Goal: Discuss beliefs respectfully.
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Now hear it and say it
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 keepCircling an ovoo
Bold drives Nomin and me out of the city for a Sunday in the hills. On a pass above the valley he stops the car beside a large pile of stones wrapped in blue silk scarves: an ovoo.
Bold picks up three small stones from the roadside and starts to walk round it. Nomin follows him, and so do I. The wind makes the scarves crack like flags. I want to understand, and I want to ask my questions without being clumsy.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| овоо | ovoo, sacred cairn of stones |
| тойрох | to go round, to circle |
| хүсэл | wish, desire |
| тэнгэр | sky, heaven; Tengri |
| Мөнх хөх тэнгэр | the Eternal Blue Sky |
| шүтэх | to worship, to believe in |
| бөө | shaman (a man) |
| удган | shaman (a woman) |
| бөө мөргөл | shamanism |
| тахих | to worship, to make offerings (to an ovoo, a mountain) |
| ёс заншил | customs, traditions |
| итгэл үнэмшил | belief, beliefs |
| илэрхийлэх | to express, to stand for |
| аз | luck |
When you talk about beliefs, present them as beliefs. Put the belief in front of гэж, then a verb of believing in the habitual: - гэж итгэдэг — people believe that… - гэж үздэг — people regard it as…, consider that… - гэдэг — it is said that…
Three frames you already know do most of the work:
| Frame | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| –х заншилтай | it is the custom to… | Овоо харвал зогсож тойрох заншилтай. |
| –х ёстой | one must… | Овоог нар зөв тойрох ёстой. |
| –ж болохгүй | one must not… | Овооноос чулуу авч болохгүй. |
Notice овооноос: овоо ends in a long vowel, so a linking н appears before the ablative, as in хөдөөнөөс.
уламжлал (tradition) with –тай gives уламжлалтай, "handed down, traditional". What the custom comes from goes in the ablative:
A guest who talks about someone else's beliefs softens what he or she says. Three phrases do it: - Миний мэдэхээр… — "as far as I know…" (мэдэх with the instrumental) - Миний ойлгосноор… — "as I understand it…" - Буруу ойлгосон бол засаарай. — "If I have misunderstood, please correct me."
Mongolians are usually happy to explain their customs to a curious, respectful visitor. What gives offence is joking about them, or treating an ovoo as a pile of stones for photographs.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: гэж and reported thoughts · Must, may, must not · Politeness and address
You will find ovoos on passes, hilltops and beside springs. Walk round clockwise, usually three times, and add a stone as you pass; people also leave milk, sweets, coins or a little vodka, and tie blue khadags to the branches. Never take anything away from an ovoo. Drivers who cannot stop often sound the horn as they pass.
In summer many communities hold an овоо тахих ceremony, an offering to the spirits of the place, and today lamas often lead it.
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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