Brief guide to pronouncing Mongolian names

Some of you are trying your best to make heads or tails of these Mongolian names. I forget that I've been in Mongolia struggling with these names for six years now. So to help you with some names that you find often in this blog, I am posting this guide.

But first, let me make some observations. Because Mongolians vowels can be quite different from American English vowels some of the pronunciations won't be quite accurate. But just say them with confidence. Like someone once told me with pronouncing Bible names, "Just say them with confidence and no one will challenge you about it." Also, the r in Mongolian is a trilled r much like one would encounter in the Spanish language. So say all the r that you see as if you were trying to pronounce a Spanish name. Also, the a should be like a in father.

Here's a list. The '-' will separate syllables and a '!' will indicate which syllable should be stressed. If there is no '!' in the name, stress the first syllable.

Buren = boo - ren
Sonin = sun - ing
Ganpurev = gam - per - ev
Ulzee = ull - zee!
Ganaa = gan - aa!
Bilgee = bil - gay!
Enkhee = ink - hay!
Bayambaa = be - im - baa!
Mandaa = man - daa!
Dashgaa = dash - gaa!
Tungaa = tone - gaa!
Ganbold = gam - bold

I think that covers everyone. I'll try to put together another update for these folks and post it soon.

I wrote two other attempts at pronouncing Mongolian names back in June and May. I think that reading all three together would be more confusing than helpful but am posting the links in case it helps you. Over the next few weeks, I will try to pull all this together and present one definitive guide and update. Pray for me.

Khongoroo

Khongoroo (Hung - graw!) was one of my first English students years ago. She was one of my hardest working students too. After I left English teaching she took over some of my classes. Dorothy was a friend to her, and so she used to come over quite often. We talked several times about Jesus Christ, and I thought that she was a Christian. She was attending church then.

For several years we lost touch, then a couple of months ago she called me to ask if I could help her with an English class that she was teaching. I agreed, and we had a chance to meet again. I found out that she had recently moved in with a fellow and that they were not attending church as regularly because she moved quite a ways from their church. She expressed an interest in attending our church services.

Please pray for her and her boyfriend Tamiraa (Tam - raw!) and for me as I seek to minister to them.

Got lost "in-sermon"

Attendance was a couple of people off last month's average on Sunday. There was some sickness, some traveling, and probably some lethargy. The hot weather slows everyone down here. Mongolians don't see weather in the high 90's very often.

Something also happened to me for the first time on Sunday. I had began to flesh out my sermon outline extemporaneously when I forget where I was in my sermon. I had to ask the people, "Now why did I say that?" And one person said, "You were talking about ..." That's the first time it's ever happened to me while preaching in Mongolia. I don't know if it's a good sign or a bad one ...

Bayambaa still has not had her baby yet. But when I talked to her recently, she said that she'd have her baby soon. Her mother came from the countryside to help her.

It's hot!

It looks like we're going to break records here. It was 99 on Wednesday, and the forecast calls for 102 tomorrow! Every place you go now is hot because there are very few places with air conditioning in Mongolia.

I had a good Bible study with Ganpurev and Ulzee on Wednesday. The whole family went and the children played while I taught. Tonight I'll be visiting Enkhee. Pray for Enkhee because he is struggling to make choices that will strengthen his faith over choices that weaken his faith.

Weather update

I usually don't give a weather update unless we are having extremely unusual weather. Here's the scoop. The average high temperature for this time in June is 69° F. Today's temperature is in the mid 90's, and tomorrow is going to be even hotter they say. I understand that the all-time high for UB is just over 100° F. We may break that!

Prayer update

Attendance continues to be good, and more men than women continue to come. One continuing improvement is in the congregational singing. We Americans have always sung enthusiastically ("if we don't, who will?"). Recently, however, the Mongolians have started to equal the foreigners in enthusiasm and volume.

It has been a while since I have been to Ganbold's place and taught a Bible lesson. I understand that part of it is because they are really busy and part of it is because they do not like the Bible lessons. I would guess that it is a combination of the two: in other words, they did not think the Bible lessons were productive enough to make the time to listen to me teach the Bible. As someone whose entire ministry revolves around the word of God, I am always bothered by young men who think it is a waste of their time to study the Bible. Because of sin, this world is a dangerous and painful place. Only a relationship with Jesus Christ brings meaning, joy, and peace to an otherwise very difficult life.

