26 replies to this topic

[Andy Lau]

Mongolian sounds like a mix of Korean and Russian =/ http://ca.youtube.co...feature=related The mongols even look like a fusion of east asian and russian people... What are your opinions?

[大泽升龙]

Mongolian sounds like a mix of Korean and Russian =/ http://ca.youtube.co...feature=related The mongols even look like a fusion of east asian and russian people... What are your opinions?

Only if you change "Mongols" to "Tatars", I will agree to some degree.

[Andy Lau]

Only if you change "Mongols" to "Tatars", I will agree to some degree.

actually they look more east asian, but they seem like they have this slight russian look and their language has this slight russian sound. I know that Mongol is suppose to belong to the Altaic group of languages including Korean, Turkish and Manchu, but to me just sounds slightly russian =/ Check this out as well:

[大泽升龙]

actually they look more east asian, but they seem like they have this slight russian look and their language has this slight russian sound. I know that Mongol is suppose to belong to the Altaic group of languages including Korean, Turkish and Manchu, but to me just sounds slightly russian =/ Check this out as well:

Looking: typical northern Chinese looking. some slightly Europid influnce can be introduced by various Turkic tribes.
Language: not similar to Russian at all, from phonetics to grammar.

[fireball]

Looking: typical northern Chinese looking. some slightly Europid influnce can be introduced by various Turkic tribes.
Language: not similar to Russian at all, from phonetics to grammar.

Are you sure? From what I read from a book by a Chinese professor who study Mongolia and Mongolian people (he also traveled throughout Russia and East Europe) and told by my Mongolian friend, if you know how to speak Mongolian, you would have no problem of communication in East European countries and Russia. My friend was also a reporter from mainland China and travelled widely.

I am not sure about the grammar, but I am quite sure that there are quite a few common words between them from what I heard. Mongol had ruled Russia for a few hundred years, and they are neighboring countries. Then, in the last few decades, Russia ruled/oversaw outer Mongolia (or the modern Republic of Mongolia).

However, I do feel the Mongolian language sounded more like Korean than Russian. In the book of the professor I mentioned above, he was exploring the language roots of Koreans, Mogolians, and Eastern Europeans. He believes there was a group of nomadic tribes that moved from Chinese north east region gradually across Mongolia and eventually settled in the current day Eastern Europe. He claimed this group formed the core of the Huns, and he connected them to the Chinese Xiongnu in Han dynasty. He said that he found a lot of similarities in basic words or word roots from the languages spoken by the people in these three regions, especially words related to mother, father, gods, and normal every day items that could have been found in a nomadic camp, like horse, etc.

[Nuts]

Sounds pretty Prussian to me, as well as east Asian, no doubts about that. Obviously this works the other way round and Russian sounds somehow Mongolian.

[Nuts]

Russian, of course. I don't know the sound of Prussian. Anyway, the similarities between Russian and Mongolian I would ascribe to finno-ugric phonetic stratum.

[fireball]

In the book of the professor I mentioned above, he was exploring the language roots of Koreans, Mogolians, and Eastern Europeans. He believes there was a group of nomadic tribes that moved from Chinese north east region gradually across Mongolia and eventually settled in the current day Eastern Europe. He claimed this group formed the core of the Huns, and he connected them to the Chinese Xiongnu in Han dynasty. He said that he found a lot of similarities in basic words or word roots from the languages spoken by the people in these three regions, especially words related to mother, father, gods, and normal every day items that could have been found in a nomadic camp, like horse, etc.

As I understand it, the professor was not doing a "word of mouth". He went to North East of China and North Korea to visit the local ethnic tribes, especially the ones who lived in the isolated mountain areas where minimun outside contacts were involved. This way, he would get the most original form of the language/dialect. These people's dialects or languages were the ones I am talking about similar to the Mongolian language. I would not know how close would those tribal dialects would be to those people who live in other parts of more civilized Korea that has restaurants. However, from what I understood, the modern Korean language might have its roots from those ancient dialects or languages of these isolated tribes in the mountains. The words that could be recognized between the two group of people would be everyday words from a nomadic life and not from the vocabularies of a modern restaurant owners. I would not know what the restaurant owner communicated with the Mongolian girl. However, I am quite sure it was not something like, horses or tents.

