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 #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.

The Twelve Animals of the Zodiac

Or, Camel vs. Mouse

It's almost time for the Цагаан Сар (Tsagaan Sar), the old Mongolian New Year, so it's soon going to become the Модон Хонины Жил (Modon Honiny Jil), or the Year of the Wooden Sheep. In America the twelve-year cycle of animals is often called the Chinese Zodiac or Chinese Horoscope, but it is found far beyond China. The practice of twelve-year cycles with animals presiding over each of the years is found not only in Sinosphere nations like Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, but also among the Thai, Tibetans, Kazakhs, ancient Persians, and even the ancient Bulgars.

These far-spread cultures use much the same assemblage of beasts, but here and there they swap one animal for another. Instead of the rabbit, the Vietnamese have the cat,¹ and instead of the tiger, the Kazakhs have the snow leopard. More bizarrely, the Kazakhs also replaced the dragon with the snail.²

Of course, this system is used in Mongolia too. The cycle for the Mongolians is:

1. хулгана (hulgana) - mouse
2. үхэр (üher) - cattle
3. бар (bar) - tiger
4. туулай (tuulai) - rabbit
5. луу (luu) - dragon
6. могой (mogoi) - snake
7. морь (mori) - horse
8. хонь (honi) - sheep
9. бич (bich) - ape
10. тахиа (tahia) - chicken
11. нохой (nohoi) - dog
12. гахай (gahai) - pig

The practice of naming years after animals predates history. Throughout Chinese history, Chinese scholars have not even been sure that the practice is Chinese. In fact, some suggested that the practice was borrowed from the nomads to the north!³ While the actual origin of the practice is a mystery, it has not stopped people from coming up with their own stories about it - usually involving a god or Buddha judging animals. The Mongolians are no exception. The following little story is the explanation I heard in Mongolia.

The Mouse, the Camel, and the Twelve-Year Cycle

Once upon a time the Buddha decided to assign names to the years of the 12-year cycle and called a conference of animals. Thirteen species applied for the twelve positions available. After assigning animals to eleven years, it came down to the camel and the mouse. The Buddha couldn't decide between them, so he proposed a tie-breaker: Whoever saw the morning sunlight first would get a year named after him. The next day, the camel faced east and stretched his neck to see as far to the horizon as he could. The mouse, however, climbed on the camel's back and faced west. While the camel was still waiting for the sun, the mouse saw the sunlight strike the peaks of the western mountains and cried out.⁴ Thus the mouse won, and he got a place in the zodiac instead of the camel. However the Buddha decided to give the camel a consolation prize. He declared that the camel would have:

1. a mouse's ears
2. a cow's stomach
3. a tiger's paws
4. a rabbit's nose
5. a dragon's body
6. a snakes eyes
7. a horse's mane (albeit underneath his neck)
8. a sheep's wool
9. an ape's hump
10. a rooster's crest
11. a dog's legs
12. and a pig's tail

I don't personally see the resemblances, but who am I to question the Buddha? Anyway, the camel, so gifted with the attributes of all twelve of the other animals, thus represents the whole twelve-year cycle.

Happy Tsagaan Sar! Сайхан шинэлээрэй!

---

1. “Year of the Cat,” http://www.viethoroscope.com/year-of-the-cat/. Accessed Feb 16, 2015.
2. Kazakh zodiac: “Architect tells story behind Almaty’s renowned fountain,” (Foster, Hal - http://www.universalnewswires.com/centralasia/viewstory.aspx?id=2278. Accessed Feb 16, 2015) and "The historical information of the architectural complex" (http://www.library.kz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=214&Itemid=49. Accessed Feb 16, 2015). Interestingly, the words for dragon or snail in several languages sound similar. Kazakh ұлу (ulw) and Kyrgyz  үлүл (ülül) mean "snail," while Chinese (Mandarin) lóng, Kyrgyz улу (ulu), and Mongolian луу (luu) mean "dragon." Mongolian has water spirits named лус (lus), and Tibetan has water spirits named klu which are snake-like (more info at James Alvarez's "The Klu: Their Roles Within the Shamanic and Buddhist Contexts," https://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/relb2054_jea6c/2010/11/06/the-klu-their-roles-within-the-shamanic-and-buddhist-contexts/). Note that Mongolian луу and лус must be borrowed because native words almost never begin with L. So there may be some secret connection between snails and dragons. Or maybe the snail took advantage of phonetic confusion to usurp the dragon. Those clever snails! (For your curiosity, the Mongolian word for snail is эмгэн хумс, "old woman fingernail.")
   
