

Cyrillic	Монгол
Transcription	Mongol
IPA	[ˈmɔŋ.ɢəɬ]
Layman’s Pronunciation	MONG-gle
Translation	Mongolia, Mongolian
In Genghis Khan’s time it was Moŋγul.

This one is so obvious it’s a wonder it took me this long to get it up. In addition, it should be easy to remember and pronounce, since it’s almost the same as its English equivalent, largely because the English word is borrowed from the Mongolian word. According to the online etymology dictionary, it may come from a native word meaning brave, though I don't know this word.

At this point I'd like to point out the fact that in Mongolian, country names can be used directly as a modifier without any suffix or other overt! This unlike many Mongolian nouns, and also unlike English usage of country names. Notice that in the English translations, Mongolia has to be turned into an adjective by adding -n.

Монгол - Mongolia

Монгол улс - Mongolia
Монгол хэл - Mongolian (language)
Монгол хүн - a Mongolian (person)
Монгол дуу - Mongolian song

The same thing happens with other country names. The term for all Mongolian people together is Монголчууд, with the collective suffix -чууд.

More about country names: Most country names in modern Mongolian are the same as their Russian equivalents (with the exception that Mongolian usually lops off any final vowels) and also tend to look like their equivalents in other modern European languages. Some other national or ethnic names, however, persist from Pre-Soviet times. Sometimes you get an older word alongside a more modern word. I decided to put in a list of some of those terms I don't think came from Modern Russian

English	Mongolian
China	Хятад (Hyatad)
India	Энэтхэг (Enetheg)
Kazakh	Хасаг (Hasag)
Korea	Солонгос (Solongos)
Mongolia	Монгол (Mongol)
Russia	Орос (Oros)
Tibet	Төвд (Töwd)
Turkish	Түрэг (Türeg)
Tuvan	Урианхай (Urianhai)
Uzbek	Чантуу (Chantuu)