Mongolian Language Resources

[Jukhan Karasar]

Language

Mongolian uses its own alphabet, which is difficult for most Westerners to comprehend without detailed study. But since the advent of the USSR, Mongolia also uses the Cyrillic alphabet in the greater majority, both public and private, official and civilian.

Here is a useful reference to the Cyrillic alphabet. What I find most useful about this is that is provides accurate pronunciations of the lettering, specific to Russian, which has greatly influenced and carried over into Mongolian.



Dictionaries

These dictionaries are very useful for looking up words in Mongolian and putting them together, either to form personal names or for other purposes.

www.dic.edu.mn/
This dictionary is in Cyrillic.

www.linguamongolia.co.uk/dict1.html
English-Mongolian

www.dicts.info/dictionary.php?l1=English&l2=Mongolian
English-Mongolian

Basic Mongolian

Basic Mongolian
I love you: Bi chamd khairtai...

Useful Mongolian phrases
Hello: sain - by - noo
Good bye: by - yar - tai
Thank you: by - yar - la
I am sorry: uch - la - rye
Don't worry: zoo - gear
I don't know: me - de - qui
How much?: Yamar oon - tay way?
I am an American: be Amerik hun
Japanese: be Yapon hun
German: be Gherman hun

Year, months
One year: neg zhil
One month: neg sar
Months easy to say as only a number is used to indicated the month, like January will be the fist month - NEGdugeer sar

Numbers
1 negh
2 khoyor
3 ghurav
4 dhuruv
5 t'av
6 z'urgaa
7 doloo
8 nay'm
9 yus
10 arav
25 khorin t'av
50 t'avi
100 dzuu
1,000 myanga
1,000,000 say

Colours
White: tsagaan
Black : khar, kara
Red: ulaan
Yellow: shar
Green: no' ghoon
Grey: s'aaral
Blue: tsen'kher
Orange: yagaan
Gold: alt (Golden: altan)

Dates
Monday: Davaa
Tuesday: Myagmar
Wednesday: Lhagva
Thursday: Purev
Friday: Baasan
Saturday: Byamba
Sunday: Nyam

[Makzim Makmaduular]

Good work, Comrade!
Shall we start integrating these into Kazari, perhaps altering them somewhat to add more of our own uniqueness to the language, but also to emulate other 'Red' Central Asian states such as Bukhara and Khiva People's Soviet Republics, and Tannu Tuva.
I'd suggest also developing a simple list of Socialist catchphrases and slogans to be liberally shouted by comrades in support of the cause. Perhaps something like:

'Glijn'uur zajtex, ulaan ajmagjaar!'

An example of a Kazari SVO sentence, where the verb 'Glijn'uur' comes from the Russian 'dlinniy' for 'long', 'zaytex' being an artificial Kazari construct, and ulaan from the Mongol for 'Red'. 'Ajmag' comes from the Mongol 'aimag' for 'banner' or 'tribe', with a Kazari prefix on the end to denote its gender.

Just to cut a long story short, the alphabet I devised was based loosely on another conlang called Laqi I invented for Modan-Lach in Shireroth.

All letters are the same as in English save for
x= sh
q= ch
'- glottal stop
j= y
c= ts

and the absence of a y. But if you wish to scrap that system, it's up to you, Comrade

[Jukhan Karasar]

I was assuming we'd use Turkic as the Central Asian Language. It bears similarities to Mongolian, so would be easier to combine the two.

[Makzim Makmaduular]

Turkic as in the Kazakh and Kyrgyz languages, Comrade?
Very well- but shall we concoct some patriotic slogans and basic phrases as well?
I feel that, even though we may not be able to create a fully functioning ConLang such as the likes of Lemurian or Crandish, we could still at least make an extensive phrasebook, with basic nouns, adjectives, and verbs. We may also need to add in useful words such as 'micronational' and suchlike, to tailor Kazari to our needs.
So, you are proposing that the majority of the language be derived from Turkic?

[Jukhan Karasar]

I dunno. Noone ever really bothered to use Lemurian or Crandish besides Sander or Johanns.

And yes, I'll put together a phrasebook and some slogans for the proletariat.

But no, I was not suggesting we derive it from Turkish. Instead look at Kazar as a "mini" USSR with a focus on Central Asian and Mongolian cultures. That would encompass the Central Asian SSRs (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Turkmen, Tajik) and Mongolia. Almost all the Central Asian languages are dialects of Turkic, Mongolian, or Russian. Most are an amalgamation of three or more. Modern Mongolian even contains many American words since they didn't have words for things like "cyber" until recently.

I certainly wish to have the majority of the language be derived from Mongolian. Custom tailoring can be achieved by "Mongolicising" an English word. Kind of like reverse Anglicisation.

[Makzim Makmaduular]

Agreed. Though I do not wish with this nation to have the same problem I encountered with Matbaa. By giving the idea that we are a 'Mongol nation', we totally negate any idea of cultural originality. What should make us superior (save for our political views, of course ) should be the fact that Kazari isn't just Mongolian. We created it ourselves.
As I see it, Kazar is a mix of all the Eastern Soviet Nations, so should take a little from here and there to make our unique culture and language. I'm talking states such as:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khorezm_People's_Soviet_Republic
Khorezm People's Soviet Republic

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannu_Tuva
Tannu Tuva

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_People%27s_Republic
Mongolian People's Republic

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukharan_People%27s_Soviet_Republic
Bukhara People's Soviet Republic

Anyway, I originally created this nation with Tuva in mind, but cultural development is at your discretion, Comrade. Either way, we should bear in mind that so many communist micronations believe their 'culture' should consist of nothing more than vodka, nuclear weapons, secret police, and Russian patronymics.
We're above that, Comrades

[Jukhan Karasar]

Well, that gives me more information to work with. Especially seeing the broad range you want to incorporate into things. That allows me to set some boundaries and areas of exploration.

[Makzim Makmaduular]

I feel I should probably explain the layout of the alphabet I employed to do the board names in Kazari (the ones in italics). Mainly I'm using a variant on the Latin alphabet- the kind which would have been used for numerous Turkic languages in the USSR throughout the twenties before they changed to Cyrillic- but unfortunately I couldn't get some of the special characters to work on ProBoards. One of the failures of these boards is that unlike PhpBB and SMF it can't display a wide range of foreign characters.
So, I'm using:

J- 'y' as in 'yolk'
C- 'ts' as in 'bats'
X- 'sh' as in 'sheep'
Q- 'ch' as in 'cheese'

and remaining English vowels and consonants