Mongolian Word of the Week #67: Хэнз

Since it's autumn now, today's Mongolian word of the week is хэнз. Хэнз (henz) means “late-born” and refers to late animals, children, and even plants. It may not be a particularly common word - as a matter of fact, I found it by randomly flipping through a dictionary - but, it is useful for people who herd animals.

Mongolian Word of the Week #66: Сургууль

In honor of the start of school in September, today's Mongolian word of the week is сургууль (surguuli) "school," with a guest appearance by school's root word, сурах (surah), "study, learn."

Cyrillic	сургууль	IMG
Transcription	surguuli
IPA	[sʊr.ˈɢʊɬʲ]
Layman’s Pronunciation	soor-GOOYLH
Translation	school
In Genghis Khan’s time it was surγaγuli.
Plural: сургуулиуд; Genitive: сургуулийн.

Mongolian Word of the Week #65: Тарвага

How much wood can a wood chuck chuck? Mongolians ask a different question

Since marmot-hunting season is underway, today's Mongolian word of the week is тарвага (tarvaga) "marmot." If you know what a groundhog or woodchuck is, you're familiar with marmots - all of them belong to the genus Marmota. In fact, In Mongolian, the groundhog or woodchuck (Marmota monax) is called хойд америкийн ойн тарвага "North American forest marmot." Two species of marmots have long been ubiquitous residents of the Mongolian steppe. One is Marmota baibacina, the gray (Altai) marmot. The other, more common one, is Marmota sibirica, also known as the Siberian, Mongolian or tarbagan marmot. (Obviously, the designation "tarbagan marmot" is from the Mongolian word for marmot.) Keep reading for more about marmot hunting, the plague, and Mongolia's equivalent of English's famous tongue-twister about a woodchuck.

Mongolian Word of the Week #64: Цаг

Mongolian script clock: "Hour" and "minute" hands on a clockface marked with the traditional shapes of the numbers one to twelve.

Cyrillic	цаг
Transcription	tsag
IPA	[tsʰak]
Layman’s Pronunciation	TSAHK
Translation	time, hour, watch, clock, tense
In Genghis Khan’s time it was caγ.

Today's Mongolian Word of the Week (#64) is цаг (tsag), which means "hour," or "time," or a variety of other related things such as "watch," "clock," or "tense." Most generally, цаг means "time," as in илүү цаг (ilüü tsag) "extra time," чөлөөт цаг (chölööt tsag) "free time," and цайны цаг (tsainy tsag), "tea time" (see my post about цай). There are several other Mongolian words that can also mean “time,” such as үе (üye) and хугацаа (hugatsaa). Цаг is often paired with them to refer to time in a very general sense as цаг үе and цаг хугацаа. Both үе (üye) and хугацаа (hugatsaa) refer to durations of time, so when contrasted with them, цаг refers to a point in time. Цаг is also often paired with мөч (möch) as цаг мөч; both mean "instant, moment."

Possibly Fun Fact: In addition to time, both үе and мөч also name parts of the body. Үе means "joint" and мөч means "limb."

Hour

In a more specific sense, цаг means one hour - 60 minutes. When you ask a Mongolian what time it is, they will give the answer in цаг. (Notice that Mongolians use the verb болох (boloh) "become" when talking about time!)

Одоо хэдэн цаг болжийн? - Odoo heden tsag boljiin? - What time is it becoming?
Гурван цаг болжийн. - Gurvan tsag boljiin. - It's becoming three.

Watch

Цаг also means "clock" or "watch," the devices used to measure the hour:

• бугуйн цаг (buguin tsag) - wristwatch
• ханын цаг (hanyn tsag) - wall clock
• элсэн цаг (elsen tsag) - hourglass (“sand clock,” элс = "sand")
• нарны цаг (narny tsag) - sundial (нар = "sun")
• сэрүүлэгтэй цаг (serüülegtei tsag) - alarm clock (сэрүүлэх = "wake someone up")
  

The "hand" of a clock in Mongolian is literally known as the Needle of Time (цагийн зүү () - зүү züü = needle), as in the opening words of this poem about New Year's:

Цагийн зүү зүрхний хэмнэлээр цохилж...
Tsagiin züü zürhnii hemneleer tsohilj...
The hour hand, beating to the heart's rhythm..

....which you can hear set to music in this video from Шанз 3, Mongolia's all-female shanz-strumming folk pop group: https://youtu.be/rlJm57L8l88

Tense

Tense is time marked on verbs, so Mongolian also uses цаг to name verb tenses - both its own, and the ones they learn in English class.

• өнгөрсөн цаг (öngörsön tsag) - past tense (өнгөрөх = "to pass")
  
• одоо цаг (odoo tsag) - present tense (одоо = "now")
• ирээдүй цаг (ireedüi tsag) - future tense
• энгийн одоо цаг (engiin odoo tsag) - present simple tense
  
• төгс одоо цаг (tögs odoo tsag) - present perfect tense
• одоо үргэлжилж байгаа цаг (odoo ürgeljilj baigaa tsag) - present continuous / progressive tense ("the time that is continuing now" - үргэлжлэх = "to continue")

How's the Time Air Today?

