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.

Since Mongolian is very agglutinative, and forms most new words by tacking strings of suffixes onto the end, it should come as no surprise that the word for "school" is closely related to the word for "study, learn." English also uses suffixes to build words, though to a lesser degree. One of the beauties of using suffixes to form many words from a single root is that words with similar meanings often have similar forms. Thus, while in English the words learn, teach, school, training, and student have several different roots, even someone unfamiliar with Mongolian could guess that the words сурах, сургах, сургууль, сургалт, and сурагч are related. [1] All of them share the root сур-. [2] This bare root, сур-, is also the imperative (command) form of сурах:

Сур, сур, бас дахин сур! - Study, study, and study again!

Cyrillic	сурах	IMG
Transcription	surah
IPA	[ˈsʊr.ǝx]
Layman’s Pronunciation	SOOR-ukh
Translation	study, learn
In Genghis Khan’s time it was surqu.

Note that сурах means both "study" and "learn." While making inferences from language to cultural mindset can be risky business, I can't help but wonder if conflating "study" and "learn" reinforces Mongolian attitudes toward learning. Compared to U.S. schools, in Mongolia learning and school are closely associated with the rote-work method of learning. [3] The same root word is also applied to training animals. Thus, students would often tell me that they had already "learned" some material, because it had appeared in a previous lesson and they had written notes about it, even if I could prove that they didn't remember it and couldn't use it. In my mind, they may have "studied" it, but they hadn't "learned" anything. As I told them, I believe that "learning" is the result of "studying" (or at least, the result we hope for). Alternatively, "studying" is the method you use to learn.

Learning Together

In America, things are often renamed to give them a fresh feel. Cooperative learning is also becoming important. The same is true in Mongolia. The best example of this is the words сурагч (suragch) and суралцагч (suraltsagch). Сурагч is the word for student, made from сур- by adding the suffix -гч, meaning "one who does something." Thus сурагч means "one who studies" - a student. As a teacher I heard this word many, many times every day. But one day the school put up a new poster. While reading it I noticed the word суралцагч. Although I could guess what it meaned, I asked another teacher about the word. She told me it was the same thing as сурагч - a student.

Суралцагч is made up of the same parts as сурагч, but between сур- and -гч is another suffix, -лц-. Basically, -лц- means to do something cooperatively, or to help someone do something. So if сур- is "learn," суралц- is "help each other learn," and суралцагч means "one(s) who help each other learn." So, basically a student. But according to the teacher, the Ministry of Education likes суралцагч because it sounds friendlier, like everyone is in it together.

More Related Words

Сурах is a very useful verb, and the basis of numerous other Mongolian words, including the ones below:

СУР- (root) study, learn, train, become used to

• сурах - to study, to learn
  
• сурах бичиг - textbook
• сурдаг - docent
• сурсан - used to...
• суралц- - learn (cooperatively)
  
• суралцагч - student
• сурга- - teach, train
  
• сургаал - commandment, instruction
• сургалт - training
• сургамж - lesson
• сургамжит үг
• сургасан - trained
• сурлага - studies, education
• сурц - learning
  
• сурцын муруй - learning curve

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Notes

1. Although сургах means teach, Mongolians usually say заах, a word that also means "point to."
   
2. This should not to be confused with the other word сур, which refers to the leather cylinders used as targets in Mongolian archery (нум сум).
   
3. Many people have told me this is a result of the Soviet model of education.