Languagle #38: Mongolian
Ганц мод гал болохгүй, ганц хүн айл болохгүй
Gants mod gal bolokhgüi, gants khün ail bolokhgüi
"One log won't make a fire; one person won't make a household."
What it means
Nobody can manage alone. One log does not make a fire, and one person does not make a household. The two halves mirror each other exactly, a pattern common in Mongolian proverbs.
What kind of saying it is
Oral tradition. In Mongolian, a зүйр цэцэн үг. Passed down by word of mouth. Sayings like this have no single author.
About the Mongolian language
Mongolian is a Mongolic language spoken by around 6 million people, in Mongolia and in the Inner Mongolia region of China. In Mongolia it has been written in Cyrillic since the 1940s, while Inner Mongolia keeps the traditional Mongolian script, one of the few scripts in the world written in vertical columns from top to bottom. Mongolia has begun reintroducing the traditional script alongside Cyrillic.
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