However, the most unusual of the extended senses of цаг for English speakers occurs in the compound word цаг агаар "weather," with агаар (agaar) "air." This sense is also found in the word for climate, цаг уур, with уур (uur) "steam." Such an association is actually not unusual: the Spanish word tiempo means both "weather" and "time." And after all, what is weather but changes in air over time?

More Examples

Цаг бол алт.
Tsag bol alt.
"Time is gold." (The Mongolian equivalent to "Time is money.")

Би цаг барьдаггүй хүнд дургүй.
Bi tsag baridaggüi hünd durgüi.
"I don't like people who aren't punctual."
(цаг барих = "keep the time." See my other post about барих.)

Mongolian Word of the Week #63: Бурхан

Cyrillic	бурхан	Breee%
Transcription	burhan
IPA	[ˈpʊr.χəŋ]
Layman’s Pronunciation	BOOR-khung
Meaning	god, buddha, boddhisattva
In Genghis Khan’s time it was burqan.

Бурхан is what most religious Mongolians worship. You could call it God, although it’s not really the same. And of course, I mentioned before in my first entry that Тэнгэр meant God, right? Well, kind of. Mongolian traditional religion is a melding of elements from Tibetan Buddhism and native, pre-Buddhist shamanic traditions, each with their own objects of worship. To understand  Бурхан and Тэнгэр, let’s talk about five kinds of entities that could be called “gods,” although none of them are quite what Westerners usually think of as “God.”

1. Тэнгэр (Tenger)
   
2. Онгод (Ongod)
3. Devas
4. Buddhas
5. Boddhisattvas

Тэнгэр (Tenger - also encountered as Tengri) is a concept stretching back as far as we can see into the past. Тэнгэр can refer both to the physical sky, and also to Heaven, the manifestation of divine will in the cosmos. In this second sense, Тэнгэр is the closest native Mongolian thing to the Christian God. Тэнгэр is the creator and sustainer of the world. Humans, animals, and plants all depend on Him/Her/It. (I can’t say what pronoun is appropriate; Mongolian doesn’t have grammatical gender.) Earthly governments derive their right to rule from Heaven’s will, similar to the Chinese concept of the "Mandate of Heaven." Тэнгэр maintains the balance of nature and moral order. It punishes illegitimate regimes by making them collapse and will even smite much less significant individuals as well. It seems that it’s also possible to have a direct personal relationship with Тэнгэр. Тэнгэр was the only authority acknowledged by Chinggis Khaan, and he prayed to it every morning.

Онгод (ongod), singular онгон (ongon), are also ancient Mongolian. [1] Онгод are local deities of nature and may best be compared to Greek nymphs. These are the spirits that shamans usually interact with. Ongod can be divided into the broad categories лус (lus, water spirits) and савдаг (savdag, earth spirits). [2]

A poster advertising a sale on divine postage stamps

The next three categories came with Buddhism. Deva is the Sanskrit term for god, cognate with the Latin word for god, deus (hence also the English word divine). [3] The devas include all the gods inherited from Hinduism, e.g. Brahma and Indra, and other kinds of powerful beings as well. In Hinduism they are gods. But Buddhism denies that the devas are immortal, that they created the world, or that they can save human beings from their karma - in other words, the Hindu gods don't sound very godlike. But Buddhism never got rid of them, and in Mongolian they are also called by the word тэнгэр, or the Tibetan loanword лха (lha, prounced la).

Painting of a бурхан.

A Buddha [4] is anyone who has become enlightened and thus gained freedom from karma and the cycle of birth, death and rebirth (samsara), and supposedly lots of other powers as well. When a Buddha dies, he enters a state called nirvana and is never born again. The historical Siddhartha Gautama is one example, but there is theoretically an infinite number of Buddhas. Like devas, they didn’t create the universe. But being a Buddha is actually better than being a deva, because devas, no matter how powerful, are still bound by the chains of karma. In fact, Buddhas are known as the teachers of gods, as well as men. Thus in Mongolian the Buddha is also called Бурхан багш (Burhan bagsh), "God-teacher."

Bodhisattvas are Buddhas-to-be. In Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Bodhisattvas have become as important as Buddhas, because of their special dedication to enlightening other beings. They take a vow to postpone their own entrance into Nirvana in order to help others find enlightenment too.

