MWW 12: Сар

Cyrillic	сар
Transcription	sar
IPA	[sar]
Layman’s Pronunciation	SAHR
Translation	month; moon
In Genghis Khan’s time it was sar-a.

There are twelve months in a year, and coincidentally “month” is the twelfth word in my series of Mongolian words.

It’s not uncommon for the words “moon” and “month” to be the same in many languages. In fact, the English words “moon” and “month” are closely related - but you probably guessed from the fact that they share most of the same letters. Japanese spells both with the character 月, but pronounces it differently when talking about the moon (tsuki) or about a month (gatsu/getsu). But that’s only because it borrowed gatsu/getsu from Chinese. I presume that before that tsuki was used to mean month as well.

Сар appears in the names of all the months:

Нэг сар           January

Хоёр сар        February

Гурван сар    March

Дөрвөн сар    April

Таван сар      May

Зургаан сар   June

Долоон сар    July

Найман сар   August

Есөн сар        September

Арван сар     October

Арван нэгэн сар       November

Арван хоёр сар         December

Incidentally, I just gave you the numbers one through twelve - in their attributive forms, at least. The months also have traditional names using the 12 animals of the zodiac.

Хулгана сар   mouse month

Үхэр сар         cow month

Бар сар           tiger month

Туулай сар     rabbit month

Луу сар          dragon month

Могой сар     snake month

Морь сар       horse month

Хонь сар        sheep month

Бич сар          monkey month

Тахиа сар       chicken month

Нохой сар      snake month

Гахай сар       pig month

Сар is a popular element in names as well - all girls’ names, as far as I know. Here are some examples:

Сарантуяа    “Moonbeam”
Сарангэрэл   “Moonlight”
Саранчимэг  “Moon adornment”

In each of these examples, the -ан- is what is sometimes called the “n-stem” or the “hidden n,” which usually appears in certain oblique cases, or when the noun is used attributively (as in the names above). Some nouns have it, some don’t. You just have to memorize it as you go, because I have yet to see a Mongolian dictionary that tells you which nouns have hidden ns.

More:

бал сар            honeymoon (a literal translation)

нар сар            a pumpkin ("sun moon"?)   

There's also сар шувуу "a buzzard," which I thought meant moon bird, but it turns out a сар with a different etymology means "buzzard" by itself, and the шувуу (literally bird) may have been added to remove the ambiguity.

Цагаан Сар хоёр сарт болдог.
Tsagaan Sar hoyor sart boldog.
[ts^ha’ga:n sar xɔjǝr sart^h pɔɬtǝk]
tsa-GAHNG sahr HOY-er sart BOL-duck.
White month two month.DATIVE become.HABITUAL.
Tsagaan Sar happens in February.