Lesson 4: The vowel и and the letter й

Now hear it and say it

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1Limba’s diary

Limba meets the host family at arrivals: сайн

Outside the arrivals gate, a crowd waits with flowers and paper signs. One sign says ЛИМБА in big capital letters. It is my name, in Cyrillic!

The man holding it is Bat, my host father, and the young woman next to him is his daughter, Nomin. Bat shakes my hand and says a whole sentence. I catch only one word: САЙН, "good".

So I smile and say it back: "Сайн!" Nomin laughs and takes my bag. My first Mongolian conversation has one word in it, and it goes very well.

2Dialogue

БатСайн байна уу!Hello!
LimbaСайн… Сайн!Good… good!
НоминСайн байна уу, Лимба!Hello, Limba!

3Words in this lesson

Mongolian	Letters	English
байна	baina	is, there is
уу	uu	question particle (Сайн байна уу? = Hello!)
би	bi	I
бид	bid	we
их	ikh	big; much
тийм	tiim	yes
ой	oi	forest
байр	bair	flat, apartment
нохой	nokhoi	dog
эмэгтэй	emegtei	woman
уйлах	uilakh	to cry
гүйх	güikh	to run

The “Letters” column is a letter-by-letter guide to the Cyrillic, not exact pronunciation. It disappears after level A1: by then you read Cyrillic directly.

4Grammar and explanations

и: the neutral vowel

и [i] is close to the ee of "see", but short. It is a vowel of its own, and it is special: it can live in words of either vowel family, with а о у as in малчин [malchin] (herder), or with э ө ү as in шинэ [shine] (new). That is why it is called the neutral vowel. In some short words it is the only vowel:

би[bi] I

бид[bid] we

их[ikh] big, much

й: a consonant

и is the neutral vowel; й is a consonant and is transparent to vowel harmony. й [i] never stands on its own. It comes after a vowel and turns it into a diphthong, a vowel that glides into an i sound:

Diphthong	Written	Example
ай	ai	сайн [sain] good
ой	oi	ой [oi] forest
эй	ei	эмэгтэй [emegtei] woman
уй	ui	уйлах [uilakh] to cry
үй	üi	гүйх [güikh] to run

сайн[sain] good

байна[baina] is

байр[bair] flat, apartment

Where you hear both parts

At the start of a word, in its middle, or in a word of one syllable, you hear both parts of the diphthong clearly: цай [tsai], сайн, байр. At the end of a longer word, the diphthong is said almost as one vowel: listen for it in нохой [nokhoi] (dog) and эмэгтэй. Write both letters all the same.

ий: a long i

One combination is not a diphthong at all. ий is simply a long i, the long partner of и:

тийм[tiim] yes

Go deeper in the grammar guide: Mongolian vowels · Vowel harmony

5Good to know

Listen to the greeting Bat uses, Сайн байна уу! In speech, the н of сайн sounds almost like an m, because the next word begins with б, and the final а of байна is barely heard. Mongolians do not say it letter by letter, and you will not either. You will learn the whole greeting, and how to answer it, in lesson 11.

6Exercises

Choose the right answer, then press Check my answers. Score 70% or more and the lesson is ticked on your course map.

Which letter is the neutral vowel?
What is й?
How is сайн written in Latin letters?
What does сайн mean?
Which word contains the diphthong ой?
What does тийм mean?
What does ой mean?
Which word means "we"?
In эмэгтэй (woman), the last two letters are…
Which pair are both diphthongs?

Well done! Lesson 4 is ticked on your course map.

Write it yourself

Write your answer on paper or in your head first, then reveal the model answer.

Write цай and ой in Latin letters and give their meanings.
Show answer
цай [tsai]: tea; ой [oi]: forest
Which of these two letters is a consonant: и or й?
Show answer
й. (и is the neutral vowel.)
Write "yes" in Mongolian.
Show answer
тийм
Find the diphthong in байр (flat).
Show answer
ай: [bair]
At the airport, Bat said Сайн байна уу! Which word did Limba recognise?
Show answer
сайн, good. (The whole sentence means "Hello!")

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