Another бурхан at Tsonjin Boldog

Today most Mongolians follow the Gelugpa "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, which is headed by the Dalai Lama. Both Buddhas and Boddhisattvas are commonly referred to as Бурхан, and Buddhism itself is usually called Бурханы Шашин (Burhany Shashin), "God's Religion." Technically, they aren’t gods in the western sense. The historical Buddha never asked anyone to worship him and denied that he was a god. But in practice, most Buddhists around the world pray to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in a way that people from any religion would recognize. Mongolians keep icons of Buddhas in a гүнгэрваа (güngervaa) on the хоймор (hoimor) in their gers, light зул (zul) in front of them, and make offerings of food to them.

One more thing. What do you call the Christian God? Mongolian Christians call Him Бурхан. They also use the word Эзэн, meaning “Lord.” Referring to the three persons, the Father is Эцэг (Etseg), the Son is Есүс Христ (Yesüs Hrist) or Бурханы Хүү (Burhany Hüü, "God's son"), and the Holy Spirit is Ариун Сүнс (Ariun Süns). However, the naming is apparently controversial. For more, I recommend this interesting little article: "Case Study: Translating God in Mongolia."

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Notes

1. From Otgony PUREV's Mongolian Shamanism, fifth edition (ISBN 99929-0-239-6).
   
2. Also from Mongolian Shamanism, specifically page 82.
   
3. Watkins, Calvert, The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, second edition. These words are also related to the names Zeus (king of the Greek gods), *Tiwwaz (the Germanic god who gave his name to Tuesday), and daevas (the demons of Zoroastrianism). All of these words go back to a reconstructed Indo-European root *dyeu- "sky, heaven, god." There is a lot of information and theorizing about this word.
4. Buddha and Bodhisattva, both Sanskrit words, also go back to an Indo-European root - in this case *bheudh- "to be aware, make aware." Same source as Note #3.
   

Mongolian Words of the Week #61 and #62: Унах and Унах

Унах and Унах

The thin line between riding and falling

Cyrillic	унах		унах
Transcription	unah		unah
IPA	[ˈʊ.nǝx]		[ˈʊ.nǝx]
Layman’s Pronunciation	OO-nukh		OO-nukh
Translation	ride		fall
In Genghis Khan’s time it was unuqu...			...and unaqu.

Today's Mongolian word of the week is two: унах and ... унах! Yes, the Mongolian language has two verbs both called унах.  Унах means "ride," while унах means "fall." If you look at the Mongolian script versions though, you'll notice that they are spelled differently, because the traditional script reflects an older form of Mongolian. Back in Genghis Khan's time, "ride" was unuqu, and "fall" was unaqu, differing by only one sound. Over the next eight hundred years, they fell together, becoming identical. [1]

So how does Mongolian tell "riding" apart from "falling"? There are certain things - horses, for example - that can be ridden and fallen off of, so this could clearly be a problem. How do they do it? (If you've already read Mongolian Word of the Week #53: Морь, then you may already know the answer. If so, shhh!)

The answer is in the way these verbs affect other words in the sentence. Think about how those verbs work in English. You would say "I rode a horse," but "I fell off a horse." Now let's look at the equivalent sentences in Mongolian.

        Би морь унасан. (Bi mori unasan.) "I rode a horse."
        Би мориноос унасан. (Bi morinoos unasan.) "I fell off a horse."

The difference is in the word for "horse." In the sentence "I fell off a horse," морь "horse" adds the ending -оос. [2] "Horse" is now in the ablative case, which means "from," "off" or "out of." Instead of a separate word, Mongolian uses a suffix.

A fanciful rendition of унах "ride" in traditional Mongolian script

Riding

The verb "ride" is the basis for other words such as унаа (unaa), "a ride." Many times when I was planning to leave town for Ulaanbaatar, other teachers would ask me, "Унаа олсон уу?" (Unaa olson uu), "Have you found a ride?"

Another word that is becoming very important is унаач (unaach) "rider, jockey," because of the growing debate over унаач хүүхэд (unaach hüühed), or child jockeys. Mongolian child jockeys compete in dangerous races, but many of them are uninsured and do not have protective gear. Some have been seriously injured, or even killed.

Although I have no evidence, I've always wondered if унах is related to унага (unaga), the word for a foal or baby horse.

Унах "fall" in Mongolian script

Falling

"Fall" has several extended uses, among the most important of which is "fail" - a usage I am quite aware of. It was not uncommon for bad students to have шалгалтад унасан (shalgaltad unasan, "fallen (failed) in an exam.") Perhaps it seems natural to people whose lives depend on horses to equate falling off with failure.

It may seem strange that Mongolian would say the same thing for "ride" and "fall," but it just goes to show how much ambiguity language can put up with. All languages have ambiguity due to same-sounding words, but manage to work with it. In Mongolian, the words around help distinguish "ride" and "fall." What ambiguities does English get by with?

Sentences

Би морь унасан. Тэгээд мориноос унасан.
I rode a horse. Then I fell off the horse.

Унаа олсон уу?
(Unaa olson uu)
Have you found a ride?

