MONGOLIAN SURVIVAL COURSE!

How could you survive if no one understands you?

WELCOME TO THE MONGOLIAN LANGUAGE.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. The Mongolian language is considered one of the most difficult languages in the whole world. However, it won’t be that difficult once you figure out some of the basics elements of the language.

Mongolian is the primary language of Mongolia. By origin, Mongolian is one of the languages in the Mongol group from the Altaic family, a language family which includes Turkish, Manchurian-Tungus, Japanese, and Korean.

Modern Mongolian, based on the Khalkh dialect, developed following the Mongolian People’s Revolution in 1921. The introduction of a new alphabet in the 1940s developed along with a new stage in Mongolia’s national literary language. Mongolians still use two types of writing: the classical script and the Cyrillic alphabet. The classical Mongolian alphabet, which is written vertically, is a unique script used by speakers of all the various dialects for about a thousand years. In spite of increasing interest in using only the classical alphabet, along with the decision by Parliament to use it for official papers, the majority of Mongolian people use the Cyrillic alphabet, which was adopted in the early 1940s.

The Mongolian language is classified as agglutinative (from the Latin ‘agglutinate’-‘to stick on’).

The most important characteristics of agglutination are:

1.The word stem doesn’t change; instead, grammatical changes are made by adding

(or sticking on) suffixes to the word stem.

2.Every suffix and case ending expresses only one grammatical meaning. Mongolian

does not have prepositions. A lot of English prepositions are expressed in Mongolian

with a case. The cases demonstrate the kind of relationship the two words have.

Other characteristic features of the language are:

1.Word order of a sentence. Subjects and objects precede verbs. Verbs are often located

at the end of a sentence: Subject – object - verb

2.Genders are based on vowels (masculine, feminine, or neutral). Vowel harmony is the

main law of vowels.

3.The absence of subject/verb agreement and plurals (in most cases). It’s common to drop

the subject if it’s implied. For example:

What did do yesterday? Instead of ‘What did you do yesterday?’

Read some books, washed clothes and cleaned my house. Instead of

I read some books, washed clothes and cleaned my house.

4.Compared with Indo-European languages, nouns that act as verbs are much more

prevalent than normal nouns.

5.Shift of stress. Stress in Mongolian usually falls on the first syllable of a word.

The Mongolian alphabet is comprised of 35 letters.

GREETINGS AND SAYING FAREWELL.

ENGLISH MONGOLIAN

Dialogue 1. The following greetings should be used between people meeting for the first

time, seeing each other for the first time in a day, or in an official situation.

A: - Hello, How are you? - Sain bainuu? - Сайн байна уу?

B: - Good. How are you? - Sain. Sain bainuu? - Сайн. Сайн байна уу?

A: - Good. - Sain. - Сайн.

Dialogue 2. The following greetings are used frequently by young people and between

friends.

A: - Hello? How are you? - Sainuu? - Сайн уу?

B: - Good. How are you? - Sain. Sainuu? - Сайн. Сайн уу?

A: - Good. - Sain. - Сайн.

Dialogue 3.

A: - Hello, How are you? - Sain bainuu? - Сайн байна уу?

B: - Hi, How are you? - Sain. Sain bainuu? - Сайн. Сайн байна уу?

A: - Good. What’s new? - Sain. Sonin yu bain? - Сайн. Сонин юу байна?

B: - Nothing much. - Yumgui taivan. - Юмгүй, тайван.

A: - Bye. See you later. - Bayartai. Daraa uulzii. - Баяртай. Дараа уулзъя.

B: - See you later. - Daraa uulzii. - Дараа уулзъя.

Dialogue 4.

A: - Hello, How are you? - Sainuu? - Сайн уу?

B: - Hi, How are you? - Sain. Sainuu? - Сайн. Сайн уу?

A: - Good. How’s your life? - Sain. Amidral yamar - Сайн. Амьдрал ямар

bain? байна?

B: - It is OK. - Dajgui. - Дажгүй.

Dialogue 5

A: - How are you? - Yu bain? - Юу байна?

B: - I am fine. - Taivan. - Tайван.