3. I have read around the nets that Zhao Yi 赵翼 ascribed a nomadic origin to the zodiac, but I have not found anything that Mr. Zhao himself wrote.
   
4. This, by the way, is true. If the sun rises over a plain, mountains to the west will light up before the sun itself appears, and conversely, at dusk mountains to the east will stay lit up after the sun itself is no longer visible.
   

MWW 53: Морь

Cyrillic	морь	MorI
Transcription	mori
IPA	[mœrʲ], [mɛr]
Layman’s Pronunciation	MUHR, MEHR
Meaning	horse
In Genghis Khan’s time it was mori.

This is another one that I can’t believe I didn’t do earlier. Mongolians have long owed their livelihood - and probably their place in history - to their horses. Even now, it's rare for Mongolians in the countryside to not be able to ride a horse. Judging by the lyrics of folk songs, old musicians sang about their horses at least as much as their women, and songs about horses are still being composed and hugely popular. (When’s the last time the Billboard charts featured a song about horses?) Horses are also the most common topic of student graffiti on books and desks.

Pronunciation notes

Based on spelling, the word should be [mɔrʲ]. Many Mongolians front back vowels in front of palatalized consonants, which gives us [mœrʲ]. However, during PST in Shaamar sum I often heard a much more divergent pronunciation, like [mer] or [mɛr], sounding like English “mare.” I also heard хорь “twenty” pronounced [xɛr], similar to “hair.” Fronting had definitely gone much further there. When I asked some people about it though, they said they never pronounce it like that, and I never heard anyone say [mɛr] again, except for one random occasion this year.

Морь versus Адуу

Mongolian has another word for horse, адуу (aduu). It isn’t always clear which is the appropriate word to use. However, number appears to be a factor, because I was told that you may never call a lone horse адуу, but when there were 5 or so you could start calling them адуу. This can’t explain everything though, because horse meat is always called адууны мах, never *морьны мах.

Horse Vocab

As you might expect, Mongolians have lots of words to distinguish different kinds of horses, based on age, sex, and coat color/pattern.

унага	foal (baby horse, one year old or less)
азарга	stallion (adult male horse)
гүү	mare (adult female)
агт морь	gelding (castrated male horse)
хязаалан	four-year-old horse
борлог	dun
буурал	roan
халиун	cream horse
хээр	bay
цоохор	dappled
шарга	yellowish, “Isabella”

And here are some phrases or compound expressions with “horse:”

морь унах	to ride a horse
мориноос унах	to fall off a horse (for more about "ride" and "fall," see my other Words of the Week #61 and #62 here)
хурдан морь	racehorse (lit. “fast horse”)
морин хуур	horsehead fiddle (a traditional stringed instrument)
морь харах	to urinate (lit. “to look at a horse”)

Saying Би морь харлаа is a sure way to amuse Mongolians who demand to know why you’re getting up in the middle of a drinking party. I think it only works for men though.

MWW 49: Тэмээ

Cyrillic	тэмээ
Transcription	temee
IPA	[theˈme:]
Layman’s Pronunciation	teh-MAY
Meaning	camel
In Genghis Khan’s time it was temege.

I’ve already used a particular type of camel, the ингэ, for a word before, so how about a more detailed treatment? Bactrian (two-humped) camels are the largest animals that Mongolians herd, but they are the least common. Camels are desert animals, so naturally they are herded primarily in the Gobi. However, they do appear much farther north as well, and Mongolia is a dry country overall. There are some camels in my area (as you may have guessed from my pictures from Tsagaan Sar 2012), but I live on about the northern limit of camel country. In my сум, the prize for most camels went to a man with 33. In the Gobi, I hear there are guys with over 200.