Эрхэм гишүүд ээ, унаач хүүхдийн амь насыг хамгаалсан хуулиа хэзээ батлах гэж байна вэ?
Members of Parliament, when will you approve the law to protect the lives of child jockeys?
(http://mnb.mn/p/4241)

Шалгалтад унасан эмнэлгийн дарга нар хэн бэ?
Who are the directors of the hospitals that failed the test?
(http://www.news.mn/content/141510.shtml)

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Notes

1. In a common change in Khalkh Mongolian, one of the u's in unuqu became an a, making both words identical.
2. The ablative case suffix can also be -аас, -ээс, or -өөс depending on the vowel in front of it, because of the rules of vowel harmony. The word морь is also a "hidden N" stem noun, which is why the -н- shows up suddenly in front of the -оос.

MWW 60: Барих

Wrestling: "Grabbing Each Other" in Mongolian

Cyrillic	барих	bErieeO
Transcription	barih
IPA	['pærʲɪx]
Layman’s Pronunciation	BARE-ikh
Translation	1. hold, grip, grab, keep 2. put together, build
In Genghis Khan’s time it was bariqu.

Last week in Mongolian Word of the Week #59: Бөх ("wrestler"), I mentioned that wrestling itself is called барилдаан (barildaan). Барилдаан is ultimately derived from the Mongolian verb барих, (barih) meaning to "hold," "grip," "grab," or "keep" something. Getting from барих to барилдаан is an interesting demonstration of what Mongolian verbs can do, but first let me say something about verbal voice.

English and most European languages have an active voice and a passive voice: the active is when the subject does something to something else, and the passive is when the subject gets something done to it. Mongolian has a richer array of voices. In addition to active and passive, it has a reciprocal voice. The reciprocal means two or more people do things to each other. Often, it has a tone of competition or conflict - just like wrestling.

The reciprocal voice is marked with the suffix -лд-. Inserted into бариx, you get барилдах (barildah) "wrestle." Since барих is "grab," барилдах is basically "grab each other." (Isn't wrestling mostly an exalted form of grabbing?) The final step is to add the suffix -аан, which turns the verb барилдах "wrestle" into the noun барилдаан "wrestling." [1]

Hold on: more about барих

You can also мацаг барих (observe a fast), холбоо барих (keep in touch), зай барих (keep at a distance), and биеэ барих (control your temper). Among the many things that Mongolians барих is the жолоо (joloo) "steering wheel," and by extension the entire машин (mashin) "car." So one day while riding across the steppe the driver asked me,

Та машин барьж чадах уу?
Ta mashin barij chadah uu?
Can you drive (hold) a car?

To which I answered "Тийм, Америкийн Нэгдсэн Улсад" (Yes, in the United States).

Барих has a secondary meaning of "put together, build." As such, Mongolians talk about гэр барих, "building a home." (By the way, remember to check out my look at how a Mongolian home, or гэр, is taken apart and put together!) Hence the common word for "building, construction," барилга (barilga).

Барих is an extremely common, useful, and productive verb. Other than барилдах and барилдаан, it has given birth to many other words, such as

• бариул (bariul) "handle"
• баривчилгаа (barivchilgaa) "an arrest"
• бариач (bariach) "chiropractor, masseuse"
• баригдашгүй (barigdashgüi) "elusive"
• баригдмал (barigdmal) "constricted" - баригдмал үзэл "constricted worldview"
  
• барьцаа (baritsaa) "money that you put down: stock, security, collateral, advance, guarantee, wager, deposit bond" and many other uses in finance.

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Notes

1. Mongolian verbs are usually cited in the dictionary in the form ending in -х. However, suffixes are not added to this form, but to the stem, and to get the stem you must remove -х. Thus the stem of барих is бари- and the stem of барилдах is барилд-.
   

MWW 59: Бөх

Little boy in a wrestler's outfit, or зодог (zodog)

Cyrillic	бөх	BikEt
Transcription	böh
IPA	[pɵx]
Layman’s Pronunciation	BOOKH
Meaning	1. wrestler 2. strong, firm
In Genghis Khan’s time it was böke.

Наадам (Naadam) is coming, so it's time for wrestlers. Wrestling is probably the most popular sport in Mongolia, and бөх is the Mongolian word for wrestler. Western-style wrestlers are called чөлөөт бөх (chölööt böh), "free wrestler." Western-style wrestling is important in Mongolia too, evidenced by С.Батцэцэг (S. Battsetseg), who won an Olympic medal in 2012. [1] Practitioners of judo and sumo wrestling can also be called бөх, and Mongolians excel at sumo too. (Ever heard of Asashōryu? His real, Mongolian, name is Дагвадорж (Dagvadorj).)  But by itself бөх refers especially to wrestlers in Mongolia's own national style of wrestling.

High school boys wrestling. Wrestling is a popular activity for boys all over the country. It doesn't require any fancy equipment - you already have it. Wrestling can happen anytime, and anywhere. (Even in the classroom, unfortunately.)

