Language

The modern Mongolian language was established in 1924 under the Khalkha dialect, when it became the national language. The traditional script of the Mongolian language is the Uighur script. Under the Uighur script, it’s possible that each letter can have as many as 3 different shapes depending on if the letter appears in the beginning, middle region, or end of a word. Mongolia adopted the Latin alphabet in 1931 and the Cyrillic alphabet in 1937. In 1941, the Mongolian government passed a law to abolish the Classical Mongol script and use the Cyrillic alphabet instead. However, since 1994, there has been a movement attempting to try to bring the Classical Mongol script back. The old script isn’t really covered in schools in Mongolia. The main use for the old script is for decoration. It’s common for poets, artists and calligraphers to use the old script in their works.

Approximately 90% of the population of Mongolia speaks in the Khalkha dialect and an additional 6 million people speak it worldwide. English and Russian are the most common foreign languages spoken in Mongolia, and an increasing number of Mongols are learning English as well. Many Mongols work in South Korea, therefore Korean has become another language that is common in Mongolia. Other languages spoken in Mongolia include: Chinese, Japanese and German.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mongolian.htm

http://www.spainexchange.com/guide/MN-language.htm

 

 

Vowels

Consonants

Consonant/Vowel Combinations

 

 

 

 

 

Family Life

            The Mongols are very hospitable natured people.

One should expect that the head of the ger or yurt (house) will make sure to make the stay of a stranger as comfortable as possible. He offers milk tea, mutton, and wine. The whole family would get involved in conversation by asking detailed questions. When leaving the host family, a common occurrence is the guest to be accompanied for quite a distance until the host would explain the rest of the directions. This culture, much like that found in all of China, is very relationship based and should be treated with the respect that nomadic hosts offer.

            Family life is also very important for this nomadic colony. After sons marry, they will move out of the family home but will most commonly live very near. Some families would live together with the parents and the sons or daughters-in-law. The inner Mongolian culture is very masculine based, but the husband would commonly consult the wife on important life decisions.

Recently there has been an interesting custom where the bride would give a “denying entrance on marrying.” This is where the bride’s family would slam the door in the grooms face repeatedly before granting acceptance into the family. This would be followed by family traditions at the wedding itself, which would end with the bride riding away from her home on horseback around her home three times and then would ride off into the direction of the bride-groom’s home where she would have the door slammed in her a few times before entering.

It is imperative to know the importance the people of Inner Mongolia put on family. Sometimes this hospitality is such that westerners may not be used to. One should allow time to get to know the host family to make the stay as seamless as possible.

  http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Mongols.html#b