Being adapted for extreme conditions, camels have the best endurance of the herd animals. They can go days without drinking water, and then drink superhuman amounts in a single session. To conserve water, they produce dung that’s dry enough to use as fuel immediately (as I mentioned before), and their urine is a thick syrup. Camels produce milk, but due to the composition of the milk, it can’t be made into normal yogurt - only a very runny, drinkable kind. You can eat camels too, but camel meat tastes pretty much indistinguishable from Mongolian beef to me. Although they may seem slow initially, camels can run very fast when they want, and can kick in every direction, making them formidable enemies. Camels are more sensible than other livestock, and while you can work a horse to death, you can’t a camel; the camel will lay down and quit before you push it that far. A small ger can be loaded onto the backs of two camels. Camel wool is considered especially warm.

Of all livestock, the camel is the most valuable. The respect Mongolians afford camels is so great that it is considered taboo to insult them. When I once formed the sentence, “Camels smell bad” in Mongolian class, I was advised, “We don’t say bad things about camels.”

ботго	baby camel
ботголох	to make baby camels
тором	two-year-old camel
буйлт	three-year-old camel (“one with a буйл”?)
тайлаг	four or five-year old male camel
гунж	four or five-year old female camel (or cow)
буур	adult male camel
ингэ	adult female camel
ат	castrated camel
буйллах	for a camel to bellow
зогдор	long hair on the throat of a camel
буйл	wooden peg in a camel’s nose, to which a rope is fastened
хоормог	fermented camel milk
сөг	command to make a camel kneel

MWW 47: Шагай

Cyrillic	шагай
Transcription	šagai
IPA	[ʃaˈɢæ:]
Layman’s Pronunciation	shah-GAA
Meaning	ankle bone
In Genghis Khan’s time it was šaγai.

A шагай is an anklebone, and anklebones from sheep are used as pieces in a variety of games that are also called шагай. When animal anklebones are dropped, they can fall on one of four sides. Each of these sides is named after a major herd animal - sheep (хонь), goat (ямаа), horse (морь), and camel (тэмээ). (On uneven ground, a bone can land lopsided, and this is known as an үнээ “cow”). Rules vary, but however you play шагай, the object is to flick a bone with your finger and hit another bone of the same kind. So if you see a “sheep,” you want to flick it so it hits another sheep. If you do so successfully, you can collect the piece and keep playing. If you miss, someone else gets a turn. You keep going until there are no pieces left to hit, and the person with the most pieces wins.

The four animals of shagai - in this case, gilded shagai

Another kind of game you can play is a simulated horse race. The “track” is made of a long line of шагай one after the other. Players put a “horse” at one end of the track. They roll 4 шагай and for each “horse” that comes up, they move their piece one bone further along the track.

Шагай бол Монгол үндэсний наадам.

MWW 32: Хөрзөн

Cyrillic	хөрзөн
Transcription	hörzön
IPA	[ˈxөrtsəŋ]
Layman’s Pronunciation	HOOR-dzung
Translation	compressed dried dung
In Genghis Khan’s time it was körjen.

Хөрзөн is kind of like processed аргал. When animals are corralled during the winter, their urine and feces accumulate on the ground in the pen. Through constant trampling this mixture is pounded into a hard substance. This is хөрзөн. In the spring, herders dig the stuff out in large blocks with a shovel (хүрз) and keep it to be burned the next winter. It is said to burn hotter, and longer, than straight-up аргал. However, it also produces an undesirably large amount of ash. And you thought poo had no surprises left, didn’t you?

Хөөрзөн, along with a stockpile of wood

Хөрзөн бол малын хашааны шал.
Хөрзөн	бол	мал	-ын	хашаа	-ны	шал
Compressed dung	TOPIC	animal	GEN	fence/yard	GEN	floor
Hörzön is the floor of a corral.

MWW 24 - 25: Аргал (ft. Баас)

Cyrillic	аргал
Transcription	argal
IPA	[ˈar.qəɬ] or [ˈar.ɢəɬ]
Layman’s Pronunciation	ARGLE
Translation	dried dung
In Genghis Khan’s time it was arγal.

Cyrillic	баас
Transcription	baas
IPA	[pa:s]
Layman’s Pronunciation	BAAHHS
Translation	fresh dung
In Genghis Khan’s time it was baγasu.

