Mongolian

Mongolian puts a question to a learner that almost no other language does: which script are you going to learn?

Since 1941, Mongolia has written in Cyrillic. That is what every textbook uses, every newspaper prints and every citizen reads.

But the traditional Mongolian script — mongol bichig, written vertically down the page — never disappeared. It remains the official script in Inner Mongolia in China, and Mongolia is bringing it back. The decision was taken in March 2020, and since 2 January 2025 state and local government documents carry both scripts under the Mongolian Language Law. Full restoration is targeted for 2030.

To avoid a common misunderstanding: this is dual use, not the abolition of Cyrillic. Cyrillic continues throughout the transition.

For a learner this means Cyrillic remains the correct entry point — it is close to phonetic and every teaching resource uses it. But if you intend to stay with the language, or you care about Inner Mongolia, the traditional script is no longer a specialist's concern.

The language itself is regular: agglutinating, vowel harmony, subject–object–verb order, no gender.

Mongolian's first beauty is the traditional script. It runs down the page like a spine, letters hanging off a vertical axis and changing shape according to where they stand. Very few scripts in current use look like calligraphy even in ordinary handwriting.

The second is the vocabulary of land. Nutag for a family's particular country, along with a battery of words distinguishing kinds of steppe, kinds of snow, and horses by age, colour and gait. This is the lexicon of a culture where reading the ground correctly is a survival skill.

And the third is khiimori — wind horse. A concept that folds luck, vitality and spirit into one word, and then flies it from a pole. Few languages have a central image that good.

Mongolian grammar is regular and, to anyone who has studied Japanese or Korean, largely familiar.

Agglutinating, suffixes only. Meaning is assembled by stacking suffixes in a fixed order.

Subject–object–verb order, with the verb always last in the clause.

Postpositions rather than prepositions: they follow the noun rather than preceding it, exactly as in Japanese and Korean.

Seven cases, marked by suffix, each suffix having several forms according to vowel harmony.

No gender, no articles, and verbs do not inflect for person — a considerable simplification compared with European languages.

The largest adjustment for an English speaker is that everything attaches at the end and the verb waits until last. You must hold the whole thought until the clause closes. It is a change of rhythm rather than a change of difficulty, and it only has to be made once.

Reading Mongolian splits into two quite different stories depending on the script.

Reading Cyrillic is easy to begin. The alphabet takes days and the spelling is close to phonetic, so you can read anything aloud very early. What is slow is vocabulary, not letters.

Reading the traditional script is a separate project. Beyond letters changing shape by position, its spelling reflects thirteenth-century pronunciation. You cannot derive the written form from the sound — each word must be learned, much like English spelling.

For dictionaries there are two good tools. Bolor Toli is the most widely used online dictionary, covering several language pairs. Mongol Toli leans towards defining Mongolian in Mongolian.

And one thing worth knowing: because the two scripts are now in dual use, more and more official text appears in both. For a learner that is a valuable parallel resource — the same content, two scripts, side by side.

Listening to Mongolian has a specific difficulty that the writing does not warn you about.

Short vowels outside the first syllable are heavily reduced, often disappearing entirely. The writing keeps them in full; the mouth does not. The result is that a word looking four syllables long on the page can arrive as two. Beginners routinely conclude their listening is poor when in fact they are meeting a systematic gap between script and speech.

The response is to listen to and read the same content, then listen again without looking — the same method used for Danish, and for the same reason.

There are two advantages. Stress falls on the first syllable, so every stress marks a word beginning. And vowel harmony makes a whole word sound internally consistent, which helps the ear group syllables belonging to the same word.

For sources, MNB, Mongolia's national broadcaster, is the main entry point, with Montsame and ikon.mn supplying written news to read alongside.

Speaking Mongolian carries a considerable social advantage: very few foreigners learn it, so your effort registers clearly.

On grammar while speaking, the main stumbling block is vowel harmony under time pressure. On paper you choose the right suffix form; in speech the wrong one comes out, and Mongolians notice at once.

The second is the verb-final structure. Because a Mongolian clause ends with its verb, you must hold the whole thought until the end. Anyone coming from an English-like word order has to retrain that rhythm; anyone who has studied Japanese or Korean already has it.

And a note on the culture of speech: the standard greeting is a question. Сайн байна уу? literally means are you well, and the standard reply repeats it back. In the countryside greetings run longer still: people ask about the herds and about the winter just past before arriving at the point.

Writing Mongolian has four things to watch.

First, pick a script and be consistent. In the current dual-use period official documents use both, but any single piece of text is written in one.

Second, long vowels must be written double. Writing one letter writes a different word.

Third, suffixes must match harmony. This is the commonest learner error and it is immediately visible.

Fourth, do not confuse ө with о or ү with у when typing. The four look similar and are the largest source of spelling errors.

On keyboards, the Mongolian Cyrillic layout ships with every operating system. The traditional script needs its own fonts and software supporting vertical text, and this remains a genuine point of technical friction.

Four things worth knowing about Mongolian in use.

Greeting is a procedure, not a word. In the countryside people ask after the herds and the winter just past before coming to the point. Going straight to business reads as abrupt.

The ger has rules. Do not step on the threshold, do not turn your back to the altar, accept things with the right hand or with both. These are noticed more than you would expect, and a foreigner who gets them right is credited immediately.

Accept what is offered, at least a sip. Refusing a bowl of airag or milk tea outright is awkward. Taking a sip and setting it down is enough.

The script question means something. The restoration of the traditional script is bound up with national identity and with memory of the Soviet period. Asking a Mongolian about it usually opens a long conversation, and knowing that it is happening registers.