Learning Middle Mongolian
Middle Mongolian was the spoken language of the Mongols during the period of the Mongol Empire in the 13th and 14th centuries. Some scholars refer to the written language of the time as Preclassical Written Mongolian, to distinguish it from the literary language of the 17th and 18th centuries and from the spoken dialects of the time. Here I will use the term “Middle Mongolian” in its broader sense, covering both spoken and written forms.
Unfortunately, there is at present no comprehensive grammar or reader for Middle Mongolian. Here I will list the books, papers, and websites I have found useful for studying Middle Mongolian, with some commentary. The two most useful texts for getting started are Volker Rybatzki’s “Middle Mongol” in The Mongolic Languages and , Kaare Grønbech and John R. Krueger’s Classical Mongolian.
Looking for resources on Middle Mongolian names and naming practices? That bibliography will be coming later!
Grammar
Grountov, Ilya. 2003. “Middle Mongolian Dialects and Modern Mongolian Languages in Regard to Their Spatial Case Systems,” pp. 158-164, in Altaica Budapestinensia MMII : proceedings of the 45th Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC), Budapest, Hungary, June 23-28, 2002, eds. Sárközi, Alice; Rákos, Attila. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
A brief discussion, with examples from Middle Mongolian texts, of spatial cases (dative, locative, ablative, lative, reflexive, and various combinations thereof) in West and East Middle Mongolian dialects, and how these evolved into the spatial case system of Modern Mongolian. Pretty technical and not necessary when starting out.
Kempf, Béla. 2003. “Two Mongolian Compound Suffixes from the Middle-Mongolian Period,” pp. 181-184, in Altaica Budapestinensia MMII: proceedings of the 45th Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC), Budapest, Hungary, June 23-28, 2002, eds. Sárközi, Alice; Rákos, Attila. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
A brief discussion of some suffixes used to form verbs, mostly the distinction between +chi + lA and +chilA. Pretty technical and not really necessary when starting out.
Rybatzki, Volker. 2003. “Middle Mongol,” pp. 57-82, in The Mongolic Languages, ed. Juha Janhunen. London: Routledge.
A brief outline of Middle Mongolian grammar, unfortunately made confusing by the odd transcription system used in the book, which is completely different from the transcription most often used in other scholarly texts. I recommend ignoring the words in bold type unless you are comfortable switching between the two transcriptions. This combined with Grønbech and Krueger’s Classical Mongolian is probably the easiest way to get started.
Street, James C. 1957. The Language of the Secret History of the Mongols. New Haven: American Oriental Society.
An in-depth look at grammatical and lexical aspects of The Secret History of the Mongols; not a grammar.
Dictionaries and Word Lists
Apatóczky, Ákos Bertalan. 2006. Yiyu. The Deciphering of a Sixteenth Century Sino-Mongol Glossary. Doctoral dissertation. (Download)
A translation of a sixteenth century Chinese-Mongolian glossary. The first link is for the dissertation (in English), the second for the title page and Hungarian abstract, and the third to a folder of JPEGS of the original Chinese text.
Golden, Peter B. (ed.); Halasu-Kun, Tibor; Golden, Peter B.; Ligeti, Louis; Schütz, Edmund (trans.). 2000. The King’s Dictionary: The Rasûlid Hexaglot: Fourteenth Century Vocabularies in Arabic, Persian, Turkic, Greek, Armenian and Mongol. Leiden: Brill.
A great source of Middle Mongolian and Old Turkic vocabulary, with a slant towards the language as spoken in the Middle East.
Kara, György. 2009. Dictionary of Sonom Gara’sErdeni-yin Sang: A Middle Mongol Version of the Tibetan Sa Skya Legs Bshad Mongol – English – Tibetan. Leiden: Brill.
A fine dictionary to a Middle Mongolian translation of a Buddhist text (with some Classical influences from recopying). Entries are organized by Mongolian headword. Currently the largest dictionary for Middle Mongolian; however, it is heavily biased towards the sorts of words one finds in religious texts, so it won’t suffice on its own for translating other types of texts.
Rybatzki, Volker. 2003. “Names of the Months in Middle Mongol,” pp. 256-290, in Altaica Budapestinensia MMII : proceedings of the 45th Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC), Budapest, Hungary, June 23-28, 2002, eds. Sa?rko?zi, Alice; Ra?kos, Attila. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
A comprehensive analysis of marking time in Middle Mongolian texts. Includes tables of various month/season schemes for Middle, Classical, and other Mongolian languages. A great resource for trying to make sense of dates in Middle Mongolian texts, and also a good source for vocabulary relating to animals.
Phonology
Svantesson, Jan-Olof; Tsendina, Anna; Karlsson, Anastasia; Franzén, Vivan. 2005. The Phonology of Mongolian. New York: Oxford University Press.
Very technical, but vital if you actually want to try pronouncing anything.
Romanization
Janhunen, Juha. 2009. “On the Romanization of vPhags.pa Mongol,” pp. 63-77, in The Early Mongols: Language, Culture, and History: Studies in Honor of Igor de Rachewiltz on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, eds. Volker Rybatzki, Alessandra Pozzi, Peter W. Geier, and John R. Kreuger. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University.
Discusses the difference between transliteration and transcription and the pros and cons in the context of vPhags.pa Mongol script. This is mainly useful because it can be used to decipher the transliteration used in Rybatzki’s “Middle Mongol” chapter in The Mongolic Languages back into the more typical transliteration used for most texts you’ll come across.
Original Texts
de Rachewiltz, Igor. 2006. The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century. Leiden: Brill. 2 volumes.
This extensively annotated (3/4 of the books!) translation of the earliest historical text in Middle Mongolian is invaluable for its discussion of various linguistic and cultural aspects of the text. However, it does not include the full text in Middle Mongolian transliteration.
Monumenta Altaica: Mongolian Monuments
The rest of the Monumenta Altaica’s Mongolian site regards mostly modern languages. However, there is some useful stuff on the Mongolian Monuments page:
- Stone of Genghis-Khan (replace x with q and G with gh)
- Pelliot’s transcription and French translation of Chapters I-VI of the Secret History (PDF download)
- Hua-i ih-yu (Mongolian dictionary and Edicts of the Yuan Dynasty, non-typical transliteration)
- The ‘Phags-pa Mongolian Inscription of Togon-temur qagan’s Edict (non-typical transliteration)
Classical Mongolian Grammar and Vocabulary
Grønbech, Kaare; Krueger, John R. 1955. Classical Mongolian. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
A fine, easy-to-follow introductory grammar and reader for Classical Mongolian. Although there are some changes in syntax, case endings, and vocabulary between Middle and Classical Mongolian, this is a really useful book for getting started. It works all the way from the very basics up to texts in Uighur script for the very dedicated. The one problem with it is that there are no keys for the translation exercises, so you cannot check your work.
A fantastic website primarily devoted to Classical Mongolian. Includes some grammar sketches, a searchable dictionary (desktop version can be downloaded for a fee), and the beginning of The Secret History of the Mongols in Uighur script, as well as assorted other texts in Classical Mongolian for translation practice. However, the Uighur script font necessary to view dictionary entries in Uighur script as well as Roman letters seems to be missing.
Poppe, Nicholas. Grammar of Written Mongolian.
Most or all of Poppe’s grammar of Written (~Classical) Mongolian. Less detailed and clear than Grønbech and Krueger’s Classical Mongolian, but free and online!