Have you ever wondered what the Mongolian language is like? What linguistic features does it have? What other languages is it related too? And the question many ask, ‘is Mongolian language hard to learn?’. You have perhaps seen some articles about the hardest languages that put Mongolian language on the list next to Mandarin Chinese or Arabic. So why is it so hard? The answer is not so simple. But we have tried to break it down. Learning a language will always be a different experience depending on what your native language is. For example, Mongolian grammar is more difficult for a native English speaker than for Korean speakers because Korean and Mongolian language have the same sentence structure (Subject-Object-Verb). On another note, when it comes to pronunciation, most learners will find it quite difficult. I’ve been teaching the Mongolian language for more than 10 years and these are what I have found to be the 5 most difficult aspects of Mongolian language:
5. Listening Comprehension
Not many people learn Mongolian language, and Mongolians are not used to hearing a non-native speaker’s accent. Which can cause problems for both parties involved. In the West, and other Anglosphere countries, speakers are used to hearing broken English all the time. As a result, they have developed a hearing mechanism, just as many Arabic speakers may have grown up listening to their language being spoken from all over different far-flung parts of the Arabic world and likewise have developed Modern Standard Arabic as a linguistic bridge linking regional and international dialects.
In Latin America, citizens are used to all sorts of visitors, travelers, and business types arriving in their countries speaking wildly varying levels of the Spanish language, and are thus accustomed to hearing and indeed responding with a lower, more comprehensible level of Spanish for the non-native listener.
Mongolians do not have these experiences and built up background knowledge which would allow them to make it easier for a non-native listener. As such, they may ramble on to a beginner as though they were talking to someone who has been speaking all their life! In addition, one of the most common complaints from Mongolian language learners is the excessive amount of mumbling which makes distinguishing sounds and individual words quite difficult. These problems compounded can make it quite difficult to understand spoken Mongolian.
Therefore, Our friends at Nomiin ger make series conversation videos and these can help you improve your speaking and listening. Visit the conversation playlist on our Youtube Channel below!
4. Lack of Resources
Compared to other widely spoken languages, there are only around 5 million Mongolian speakers in the entire world and non-native speakers interested in learning are quite rare. Fittingly, there are not many resources available that you can use to learn on your own.
Mongolian books and other sources such as television and newspapers are far too difficult for people who are just starting to learn Mongolian language. Even children’s books are written in a formal language which won’t help the learner much. The field of learning Mongolian as a foreign language is very nascent and not nearly as developed as other popular languages such as English, Chinese, or Arabic, which all have a long history of proliferation and scholarship.
Audio and video files for learning are quite hard to come by, while Mongolian language materials and instructional books are just beginning to be published in the past couple of decades; though this is changing. Not many online classes are available and very few schools provide Skype lessons. Finally, proficient Mongolian teachers are very rare.
The average Mongolian person (just as the average citizen of most countries) will have a difficult time explaining the intricacies of their language’s grammar and pronunciation to you since they have never learned it as a foreign language themselves. Despite all this, there are a few schools in Ulaanbaatar with high-quality instruction as global interest in Mongolian Studies widens.
3. Sentence Structure
The Mongolian language is one of the members of the Altaic language family, which gets its name from the Altai Mountains in the heart of central Asia.
The sentence structure is very different than Indo-European languages which makes it difficult for native English speakers. Whereas in English the basic sentence order is Subject-Verb-Object (He eats apples), Mongolian language is the opposite: Subject-Object-Verb (He apples eats).
No matter how short or long a sentence is, the last word will always be the verb. Moreover, this phenomenon causes difficulty when it comes to listening. You might hear a subject first and be waiting for a verb to follow. While waiting, other objects in between may have already come and gone, confusing you further.
To get understood the basic sentence structure, watch our below video.
2. Cases and Suffixes
One of the most unusual and frustrating elements of Mongolian language is the linguistically dreaded cases. As mentioned previously, the Mongolian language is in the Altaic language family. That means it has agglutinative morphology in which a variety of suffixes are added to a word, changing its meaning. For example, найзуудтайгаа means ‘with my friends’. Seems simple right? Well let’s break this down: найз means friend, ууд is plural, тай is the comititive case (‘with’), and finally, гаа is possessive (the reflexive case). Remember that all these need to be formed with proper vowel harmony! Yanaa.
In addition to the usual cases, there are a staggering array of other suffixes that can be added. These can form some pretty interesting and incredibly long words. Take for example Цахилгаан, which is electricity. This seems basic. Now let’s add a suffix and watch the agglutination in action Цахилгаан+жуул = Цахилгаанжуул. We now have a ‘new’ word, which is a verb, to electrify. What if we want to make it a noun? +aлт = Цахилгаанжуулалт (the act of electrifying). This can go on and on until we end up with Цахилгаанжуулалтыхантайгаа which is a real word roughly translating to: ‘with the act of electrifying’s people’.
Here are 7 different main cases with their English equivalents –ын –ийн (of, belonging to), -д, -т (for, at, to, location), -аас/-ээс/-оос/-өөс (from, out of), -ыг, -ийг –г (specific object), -аар, -ээр, -оор, -өөр (by means of, using), -тай, -тэй, -той (with, together), -руу, -рүү, -луу, -лүү (to, towards). To learn more about Mongolian Cases go to the main article: Mongolian Cases.
