It is curious how sometimes our little knowledge of other languages leads us to false assumptions and we have to remind ourselves that a particular language is NOT in any way related to those we assumed to be its "relatives". There is a common misconception among people that Mongolian is similar to Chinese or Russian, or perhaps a mix of both. Let's clear up this myth about Mongolian in case you still have some misguided beliefs as to its tricky origins.
- Mongolian is NOT similar to Chinese —even though geographically the two countries are close and have historical connections. Chinese and Mongolian are in no way alike and have no common roots.
- Mongolian is NOT similar to Russian or other Slavic languages —even though Cyrillic script is used to write Mongolian. Mongolian comes from a completely different language family.
- Mongolian is NOT similar to Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek or Tajik languages —even though the countries in which these languages are spoken are close to Mongolia.
- Mongolian is NOT similar to Korean or Japanese —even though some grammar rules may seem to have something in common.
By the way, the Mogol (Moghol) language is also NOT similar to Mongol, or Mongolian. It is a language spoken in the region of Herat, Afghanistan, by the Moghol people. Already in 1950s, Moghol was marked as a dying language with a reported amount of speakers no more than 200 and of elderly age. The language has no written system and is mostly used in families like a secret language.
Mongolian language is... well, just Mongolian, which belongs to a still debatable group of Altaic language family. There isn't a similar language to Mongolian —it is very unique. Several dialects of the language exist, each has slightly different vocabulary and pronunciation, but with minor practice, all Mongolians can get to understand each other very well.
Of course, there are many loanwords from Russian in the language, mostly technology-related terms. Will it help a Russian to learn Mongolian? Not so much. How far can you really go with a handful of words like "автобус" (ah-f-to-boos = "bus"), "пиво" (pee-vah = "beer"), "театр" (tea-ah-tr = "theater")? (Although, the pronunciation of these borrowed words in Mongolian is quite Russian-like, may I add) Would Mongolians understand the Russian language? It is only likely if the person you are talking to is over 40-45 years old, but their Russian might be rusty. Younger people, on the other hand, tend to learn English these days.
Let me sum up in a short resume some common points about Mongolian, grammar-wise:
- In Mongolian, words are almost always stressed on the first syllable.
- Grammar rules rarely have exceptions (something English can't really brag about).
- Words do not have gender and do not use the definite article (like "the" in English).
- Nouns have 8 cases, meaning the ending of every certain noun changes in 8 different ways!
- Adjectives and numerals don't change, in particular there aren't comparative or superlative degrees for adjectives, nor any agreement in number or case between an adjective and a related to it noun.
- Mongolian sentences have a strict word order: a subject always goes before a verb, a verb is placed at the end of the sentence.
- Vowel sounds can be short and long. Short ones are spelled with a single vowel symbol: ул (ool) = "sole"; whereas the long ones are spelled with a doubled vowel symbol: уул (oo-ool) = "mountain". Short vowels, found in any syllable but the first one, are not pronounced.
There are two things about the Mongolian vowel sounds that are important to understand. The first one is that when pronounced short vowel sounds that are encountered anywhere in a word but the first syllable are actually omitted —sometimes you end up with a word full of consonant sounds following straight one after another.
Take, for example, the longest Mongolian palindrome (a word that reads the same from left to right as from right to left) "хадгалагдах" ("to be saved"). Even though in the written version this word has many "a"s, the pronunciation will be actually something like this: khud-gl-gd-kh.
For the curious ones here is a short 4-minute video made by Khishgee about, as she called it, "The Most Important Pronunciation Rule" —(with examples!):
The second thing to understand about the Mongolian vowel sounds is that all of them are divided in three groups, or classes, and present themselves in a word according to a rule called vowel harmony. That rule decrees: the vowels of a word have to be members of the same class, i.e. "in harmony"!
This is a common feature of many agglutinative languages —languages where words are made up of bits, such as suffixes, "glued" to a root in a linear sequence,— which Mongolian definitely is. Another example of such a language is Turkish —that will be the one for us to check out agglutination in more detail.
For now just remember, when learning Mongolian, pay attention to the three classes of the vowels —it will really save you time in understanding the word formation. Some call them back vowels, front vowels and neutral vowels; some divide them into male, female and neutral ones. Whatever the names, in one word there can only be "representatives" of one group, or "representatives" of back/front (male/female) group mixed with neutral ones.
The theory may sound confusing at first, but it gets easier with practice and actual words. Speaking of, it is about time we learn some Mongolian words, wouldn't you agree? Give yourself 5 minutes to enjoy this video from our new friend Khishgee:
Personally, as a Russian, I enjoyed learning the two Mongolian words: "Sunday" and "Monday". There are actually two ways to name days of the week in Mongolian: official one that is used for things like calendars, timetables and official documents, and unofficial one that people use in a conversation. The "fun" names are actually the official ones!
You know that sound you make when something tastes super delicious? "Yum!" In Russian we say "Ням!" ("Nyam!"), which in Mongolian is that official name for "Sunday"! When it comes to Mongolian "Monday" word —Даваа ("Duh-vuh")— and why it is fun in Russian, you need to know about the common Russian word for "Come on!": "Давай!" ("Duh-vai") —so similar, isn't it? So these two Mongolian words make me feel as if when it is Monday you are expected —Даваа!— to work hard, and when it is Sunday you can relax and Ням something delicious —right? :)
Another thing about Mongolian words that made me smile is giving "orders". You know, when you want someone to do something you say, for example, "Sit" or "Read this" or any other action you are awaiting for. To not sound so rude, you could add "please" or, say, start your request with "would". In Mongolian your "order" will automatically become more polite if said twice! So if "Read!" ("Унш!" — "Oo-nsh") might sound harsh, opt for "Read, read" ("Унш, унш!" — "Oo-nsh, oo-nsh") because that will be akin to the English version with "please":
- "Суу, суу" ("Soo-oo, soo-oo") = "Sit, please";
- "Ав, ав" ("Uh-v, uh-v") = "Please, take";
- "Яв, яв" ("Ya-v, ya-v") = "Please, go", etc.
Mongolian is spoken mostly in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia (an autonomous region of northern China), few Chinese provinces, some parts of Russia and Kyrgyzstan. It is not that widely spread, as you can see, and quite fittingly there are not many resources available that one can use to learn the language on their own. Audio and video files for learning are quite hard to come by, while Mongolian language materials or books are just beginning to be published in the past couple of decades; though this is changing.
I guess cases, suffixes, unfamiliar pronunciation and Cyrillic lettering doesn't make it any easier, but if you ever cross paths with the Mongolian language, I truly believe you'll come to see something in it that will leave you mesmerized. And hopefully, this Langventure helped you see the glimpse of what is to come.
Quite a language, huh? But it is time to move on to our next journey! Goodbye, Mongolian!
Баяртай! (Buy-ar-tai!) Goodbye!
"Oo-nsh, oo-nsh this article! And share it, too!"
Discover more about Mongolian and other languages at langventure.strikingly.com!