The activity that wrestlers engage in is called барилдаан (barildaan). They wear a distinctive tight outfit called a зодог (zodog) and attack each other with various мэх (meh, techniques). If they're successful, they get a цол (tsol, title, rank), and someone will sing their praises, known as цол дуудах (tsol duudah).

Бөх is also an adjective meaning "strong, firm, fast, hard," often together with бат (bat), which means practically the same thing. In fact, Бөхбат and Батбөх are also common names. I'm not sure whether the adjectival or nominal meaning is original. But one can talk about a бөх уяа (böh uyaa) "tight knot" [2], бөх бат хана (böh bat hana) "sturdy wall," and even a бөх нойр (böh noir) "sound sleep." [3] In general, strength, reliability, and endurance - all qualities of a good wrestler - may be called бөх чанар (böh chanar) or бат бөх байдал (bat böh baidal).

A victorious wrestler at a local Наадам (Naadam) shows does a victory dance, showing off his sequined зодог jacket.

Дүүгийн холбоо ураг төрлийнхөөс илүү бөх.
(Düügiin holboo urag törliinhöös ilüü böh.)
"A younger brother's relationship is stronger than a relative's." (i.e., "Blood is thicker than water.")

Бөөгийн хэрэгсэл ламд гай
Бөхийн зодог эхнэрт лай
Бурхан тахил чөтгөрт дараа
Буу саадаг чавганцад төвөг

A witch's wares are anathema to a priest
A wrestler's shirt is a nuisance to a wife
A god's prayer is trouble to a demon
A gun and shells are useless to granny [4]

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1. By the way, she's from my town. A famous traditional wrestler from my town is Ч.Санжаадамба (Ch. Sanjaadamba).
2. While this may be in the dictionary, in my extensive experience with knots, I have always heard чанга уяа (changa uyaa) "tight knot."
3. Böh noir makes me imagine a black and white movie about jaded detectives looking for Mongolian wrestlers in the shadowy alleys of the UB ger districts.
   
4. By Р.Чойном (R. Choinom), my translation. A бөө isn't really a witch, but it fits the alliteration better.
   

MWW 58: Зун

Cyrillic	зун	Joa
Transcription	zun
IPA	[tsʊŋ]
Layman’s Pronunciation	DZOONG
Meaning	summer
In Genghis Khan’s time it was jun.

Summer and the Solstice

Today is the summer solstice for 2015, so happy summer! - to the Americans at least. In Mongolia, it has already been summer for quite awhile.

In the U.S. we are used to thinking of summer as starting on the summer solstice (June 20 or 21) and lasting until the autumn equinox (September 20 or 21). If you asked an American, he would probably say the summer months were June, July, and August.

In Mongolia, the school's summer vacation зуны амралт (zuny amralt, summer vacation) runs exactly from June 1 to September 1. Nevertheless, if you asked a Mongolian, he still might say the summer months were May, June, and July, instead of June, July and August. This might be the reason a Mongolian man once told me that summer ended after Наадам (July 11-14: see here).

Even though we chose an astronomical event (the solstice) to begin summer, we chose somewhat arbitrarily. There is a succession of “landmarks” on the journey through the year, and different cultures have different ones that they find useful as signposts for the seasons. The way Mongolians have traditionally viewed the division of the year, the summer solstice marks the middle of summer, not the beginning.

Are you summering well?

Mongolians have several greetings tailored to the seasons. For summer, there's

Сайхан зусч байна уу? (Saihan zusch baina uu?)

which is pronounced rather like "SAKH-ung DZOO-such BAN oo?" and which may be translated as "Are you summering well?" To which the proper response is

Сайхан зусч байна. (Saihan zusch baina.) - I am summering well.

The зусч part here comes from the verb зусах (zusah) "to spend or pass the summer," and зусах is made from зун, with the N disappearing in front of the verb-making suffix -с (-s).

Transliterating Mongolian

History books, travel guides, and text messages all spell words differently

In English, Mongolian words may be spelled differently from source to source. This has to do with with transliteration. Standard Khalkha Mongolian is written in the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet, but English is written in the Roman alphabet, and most English speakers don't know Cyrillic. Transliteration is the process of taking something written in one alphabet and rewriting it in another alphabet. Transliterating into the Roman alphabet is also called Romanization.

Transliteration is usually done according to a system, and in many countries there is one official transliteration system. For example, Pinyin is mandated by the Chinese government for spelling standard Mandarin. In the absence of that, usually a group of professors will hold a conference and make their own system. Sometimes both happen, and you get competing systems. Chinese used to have the Wade-Giles Romanization system, although Pinyin has kind of killed it at this point.

Mongolian doesn't actually have either; there is no "official" way of writing Mongolian words in English. But in my experience there are three major non-official "trends" in the way I see Mongolian words spelled, which I will call "Academic," "Travel Guide," and "Text Message."

