Middle Mongol Grammar for SCA Names

Introduction

Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian is the language spoken between approximately 1200 and 1600 CE. It differs from modern Mongolian languages, in particular Khalka Mongolian, in many ways, including vowel sounds, vocabulary, and writing systems. The names of medieval Mongol names were recorded using many different writing systems, including 'Phags-pa (Tibetan), Mongolian, Arabic, Chinese, and Latin scripts. In the Society for Creative Anachronism, transliteration of a reconstructed Mongolian spelling is most popular.

A registered SCA name must contain at least 2 elements. This poses a problem for Mongol personas, because even today, most Mongolians don’t use inherited surnames. This article describes the grammatical rules for three possible solutions:

• Descriptive bynames
• Patronymic phrases
• Tribal/clan bynames.

Pronunciation and Sound Patterns

Consonants

Many consonants are close to their English equivalents. Here are some with more ambiguous transliterations or less familiar sounds. In the table below, IPA refers to the International Phonetic Alphabet, and the description is the formal phonetic description.

The r is closer to a Spanish trilled r.

Vowels

• "Back" vowels: a, o, u
• Front "neutral" vowel: i
• "Front" vowels: e, ö and ü

Vowel harmony

Vowels in a Middle Mongol word are consistent: all back vowels, or all front vowels.

Examples.

Ebügen ‘old, elder'

Itelgü ‘falcon'

Mungqaq ‘fool'

Qoridai ‘pelican'

Genitive

Word order

In Middle Mongol, adjectives typically come before nouns, just as they do in English.

Example

boγda Temüǰin → Holy Temüǰin

Compare Little John.

Descriptive bynames

Descriptive bynames are quite common in Middle Mongolian sources. They may come before or after the given name, depending on the word (and perhaps the extent to which it's incorporated in a name!) In more complicated name constructions, the combination of a given name and descriptive byname acts as a unit.

Descriptive names from the first chapters of The Secret History of the Mongols

Patronymic Phrases

In Middle Mongol sources, people are occasionally described as their father's sons or daughters, using the word kö'ün for son and öki or ökin for daughter. Descriptions of this sort weren't used as consistently as true surnames, but are useful for SCA purposes.

Construction

Tribal/Clan Bynames

In Middle Mongol sources, people are frequently identified as belonging to a particular clan or tribe. In my analysis of the beginning of The Secret History of the Mongols, the most frequent construction uses a tribe or clan name in the genitive.

Construction

Annotated Bibliography