Goal: Understand what Mongol bichig is.
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Now hear it and say it
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepA calligraphy lesson
Oyuunaa has arranged a surprise for me: a lesson with a calligrapher, Erdene, in a small studio near the language school. On the table there are brushes, black ink and long strips of paper.
Erdene writes my name in a few strokes, from top to bottom. It looks like a little tree with branches. I try to copy it, and my letters lean sideways like tired camels. Erdene laughs kindly and starts again, slowly, stroke by stroke.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| монгол бичиг | the traditional Mongol script |
| уйгаржин | Uyghur-derived (уйгаржин бичиг: the Uyghur-Mongol script) |
| босоо | vertical, upright |
| хэвтээ | horizontal |
| мөр | line; column (of writing) |
| дээрээс доош | from top to bottom |
| гаралтай | coming from, derived from (with the ablative) |
| кирилл үсэг | the Cyrillic alphabet |
| хэлбэр | form, shape |
| уран бичлэг | calligraphy |
| бийр | brush |
| харагдах | to look, to appear, to be seen |
To say in which script you write, Mongolian uses the instrumental, exactly as for a language (монголоор ярих, "to speak in Mongolian"). The script is the tool of the writing.
Both words drop the short vowel of their last syllable as soon as a case ending begins with a vowel. Learn the forms together:
| Case | бичиг (script) | үсэг (letter) |
|---|---|---|
| genitive | бичгийн | үсгийн |
| accusative | бичгийг | үсгийг |
| instrumental | бичгээр | үсгээр |
| ablative | бичгээс | үсгээс |
A starting point takes the ablative, a direction takes тийш ("towards") or доош ("downwards"):
дээрээс доош is "from top to bottom". Remember that зүүн means both "left" and "east", and баруун both "right" and "west": the traditional Mongolian orientation faces south.
гаралтай means "originating, coming from", and what it comes from stands in the ablative. It works for scripts, words and people alike.
The traditional script is босоо бичиг, "vertical writing"; Cyrillic is written in хэвтээ lines, "horizontal" ones. Like every adjective, they stand in front of the noun.
Two forms in the dialogue are worth noticing. хэрэглэж ирсэн (–ж plus ирэх) says that an action has gone on from the past right up to now: "have used it all along". хэрэглэх болсон (–х plus болох) says that a new habit began: "people started using". Learn them as set patterns for now.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongol bichig, the vertical script · The instrumental · How a word is built
The vertical script came from the Old Uyghur alphabet in the early 13th century, which is why its full name is уйгаржин монгол бичиг, "the Uyghur-Mongol script". A Chinese history tells that a captured Naiman scribe, Tatatonga, taught it to Chinggis Khaan's sons around 1204. Mongolia changed to Cyrillic in the 1940s, but the old script is still taught at school, and you see it everywhere as a mark of the language: on banknotes, seals, logos and shop signs, and in calligraphy, уран бичлэг, which is a respected art. In Inner Mongolia, in China, it is the everyday script.
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Lesson done? Train your ear
This written course teaches you to read and write. The LIMBA audio course makes you speak: 24 lessons of 12 to 15 minutes, recorded with a native speaker. You listen, you repeat, you answer — the perfect partner for these pages.
Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keep