Home arrow Mongolia Information arrow Mongolian language arrow Vowels

 
Mongolia 's Latest News & Current Events, Directly from Ulaanbaatar

Login

Latest comments

Are the Finns the Mo...
The argument for the origin of peoples is ongoing, but with ...
More...
By Scott Gardner

Are the Finns the Mo...
Chimid4: "It is sad to see Asians from buddhist countrys emb...
More...
By ontstaan

Opening of technolog...
Nice idea, but ... Who is funding the Technology Incubator ...
More...
By ontstaan

Now Online...

No Users Online
Vowels PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 12 November 2007

Mongolian vowels are short or long. The short vowels are;

a        a       as the “u” in “but”

э        e        as the “e” in “den”

и        i        as the ”i” in “tin”

о        o        as the “o” in the British “hot”

ө        ö        as the “o” in “money”

ү        ü        as the “ou” in “source”

Long vowels are doubled short vowels;
aa      aa      as the “a” in “bar”

ээ      ee      as the “ei” in “deign”

ий      ii        as the “ee” in “teem”

оo      oo      as the “o” in  “horn”

өө      öö      as the “e” in  “fern”

уу      uu      as the “o” in  “bone”

үү      üü      as the “oo” in “soon”

The single vowel “y” is also long;

ы       y     as the “i” in “ill”

It is important to emphasise long vowels since the length differentiates meaning, eg tsas/ tsaas (snow/paper) üd/üüd (noon/door).

Some vowels can start with a y sound (long from in brackets):

я        ya      as the “ya” in “yard” (yaa/яа)

е        ye      as the “ye” in “yes”

ё        yo      as the “ya” in “yacht” (yoo/ёо)

е        yö      as the “yea” in “yearn”

ю       yu      as the “yo” in “yoyo” (yuu/юу)

ю       yü      as the “you” in “you” (yüü/юү)

Vowels  may combine to form dipthongs:

ай      ai       as the “eye” in “eyes”

эй      ei       as the “ay” in “pay”

иа      ia       as the “ia” in “fiat”

ио      io       as the “io” in “senior”

иу      iu       as the “iu” in “union”

ой      oi       as the “oi” in “boy”

уа      ua      as the “ua” in “wonder”

уай     uai     as the “uai” in “wine”

уй      ui       as the “ui” in “week”

үй      üi       as the “oui” in “Louis”

Words ending in the letters ь are written in the pronunciation guide with a short unstressed i after a short or long stressed vowel , eg ail(аль) , goiv (говь), and surguuil (сургууль) “school”.                


  Be first to comment this article
RSS comments

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.3.0

 
< Prev   Next >

Google Comment

Join us with your Google account....

General Discussion

Classifieds

Statistics

Members: 1225
News: 2182
WebLinks: 17
Visitors: 11558997

Google Translation

Translate This Website

Mongolia Websites

The goal of the Mongolian River Resources website is to provide information on a wide spectrum of topics related to natural resource use and the environment in Mongolia. This includes issues within Mongolia, and relevant international information and experiences. The need for information pertinent to the environment, ecology, and resource use, available to a broad audience with diverse interests and needs, was identified during the initial year of The Asia Foundation’s Securing Our Future program.