1. Pronunciation
Undoubtedly the most difficult aspect of Mongolian language is its pronunciation. There are many sounds that are difficult to pronounce such as guttural sounds like gh, kh, r, l, especially when the consonants come together in a word like bayrlalaa (thank you) and oilgohgui baina ‘I don’t understand’. Some of these sounds don’t even exist in any other language! Additionally, there are a variety of very similar vowels for the English letters O and U which sound completely the same to non-native speakers. For example,
од (ɔd)- star and өд (od)- feather,
ус (ʊss) water and үс (uss)-hair.
Furthermore, to confuse the learner, even more, many sounds can even be dropped entirely to make it easier for the speaker. Though this does happen in many languages, it does much more so in Mongolian. For example, the phrase ‘Yu gesen ug we?’ (What does that mean?) can be shortened to a startling 3 syllable utterance ‘yugsugi?!’
So, we have made videos about the Most important Pronunciation rules, Please check them.
Final Words
In sum, learning Mongolian language can be a struggle. It bears little resemblance to most other languages, due to its placement in the isolated and controversial Altaic Language family. There are few resources for learning since the subject is just recently developing and gaining a wider interest. But we at Nomiin Ger are here to help. One of our goals is to create the most comprehensive collection of free Mongolian Language resources on the internet. Hopefully in the future people all around the world will begin to use these aides and students can begin to say, ‘Learning Mongolian is actually not that hard!’ In the mean time, get started by accessing some of our free lessons, guides, and quizzes. Good luck learning! Aмжилт хүсье!
You may like this: What to Expect When Learning Mongolian: 5 Crucial Tips
Mongolian Language Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mongolian a language?
The answer is a resounding ‘yes’. Conversely, the often-asked questions, ‘Is Mongolian Chinese?’ or ‘Is the Mongolian language Russian?’ have a clear answer as well, ‘No’. Mongolian, being the primary language of the ‘Mongolic’ language family, is one of the most unique languages spoken in the world and is considered by many to be part of the intriguing and controversial ‘Altaic’ language family, which takes its name from the legendary Altai Mountains.
Where is Mongolian Language Spoken?
Researchers estimate that around 10 million people speak Mongolian world wide, including 3.3 million people in Mongolia, 5 million people in Inner Mongolia, China, and many more in some parts of the Russian Federation.
What language do they speak in Mongolia?
The official and primary language of Mongolia is ‘Mongolian’ of the Khalkha dialect, spoken by 95% of the population. Other minority dialects are spoken as well including Durwud, Tuvan, and Buryat. There is also a small minority of Kazakh speakers in the West of Mongolia.
Is Mongolian similar to any other languages?
Mongolian is part of the controversial Altaic language family, which may include Turkic, Koreanic, and Japonic languages. What this means is that many similar linguistic features are shared between these branches. Some Mongolian speakers report having an easier time learning languages like Turkish or Korean due to similar grammatical structures as well as common vocabulary (in the case of Turkish for instance).
What alphabet does Mongolian use?
Mongolia has been through many alphabets over the centuries, including the Uighur adapted ‘Mongol Bicheg’, or ‘Mongolian Script’, which traces its roots back to Aramaic. The Cyrillic Mongolian alphabet is used today in Mongolia. Introduced by the Russian alphabet in the 1940s it replaced the old Mongolian Script, which had been used for centuries. Despite dropping the Mongolian script in ‘Outer’ Mongolia, Inner Mongolia has continued using Mongolian Script up to the present day.
How do you say hello in Mongolian?
Sain baina uu? [Сайн байна уу?]. Here is a video on how to say ‘hello’ in Mongolian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-ArThKgV-8
How can I learn Mongolian Language?
There are a few options for learning Mongolian language. Resources for learning Mongolian are few, but growing. Remote lessons are becoming very popular and are a great way to improve your Mongolian. You can visit mongolianlanguage.mn to sign up and also check out some free lessons, materials, quizzes, and videos as well. There are also many youtube channels including Nomiin Ger’s channel, which uploads learning videos every two weeks. For more advice visit the website linked above.
How can I translate English to Mongolian?
There are various apps and services online to translate English to Mongolian. One good phone app is [Maazalai]. Google translate works quite well online, however the best way to translate English to Mongolian (and Mongolian to English) is by using [bolor toil].
4 Responses
That is very interesting! Japanese and Korean have similar word orders: there is a theory called the “Altaic language theory” that posits that Japanese and Korean are distant relatives of Mongolian (and its closer relatives like Yakut).
Even languages as distant as Finnish are subject-object-verb languages.
I was completely lost with Mongolian before I found Khishge’s videos on pronunciation. You would think that other courses would start with that! Surprisingly, vowel de-voicing also takes place in many common Japanese words, but there really isn’t any kind of system to it—you just have to remember them.😱 (e.g.「失礼します」”shi-tsu-rei-shi-ma-su” actually sounds more like ” sh’ts’rei-shi-mas’ “)
Glad you enjoyed it Edward! We hope to add more content like this in the near future. It is really quite important that people learn these pronunciation rules- otherwise, they will be lost, as you say!
Thank you for the article. I agree with the the order of difficulty of the items on the list as well. Item 5 is novel to me. I am a polyglot and have conversed with quite a few cultures, but have never encountered an issue as posited by scenario number 5 on your list. Good job promoting the language… It would be interesting to introduce into your teaching scheme topics such as Mongolian movies, directors, actors and actresses, performing artists, etc. The list is endless…