Now that it’s late spring, the days are warm, the ground is clear, and poop is back. Let’s talk about poop!

Mongolian has two words for poop. Argal is dried dung, whereas fresh poo is baas. Species may be another criterion, because you can get argal from cows, goats, sheep, horses, and camels, but humans always make baas. The difference between the two types of poop is important. Baas is always gross - exactly like we Americans think of poop. It’s soft, dirty, sticky, stinky, and spreads germs and you want to stay as far away from it as possible. We hate it, flies love it. When it comes out of a cow, horse, sheep, or goat, it starts as baas. But over a few days, due to the gentle touch of nature (sunshine, wind), it is transformed - into argal. Argal is hard, dry, and doesn’t smell much. As I’ve found out, it isn’t anymore gross to pick up than a piece of wood, and it doesn’t attract flies. Most importantly, you can burn argal but not baas. Argal is an important fuel source. In fact, since Mongolians have herded for thousands of years and many still do, it’s probably the oldest, most readily available fuel.

This pile of argal will keep me warm tonight.

Dung as Fuel

There are three main sources of fuel for heating: dung (аргал), wood (мод, mod), and coal (нүүрс, nüürs). Of the three, dung is certainly the most environmentally friendly, and coal the least so. Unlike coal, dung doesn’t release poisonous gases, or leave behind ugly, dangerous dust. You’d better have a working carbon monoxide detector if you burn coal while you sleep. Also, it is the most renewable. Coal takes millions of years to develop and for all practical purposes, our supply is fixed. Wood can be replenished if we plant trees, but trees grow slowly, much slower than they’re cut down. But dung replenishes itself constantly with no direct effort by anyone. A herder’s supply is replenished every day when his animals poop. One more thing: poop is free. If it’s left out in the field, anyone can go grab it. I’ve never heard of a herder yelling, “Hey! That’s MY poop! Get your own!”

Argal on fire

So why use wood and coal at all? Dung gets used up fast. You need to keep shoveling more of it into your fire, perhaps every 20 minutes or so, if that’s all you’re using. Wood burns from 45 minutes to almost 2 hours, and it burns really hot (unless it’s damp). Coal doesn’t burn as hot, but it can burn for several hours. By combining wood and coal, you can keep your home very warm for a long time. It’s hard to do this with just dung.

To sum up, here’s a comparison chart based on my personal experience:

Parameter	Dung	Wood	Coal
Renewability	High Renews itself quickly	Moderate Renewable, slowly	Low Non-renewable
Danger (1)	Minimal: germs from stuff that’s too fresh	Low: splinters, handling sharp tools	High: carbon monoxide is deadly, and ingesting coal dust can cause other problems
Cost	Free. It’s there for the taking.	? (2)	? (2)
Labor	Minimal: walk around and pick up poo.	Intense: Cut down the tree, then saw and chop the wood.	Moderate: carry a large coal bag, and break the big pieces of coal up.
Temperature	Moderate	High	Low, moderate
Stamina	Low	Moderate	High
Pollution	Minimal	Minimal	High

(1) Of course, it’s possible to burn down your ger with all three.

(2) My school provides me wood and coal, so the cost is hidden from me. Another volunteer who lives in the Gobi near a coal mine says it can be purchased for about $8 per ton.

Fun Poop Facts

• Баас has an associated verb, баах. It means “to defecate.”
• The Mongolian expression for a pen accidentally discharging too much ink is Үзэг баах, or “the pen pooes.”
• Camels don’t poop! At least not in Mongolian. There’s no such thing as camel баас. Camels are so good at conserving water that their dung is dry enough to use as fuel as soon as it comes out. (It must hurt, though!)
• The past tense of баах - баасан - coincides with the word Баасан, “Friday / Venus.” They’re different in Classical Mongolian though: baγaγsan and basaŋ, respectively. The planet’s name is ultimately a Tibetan loanword.
• Баасан, with the other meaning, is common in personal names. The name Баасанхүү (Baasanhüü), roughly equivalent to “Son of Venus,” is homophonous with the phrase баасан хүү (baasan hüü), “the boy who pooped.”