А: - How’s your work? - Ajil yamar baina? - Ажил ямар байна?

B: - So so. - Yahavdee. - Яахав дээ.

A: - How’s your life? - Amidral yamar baina? - Амьдрал ямар байна?

B: - It is very good. - Mash sain. - Маш сайн.

A: - Goodbye! - Bayartai. - Баяртай.

B: - Bye! - Bayartai. - Баяртай.

Culture note:

When Americans (westerners) first meet each other, they say “Nice to meet you.” Mongolians don’t say anything like this at the beginning of a conversation.

EXPRESSING POLITENESS.

Dialogue 1

A: - Thank you. - Bayarllaa. - Баярлалаа.

B: - You are welcome. - Zugair zugair. - Зүгээр зүгээр.

Dialogue 2

A: - I’m sorry. / Excuse me. - Uuchlaarai. - Уучлаарай.

B: - No problem. - Zugair zugair. - Зүгээр зүгээр.

Dialogue 3

A: - Are you George? - Che George munu? - Чи Жорж мөн үү?

B: - Yes, I am. - Tiim. Be George - Тийм, би Жорж.

Dialogue 4

A: - Are you American? - Che Amerikuu? - Чи Америк уу?

B: - No, I am not. - Ugui, Be Amerik bish. - Үгүй, Америk биш.

ASKING FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION.

Dialogue 1

A: - What’s your name? - Tanii* ner hen(g) be? - Таны нэр хэн бэ?

B: - My name is Sean. - Minii ner Shon. - Миний нэр Шон.

A: - Where did you come from? - Ta haanaas irsen be? - Та хаанаас ирсэн бэ?

B: - I am from America. - Be Amerikaas irsen. - Би Америкаас ирсэн.

Dialogue 2

A: - What’s your name? - Taniig hen(g) gedeg wei? - Таныг хэн гэдэг вэ?

B: - My name is Sean. - Namaig Shon gedeg. - Намайг Шон гэдэг.

I am American. - Be Amerik (hun). - Би Америк (хүн).

I am not Mongolian. - Be Mongol (hun) bish. - Би Монгол (хүн) биш.

Dialogue 3

A: - How old are you? - Ta heden(g) nastai wei? - Та хэдэн настай вэ?

B: - I am 25 years old.** - Be khorin tavan nastai. - Би хорин таван настай.

A: - What do you do? - Ta yu hiideg wei? - Та юу хийдэг вэ?

B: - I’m an English teacher. - Be angl helnii bagsh. - Би Англи хэлний багш.

I am a PC Volunteer. - Be enkh taivnii korpsiin - Би Энх тайвын корпусын

sain durin ajiltan. сайн дурын ажилтан.

* Tаны, таныг, та /tanii, taniig, ta/ - is addressed to someone who is older than you.

** When Mongolians first meet foreigners, they typically ask many questions out of curiosity.

Some of these questions may seem very personal. For example, they may ask your age or if you are married. To westerners, these types of questions may seem very forward initially, but they are quite common for Mongolians.

NUMBERS.

1. neg нэг 10. arav арав

2. hoyor хоёр 20. hori хорь

3. gurav гурав 30. guch гуч

4. dorov дөрөв 40. duch дөч

5. tav тав 50. tayv тавь

6. zurgaa зургаа 60. jar жар

7. doloo долоо 70. dal дал

8. naim найм 80. naya ная

9. eus ес 90. yer ер

10. arav арав 100 (neg) zuu нэг зуу

1000 (neg) myanga нэг мянга

1000 000 (neg) saya нэг сая

11 arven neg

22 horin hoyor

33 guchin gurav 100 dollars (neg) zuun dollar

44 duchin dorov

55 tayvin tav 5000 tugriks tavan myangan tugrik

66 jaren zurgaa

77 dalen doloo

88 nayan naim

99 yeren eus

There is a saying in Mongolian that is roughly translated as “If you have a language, you have a leg” (хэлтэй бол хөлтэй). 

The idea is that if you can speak a language, you will be able to travel within the domain of that language.

Likewise, the Mongolian language will take you far in this country as well as help you to go deep in this wonderful and fascinating culture.