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Mongolian, belongs to the
Altai group of languages (which include Finnish, Turkish, Kazak, Uzbek
and Korean. It is spoken by about 7 million people in the world
including Mongolians, Inner Mongolians, Buriyats, Kalkmycks and
Tuvinians.
In Mongolian speech organs such as the nose and larynx take relatively
less participation but tongue, teeth, palate and lips take an active
part in producing sounds. It is a language rich in vocabulary so it
has an ample opportunity to translate from any foreign language
rendering the meaning of different expressions and ideas. Because of
the specific mode of life, customs and environments, there are a lot
of terms and expressions not easy to translate into other languages
and render their meanings. There are also many proverbs relating to
Mongolian life (for example – While your father is alive, get
acquainted with people, while you have horses, go and see far away
lands.)
The Mongol script has five main vowels and 22 consonants and is
written vertically. It can be written quickly and therefore considered
similar to shorthand. In many cases, the Mongolian writing system does
not correspond with pronunciation. In this respect it is similar to
written and spoken English. Because of these complications, Mongols
tried to adopt the Square (Pags-pa) script in 1269, the Todu Script in
1648, the Soyombo Script in 1686 and the Cyrillic Script in 1941. The
latter, Cyrillic Script was successfully adopted unlike the others,
and helped to erase illiteracy among the population. The Mongolian
Cyrillic Alphabet has 35 letters. There have been attempts to revive
the old Mongolian Script but so far, there has been little success.
Basic Mongolian
from the online magazine Mongolia Today
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I love you |
Bi chamd
khairtai... |
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Hello |
sain - by - noo |
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Good bye |
by - yar - tai |
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Thank you |
by - yar - la |
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I am sorry |
uch - la - rye |
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Don't worry |
zoo - gear |
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I don't know |
me - de - qui |
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How much? |
Yamar oon - tay
way? |
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I am an American |
be Amerik hun
|
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Japanese |
be Yapon hun |
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German |
be Gherman hun |
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One year |
neg zhil |
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One month |
neg sar |
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Months |
easy to say as only a
number is used to indicated the month, like January will be the
fist month - NEGdugeer sar |
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1 |
negh |
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2 |
khoyor |
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3 |
ghurav |
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4 |
dhuruv |
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5 |
t'av |
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6 |
z'urgaa |
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7 |
doloo |
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8 |
nay'm |
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9 |
yus |
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10 |
arav |
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25 |
khorin t'av |
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50 |
t'avi |
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100 |
dzuu |
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1,000 |
myanga |
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1,000,000 |
say |
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White
|
tsagaan |
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Black |
khar |
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Red |
ulaan |
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Yellow
|
shar |
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Green
|
no' ghoon |
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Grey
|
s'aaral |
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Blue |
tsen'kher |
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Orange |
yagaan |
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Monday |
Davaa |
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Tuesday |
Myagmar |
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Wednesday |
Lhagva |
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Thursday |
Purev |
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Friday |
Baasan |
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Saturday |
Byamba |
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Sunday |
Nyam |
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Information provided by
the
Ministry of Tourism. Government of Mongolia.