Besides, he did mention some of the words have some variations in pronunciations from group to group. For someone to speak a word in South Korea to a person who lives in inner Mongolia, it might be like someone who tries to speak Cantonese to me. I will not understand most of the words in Cantonese even though Cantonese pronunciation was just a bit off from Zhejiang dialect that I know a lot because I am not a linguist and could not guess some of the differences in pronunciations on the same words. If the Mongolia girl is a linguist, I think she would not be working in a restaurant.

The part about East Europe, this professor was there himself, and he witnessed it himself. The book was not a traveler's guide or a casual reading book for fun. It was a professionally written book with historical and linguistic references. The book was also written for other scholars and not lay people. However, I was also pretty skeptical about it because I have never heard of such things. Therefore, I asked my trusted Mongolian friend who was a reporter in mainland China and had contacts with many different kinds of people including people who had traveled to East European countries. In addition, she grew up in Inner Mongolia and had many friends from East Europe when she was in college in Shanghai. I asked her whether she had heard of such things. She confirmed it without hesitation. She had no reasons to impress me or lie to me especially in this matter. Therefore, I believe her. It's unfortunate that I don't know where I placed that book. Otherwise, I could give you the example of words in that book.

Edited by fireball, 09 December 2007 - 10:43 PM.

[Chanpuru]

sounds like Korean..but of course, outside of grammar, theres very few strong linguistic commonalities. words are totally different. I don:t see any commonality with Russian, both looks wise and language

[Prince of the South]

So anyone knows if thw grammar of Mongolian, Russian and Korean languages are similar, or not? As mentioned before by others, having similar words are no proof the languages are related linguistically as words are borrowed all over in the past, and still, today.

The part about East Europe, this professor was there himself, and he witnessed it himself

Which part of East Europe? The Magyar language of Hungary??? Which country, or peoples?

[yan]

if you know how to speak Mongolian, you would have no problem of communication in East European countries and Russia

That's because fellow Mongolians can be found virtually anywhere!
But in fact, I don't think Russian and Mongolian are very similar. There are a number of Russian loanwords used in Outer Mongolia (mashin, pivo, galstuk, ...), so this probably helps a bit. But for example word order is rather different. But I don't really know russian. Maybe Russian and Mongolian sound similar in the way that Chinese and Vietnamese do when you don't know either.

[kaiselin]

Just because a language has the same root to a word does in no way mean that two differently evolved languages are going to be recognizable to either speaker or listener of a differnt language. Look at all the various languages that claim Sanskrit or Latin as a root language.

[fireball]

So anyone knows if thw grammar of Mongolian, Russian and Korean languages are similar, or not? As mentioned before by others, having similar words are no proof the languages are related linguistically as words are borrowed all over in the past, and still, today.

The part about East Europe, this professor was there himself, and he witnessed it himself

Which part of East Europe? The Magyar language of Hungary??? Which country, or peoples?

Sorry, I misplaced the book, so I don't remember the coutries, but it would be the ones where the Huns were supposed to have settled, like Hunagry? Also with the people who are known to be Hun descendents.

[fireball]

Besides Cantonese dialect,no other Chinese languages sound any bit close to Vietnamese.

Yes, I always mistook Cantonese and Vietnamese until I listen carefully for the words -- The one I sort of understand must be Cantonese!

[Zorigo]

Mongolian language completely different than Russian, Korean. Turkish, Tibetan and Manchu languages.
Of course there are many shared words in Mongolic, Turkic and Tungusic languages.
But they don't understand each other at all !