To get an idea of the way they look, here is a verse of the Mongolian national anthem written in several different ways:

Cyrillic	Өндөр төрийн минь сүлд ивээж Өргөн түмний минь заяа түшиж Үндэс язгуур, хэл соёлоо Үрийн үрдээ өвлөн бадраая
"Academic"	Öndör törijn min' süld iveež Örgön tümnij min' zajaa tüšiž Ündes jazguur, hel sojoloo Ürijn ürdee övlön badraaja
"Travelguide"	Ondor turin min suld ivej Orgon tumni min zaya tushij Undes yazgur, khel soyolo Urin urde ovlon badraya
"Text message"	Undr tur.n mn svld iwej Urgn tvmni mn zya tvshj Vnds yzgur xel soylo Vr.n vrde uwln badray

Quite different, right? But why? Because languages and alphabets are different, compromises have to be made between things like accuracy and convenience. You may have guessed already how some of these systems made the choice.

"Academic"

"Academic" refers to the typical way of writing words in serious books about Mongolia, which contain footnotes and are written by people who know about Mongolia, for people who know about Mongolia. They generally follow conventions for how Russian words get transliterated. Wiktionary uses a version of this.

"Academic" transliterations are based on the transliteration system used for Russian names, with the exception of ö and ü for ө and ү. (Ө and ү were added to Cyrillic to spell vowels that are found in Mongolian, but not Russian.)  They try to consistently match one English letter to each letter in the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet. This isn’t easy, since the Mongolian alphabet has more letters than the English one, so diacritics (“letters with hats”) are used, like the two dots above ö and ü. They also take care to show long vowels by writing the the vowel twice.

"Travelguide"

"Travelguide" refers to the casual way words get written in travel guide books, news articles, and other stuff which is aimed at a general audience, and doesn’t usually include footnotes. It's less accurate than the first type, but more convenient, because the English letters used are usually pronounced kind of similar to the Cyrillic letters.

"Travelguide" spelling usually spells words with letters that have a similar sound in English to the Mongolian word. For example they write the letter 'y' in words that have a 'y' sound. In many formal works, this sound is spelled with a 'j.' Seeing this, Americans might mispronounce the word.

"Travelguide" transliteration makes concessions to the average English-speaking dude, who is too lazy to deal with things that don’t look English, like long vowels or “letters with hats.” It doesn't do this consistently though, even in the same book, so sometimes you see double vowels, sometimes you don't. So some accuracy is sacrificed for the convenience of people with only 2 weeks to take their vacation.

"Text-Message"

Both of the above types are for the benefit of English readers. But Mongolians have developed their own way of writing to each other in Roman letters, because most cellphones don't have Mongolian keypads. I call this "text-message" style. You also see this in Facebook posts. Lots of Mongolian students spell their names this way too, which confuses foreigners because often it looks different from the way the foreigners think the name should be spelled.

"Text message" transliteration is a different animal altogether, which values extreme conciseness. Mongolian text messages, like American ones, abbreviate ruthlessly. Mongolian text-messages go further than the guidebook version by eliminating most short vowels completely. Often only the first vowel in a word will be spelled. The vowels may be written out for emphasis (like when they don’t think the American will understand what they’re writing).

Luckily, it's often easy to guess what's missing, because restrictions on Mongolian syllable structure usually tell you where short vowels will be, and vowel harmony tells you what vowel will be there. It works so well, in fact, that in Mongolian’s sister language Kalmyk, even standard spelling works this way.

A lot of people will write text messages in their own idiosyncratic ways. For example, Cyrillic letter х is written as x, h, or kh by different people. However, some odd spellings are nearly universal, such as using English letter v to spell Cyrillic letter ү.

Conclusion

This is not an exhaustive comparison, of course, because none of these systems are official. I’ve seen some books that use their own systems. Speakers of Korean, Japanese, and European languages also the Latin alphabet differently to write Mongolian. Nor will I get into the way that traditional Mongolian script is transliterated, which is very different, because it reflects the Mongolian language of 800 years ago. But hopefully I’ve covered it enough that you won’t be lost as to why some names are spelled different ways.

It's also common to mix systems. Lots of books take a middle road between the extremes of "academic" and "travelguide" spelling. This is the way I write words on this blog. I care about accuracy, so I take care to write long vowels with two vowels, and distinguish o, u, ö and ü. However, I prefer letters that suggest the closest English sound, so I write manai instead of manaj for манай. But just in case, I always include the Cyrillic spelling anyway, so anyone who wants to be really sure what the word is can check!

Update August 12, 2015

Running around the web, I've run into another little article about transcribing Mongolian here:

The Transliteration and Transcription of Mongolian

He talks about dialects other than the Khalkha dialect (the one used in the independent country of Mongolia), and is more concerned with transliterating Mongolian script, but he does mention the mess there is of inconsistent systems.

