I realize that it's not official any longer and cyrillic is used, but do the locals still at least have a working knowledge of traditional Mongolian script?
Just curious. I think it looks a lot nicer and is a nicer link to Mongolian history, so it seems like a better option than cyrillic...but I realize it isn't my choice to make and switching systems would be hard and expensive. Again, just curious.
Hi Nechestiv,
I'm not a Mongolian, but from what I know is that now many Mongolians learn the vertical script at school. And the vertical script is acknowleged as an offical language, so all governemntal documents are published in the vertical script as well. However, because the Cyrillic is still dominant, reading fluently in the vertical script is still pretty tough. Older generations haven't had the change to learn it at school, but younger generations do and those who are interested continue to study.
Some Central Asian countries changed or planning to change to alphabet, which might be an option for Mongolia as well. Many Monglians use alphabet to write especially online. I'm learning the vertical myself right now and it is pretty tough.
I'm working with other people on a portal for Mongolian language materials and everthing will be available in both vertical as well as Cyrillic script. If you're interested let me know.
Btw, how is your Greenlandic going? I'm fascinated by that language as well and I downloaded some materials but haven't looked at it. Is the inlfluence of Danish still strong or not? Would love to go to Greenland.
If you have any questions about Mongolian let me know.
That's good that they're learning it now. Sure I'd be interested. I'm having a hard time finding Outer Mongolian materials with the corresponding vertical script. It seems that Inner Mongolian dialects are taught with it.
Well, this week was my first week. The first three lessons have been on pronunciation, which is getting easier and I think I'm getting that down pretty well. That said though, I only have a few vocabulary terms and none of the [more important] grammar rules yet. It's said that grammar is your friend, not words, so I'm looking forward to learning the grammar.
Greenlanders seem to typically know Danish and I believe it's used in higher education, but the language itself is still very Inuit. I'd look up the new orthography vs. the old if you're interested. And if you don't know Danish and aie learning Kalaallisut, "Greenlandic for Foreigners" is what I'm using. It's a bit expensive, but it seems thorough.