Bayambaa (there are two, this one is the newer Bayambaa) went to the hospital expecting her second child. We watched her 18 month old son all day, all night, and part of another day this week. She has been having some difficulties this last month of pregnancy - something with her thyroid. We were hoping that she would have her baby this week, but she has not had the baby yet. Please pray for a healthy baby and for her husband Mandaa to be saved.

Pronunciation guide

Someone wisely asked me to attempt to provide a pronunciation guide for Mongolian's names. I wrote a general post about pronunciation of Mongolian but doubt that it was helpful in deciphering the names in the blog. So after giving it some thought, here is the new system. Names that I leave without a hint to pronunciation are either so common (for example, Bob) or easy (for example, Mandaa) that they do not need a pronunciation guide. Some names (for example Buren) are familiar to some of my regular readers that I won't always give a pronunciation. When I do give a pronunciation, I'll include it in parentheses after the name. The dashes (-) indicate the syllable breaks and the exclamation points (!) indicate the stressed syllable(s). I try to use standard American English syllable to indicate pronunciation. It won't be exact but it will be far easier for those of you, like me, who are not linguists. So, as an example, Buren's name is boo!-ren. I'll try this for a while. Perhaps after a few weeks, some of you could give me some feedback on how it helps or detracts from my blog.

Also, look at the post below for an example of how it worked with Irmuune and Bayambaa.

Helping out ... with a baby

Sunday night, Bayambaa (bee-yim-ba!) asked us if we would watch her one year old son Ermune (ear-moon!-ay) on Monday because she was going in to see the doctor. We agreed, and Monday morning her husband Mandaa dropped him off at our house. Later that morning, we heard that Bayambaa had gone into labor and was probably going to have her baby sooner rather than later. We waited and waited for someone to come and get Ermune but in the end he spent the night at our house. As of Monday night late, Bayambaa's baby had still not been born. I am guessing that Ermune may be here for a couple of days.

Missions quote

Let people call you eccentric (because you are doing the will of God). Eccentric means nothing more than out of center, and if you have got a new center in God, of course you are out of the old center of the world. Let the world’s machinery move around the old center. You have begun to move about quite another pivot than that around which the world moves. – Keith Falconer

May prayer letter

During May we scheduled several days of special meetings. It was the first time for our fledgling group to hold anything like that. On Monday and Tuesday we heard special speakers. Then on Wednesday I shared my vision for this church.

One of my major concerns with such meetings during the week was whether anyone would attend or not. Some Mongolians work seven days a week, and all of our members work regularly. I wondered if they would let their jobs keep them from coming. I should not have wondered. Twenty-five people came out the first night and almost as many the other nights. With attendance on Sunday running about that many, I was glad to see people make it a priority in their busy schedules.

Many good things came out of these meetings. First, the people enjoyed the extra preaching and fellowship. I am certain that they are looking forward to doing it again. Also, it was a blessing to hear from several of our men who gave their testimonies during the meetings. Several unsaved Mongolians were there and heard how God drew these Mongolian men to Himself.

I gave the Mongolians my vision for our church on Wednesday night. In short, I reminded them that they are the church, and ultimately it will be completely Mongolian without any foreign help. Of course, I do not know when that will be … but it will happen. I reminded them of their opportunities to serve within the church that we have. It was encouraging that the following Sunday, Ganpurev preached in my place. When we talked about it, I told him that I did not want him to take this preaching responsibility as from me. Instead, I wanted him to preach to us because he knew that it was his responsibility from God or not to do it at all. Not by coincidence, his boss asked him to work that Sunday. He made the choice to be in church and fulfill his responsibility to preach.

For me, the short fellowship that we held on Wednesday night was the best part of the meetings. Usually, I feel as if fellowships revolve around my family. Everyone who comes knows us and the conversation seems to center on us. This last fellowship was different. Everyone worked to bring food. They all chatted among themselves and seemed less like a group of people who know the Deans and more like a church and fellowship of believers.

It is steps like these that move a group from a small gathering to a church. I praise the Lord for His presence and help during the month of May. Do not forget that your prayers are an important part of our ministry.