Khöshöö Tsaidam / Хөшөө Цайдам

Khashaat's Ruins Evoke Ancient Memories

Exterior of the museum, with Japanese visitors

Khöshöö Tsaidam (Mongolian, Хөшөө Цайдам) - the nearly 1300-yea-old remains of a steppe empire - is the most famous place in Khashaat sum. However, it's far from the village part of Khashaat, hence it requires a special trip. I never ran into it just going about my business. I paid it a visit it last year on April 11, and although I'm a little late (April 17) now, in this blog's current spirit of "This Day in [the] History [of My Time in Mongolia]," let's look at Khöshöö Tsaidam, one of the archaeological treasures of Mongolia.

Poster in my school. It reads, "The Turkic-era memorial complex at Khöshöö Tsaidam, and several artifacts."

Khöshöö Tsaidam is also admired outside Khashaat: This poster is from a series of posters of famous Mongolian places that covered the walls of a classroom in Tsetserleg.

Bilge Khan and the Göktürk Empire

Modern Turkish is the best known of the Turkic languages, but it was spread to the land now called Turkey by invasion from Central Asia. There are many other Turkic languages spoken Central and Northern Asia, and in fact, the Turks may have originated in Western Mongolia near the Altai Mountains. While China was ruled by the Tang Dynasty, most of the lands to its north were part of the Second Turkic Khaganate. This vast nomadic conglomerate was led by the Göktürks or "Blue Turks" (Mongolian: Хөх Түрэг / Höh Türeg), and in the 8th century the Blue Turks were led by Bilge Khagan (Билэг хаан, 683? - 734 A.D.), with the help of his brother and military commander, Kultegin (Көлтэгин / Культегин / Күлтэгин, died 731).

In addition to accomplishing many things politically and militarily, Bilge Khan liked to boast about his accomplishments. To this end, he erected two stele in the valley of the Orkhon river. The stele describe his and his brother's achievements in a bilingual inscription in Orkhon runes and Chinese characters. Those runes (together with a few other inscriptions from the same time) are the oldest writing in any Turkic language.

Билгэ хааны тахилын онгон - "Bilge Khan's sacrificial idol"

How Bilge Khan's monument would have looked in the 8th century

The Turkic Empire soon crumbled, and its monuments were also left to crumble for hundreds of years. The site of these ruins became known in the Mongolian language as Хөшөө Цайдам (variously transliterated as Khöshöö Tsaidam, Khushuu Tsaidam, or Koshu Tsaidam). In the 19th century they were found by Russian explorers, and translated by the Danish linguist Vilhelm Thomsen. Along with other remains of ancient kingdoms scattered along the Orkhon river, Khöshöö Tsaidam was inscribed in UNESCO's world heritage list in 2004 as part of the "Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape" (Орхон хөндийн соёлын дурсгал) [1]. The museum was established in 2011 - just weeks after I arrived in Mongolia (although I didn't know it yet!) [2]

Headless stone men?

Bilge Khan's crown

The Museum

April 11, 2014 fell during the Mongolian secondary school's spring break, and I was at site, with nothing to do. When my JICA friends from Kharhorin told me they were going to visit Khöshöö Tsaidam and Ögii Lake and asked if I wanted to come, off I went.

When I was invited to Mongolia by Peace Corps and read about archaeological finds in Mongolia, I orignally imagined some broad lonely field with decayed stone brushed by the wind. I wondered whether I should bring tracing paper to make my own rubbings, as past archaeologists have done. I soon realized I had a fat chance of actually touching them - the ruins are in a museum now, of course.

Хар бэхээр зурсан зураг бүхий дээврийн ваар - black ink-drawing on a roof tile

The museum features many small artifacts from that time period, but the centerpiece, of course, is the inscribed steles. Orkhon writing is often referred to as "runes" due to its resemblance to the runes used by the Germanic peoples (and Tolkien's dwarves!), but they arose independently of each other. The sharp, narrow character of Orkhon runes is due to their use in decorating steles like Bilge Khan's. Cutting stone is hard and it's much easier to make straight lines. Around the world, stone-carved scripts tend to be angular and brush-written scripts tend to be curvier. That is not as interesting though, as the fact that apparently Orkhon were sometimes read from the bottom up [3].

One of Bilge Khan's monuments

Having seen them in person, I realize Khöshöö Tsaidam had been interesting to me long before I even knew what it was. When I was a child and beginning to be interested in language, I read an old, fat book about the history of writing around the world. Although I did not remember the name "Khöshöö Tsaidam," I remembered "Orkhon Turkish runes" and a page with a facsimile of them. How strange to think that now I was living next to something I had remembered from a book years ago.

Narrow, angular "runes" on the face of the stela

I took photos of the entire surface of the stele shown above in case I ever had the chance, and knowledge, to interpret it, but it turned out I didn't need to. Passing a tiny merchandise stand on our way out, I saw the book shown below, Хөх Түрүгийн Бичиг by Д. Баатар. The book featured a complete transcription, transliteration, and translation (into Mongolian) of the steles. This being a museum gift shop, it cost almost $30 ... but the book was right there right then and I didn't know if I would ever see it again, so ... of course I bought it!

