Russian in Mongolia

In spite of Mongolia's efforts to replace Russian with English after the fall of the Soviet Union, aside from the Cyrillic alphabet, there are many instances where Russian influence still lingers in everyday life.

 

The first encounter I had with Russian in Mongolia was the scented air spray in the bathroom--in English it says "Sunny Day" although the Russian describes the scent as "Summer Rain."

 

For example, ломбард is all over the place and my eyes were gravitating towards it, probably because it's "pawn shop" in Russian. The ice cream stands are emblazoned with мороженое ("ice cream" in Russian). Furniture stores have ads or names that are not in Cyrillic but Romanized letters, e.g. "Mebel House." (Мебель is furniture in Russian.) 

There are some other borrowed things, too. Apparently, placing your thumb in between your index and middle finger is an insult akin to flipping the bird. It was borrowed from Russia, and now handing someone money in between your fingers is considered rude.

Now that we've started language classes, Russian keeps on popping into my head. When I don't understand a word, my mind asks, "Что это?" or "Как сказать...?"

It's tricky, because although the Mongolian alphabet uses Russian Cyrillic, there are two added vowels ө and ү ("uh" and "ooh" in general but are subtle and change a lot depending on where they're placed in the word). In Russian "В" (English "V") is pronounced, but in Mongolian, the "В" is pronounced like a "W." Also in Russian, pretty much every letter is pronounced. This was nice having come from French, because a lot of things are silent in French--tricky when reading new words. But now I'm back to silenced letters in Mongolian. For example, the most common phrase you will learn, hello, is "Сайн байнa уу." Now, a Russian speaker might pronounce this "Sine bye-na uu." But it's nothing like what it spelled! In Mongolian, this phrase is pronounced "San ban oh" (like the French "Seine"). The "a" at the very end of байнa is not pronounced but indicates that the "н" (n) must be pronounced nasally. 

And vowels. The vowels! Mongolian is all about vowels. 

In many languages, the gender of the word can be determined by the word's endings. But in Mongolian, the gender of the word can be determined by its prominent vowels! The "throaty" vowels А О У in the first syllable of the word indicate a masculine word. The front of the mouth vowels Э Ө Ү И indicate a feminine word. 

And that's another major difference--in most Mongolian words, the first syllable is stressed. And the first set of vowels in the word are the most important. The vowels and even consonants after that initial vowel are often muddled or muted in everyday speech. In the phrase ойлгож байнa уу? "do you understand?" the second syllable practically disappears into the spoken "EL-lug jen-OH." 

And not all vowels sound the same. Double vowels үү уу өө for example, change the sound and length of the vowel. In some instances, үү уу өө might be pronounced "ooo," in others it's more "ooh." (I can't tell yet how and when.) Not to mention the many many diphthongs ай ой уй эй үй (sounds like aeh, euh, oi, eh, ee) that are pronounced nothing like the diphthongs in Russian.

Mongolian also borrows the soft and hard sign ь ъ from Russian, but for different uses. The use being, as you can guess, to alter the pronunciation of the nearby vowel. For example, ам is pronounced with throaty "aaahm" whereas амь is a more short, frontal pronunciation "ehm." 

Mongolian is also the first language I've encountered that has the predicate verb basically always at the end. (I think other Asian languages might have this grammatical convention.) So, whereas in English or Russian I might say "I read a book yesterday," (S. P. O. T. -- subject, predicate, object, time expression) in Mongolian I would say "I yesterday a book read" (S. T. O. P. -- subject, time expression, object, predicate).

So although I have a good handle of the alphabet through my Russian studies, and when we learn cases it won't be new to me, Mongolian has thus far proved to be a pretty challenging language. It employs some tongue acrobatics and throat exercise that I have never used before and probably will never be able to master. But I am excited and eager to gain at least a conversational working knowledge and ability with the language! 

Examples of phrases where there are a bunch of silenced letters or sounds that are counterintuitive to a Russian speaker:

1. Сонин сайхан юу байна вэ - What's new? How are you?
2. Дараа уулзъя - See you later
3. Сайхан зусаж байна уу - How are you passing your summer? (How you say "How are you" in the country side depends on the season.)
4. Баярлалаа - Thank you (One of the most common phrases and the most frustrating! "Where did that syllable go?" "Where did that "thhhs" sound come from?" etc. See below.)

What they really sound like:

1. SUH-nin s-EH-han you-EN
2. DAR-aah uult-SEE
3. S-EH-han zoos jen-OH
4. B-EYE-err-THLAHJH