Read more on this blog about the word хөшөө in the next Mongolian Word of the Week!

More Reading

• "The Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape" - the official listing on UNESCO's site for the World Heritage site which contains Khöshöö Tsaidam.
  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1081
• "Хөшөө цайдам дахь дурсгалууд" - for those who can read Mongolian
  http://orkhon-valley.mn/mn/Хөшөө цайдам дахь дурсгалууд.html
• "Orkhon / Old Turkic alphabet and runes" - an explanation of the writing system found on Bilge Khan's monuments
  http://www.omniglot.com/writing/orkhon.htm
• Khöshöö Tsaidam on Google Maps
  https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?msa=0&mid=zg239fH_qHNM.kUOJg1IueQCc.

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Notes

1. See UNESCO's site for the Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1081.
   
2. June 27th, 2011, according to the news article "Хөшөө цайдам музейн нээлт боллоо" at http://www.mecs.gov.mn/mod/print/index.php?id=635 (in Mongolian).
   
3. This odd writing direction (unique as far as I know of the world's languages) is mentioned on the Omniglot page (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/orkhon.htm). However, from reading my book on the inscriptions - Хөх Түрүгийн Бичиг (The Göktürk Script) by D. Baatar, it seems clear that Bilge Khan's inscription at least does not work this way.
   

MWW 55: Гэрлэх

Cyrillic	гэрлэх
Transcription	gerleh
IPA	[ˈker.ɬɪx]
Layman’s Pronunciation	GAIR-hlekh
Translation	to marry
In Genghis Khan’s time it was gerlekü.

It’s October now, and that means it’s time to get married! Fall, especially October, is peak season for weddings in Mongolia. In honor of that, this week’s (year’s?) word is the word for “marry.”

Before talking about the word of the week itself, I’d like to introduce you to a neat little suffix, -ла/-лэ/-ло/-лө (depending on vowel harmony), which is Mongolian’s all-purpose verb-forming suffix. This highly versatile and productive morpheme turns nouns or adjectives into verbs. You’ve already encountered this, actually, in the words баярлалаа (see баяр) and овоолох (see овоо). In many cases the meaning is fairly obvious from the root.

ажил, “job” à ажиллах, “to work”

найз, “friend” à найзлах, “to make friends”

хайр, “love” à хайрлах, “to love”

цэвэр, “clean, pure” à цэвэрлэх, “to clean”

In some cases, it’s less obvious. For example,

баяр, “joy, party, holiday” à баярлалаа, “to rejoice” à баярлалаа, “thank you”

Literally, баярлалаа means “I have just rejoiced,” with the suffix -лаа/-лээ/-лоо/-лөө indicating the immediate past - but most of the time it’s just a polite phrase. Another example is the verb for marrying.

гэр, “home” à гэрлэх, “to get married”

This is not strange if you know Spanish. In Spanish casarse “to marry” is clearly related to casa “house.” But for the English speakers, it may not be obvious. In Khashaat, couples generally got their own ger or house when they got married, and had the wedding in the house. So “home” and “marry” are very closely linked.

Another term for marriage is гэр бүл болох (ger bül boloh), literally “become a family.” You all should already know гэр “ger,” which refers to a yurt, and more generally, any “home.” Бүл (bül) means a “relative” or “family member.” However, I don’t hear бүл by itself much. Usually I only see it as part of гэр бүл, which means “family.” In fact, this expression matches the American idea of a nuclear family very well: a husband and wife and their children, who all live together in one home.

Another expression I hear a lot is хүнтэй суух (hüntei suuh). Хүн is “person,” and -тай/-тэй/-той is the comitative case suffix, meaning “with.” Суух is “sit,” but in a more general sense “settle” or “be established.” Literally the phrase is “to sit with a person,” and figuratively it means “marry somebody.”

A common question that Mongolians ask when they meet people is, Та гэрлэсэн үү, “Are you married?” This could also be Чи гэрлэсэн үү if they’re talking to someone younger than them. The ending -сан/-сэн/-сон/-сөн corresponds to the English past tense or present perfect tense. There are also gender-specific expressions. You can ask a man, Эхнэртэй болсон уу, literally “Have you become with a wife?” or Эхнэр авсан уу, literally “Have you gotten / taken a wife?” Эхнэр means wife. For a woman, you can ask, Нөхөртэй болсон уу, “Have you become with a husband?” Нөхөр means husband.

If you wanted to marry a Mongolian, you would ask Надтай гэрлэх үү, “Will you marry me?” Remember the comitative case? Надтай “with me” is the comitative case for the first-person singular (‘I, me’) pronoun. In Mongolia, you get married “with” somebody, not “to” somebody.