Days of the Week in Mongolian & Buryat: Planetary and Numbered Names

Mongolian is spoken in the state of Mongolia as well as the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region and some other parts of China. Both have their own literary standard, although that of the state of Mongolia is far better known than the Chinese standard.

The Buryat language is close to Mongolian and indeed is treated in both China and Mongolia as a dialect of Mongolian. In Buryatia, Russia, however, it is an independent language with its own literary standard.

The Kalmyk language is another closely related language based on the Oirat form of Mongolian, spoken in Kalmykia in Russia.

Mongolian, Buryat, and Kalmyk have two types of naming systems for the days of the week:

• Those based on the names of the sun, moon, and planets -- mostly obsolete or literary (except in Kalmyk).

Historically, planetary names appear to be older. Several systems of planetary names exist, based on Indian, Tibetan, and native vocabulary respectively, but only the Tibetan-based names are current in Mongolian and Buryat, and even these are mostly confined to written contexts. Kalmyk uses a mixed planetary system.

• Those based on a system of numbering -- current in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Buryatia, but differing in detail.

The everyday naming of days of the week in Inner Mongolia, Mongolia, and Buryatia is based on numbering.

In addition, Buryat also uses the Russian names.

The names are given below in Traditional Mongolian script where possible, with Cyrillic for reference. (Note that using Cyrillic for Inner Mongolian names may be slightly inaccurate because the Cyrillic standard was specifically devised for Mongolia. The Cyrillic script for Buryat and Kalmyk is different from Mongolian as the Russians treated each as being a different language from Mongolian.)

A. PLANETARY NAMES

1. Tibetan planetary names

Tibetan Buddhism (lamaism) had an overwhelming cultural influence on the Mongols through several centuries. It is thus quite unremarkable that Mongolian and Buryat should have adopted names for days of the week from Tibetan. The Tibetan names themselves are straight planetary names, probably based on Indian models. The Tibetan names are:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Tibetan script	གཟའ་ཟླ་བ།	གཟའ་ཟླ་བ།	གཟའ་མིག་དམར།	གཟའ་ལླག་པ།	གཟའ་ཕུར་བུ།	གཟའ་པ་སངས།	གཟའ་སྤེན་པ།
Pronunciation (Wylie)	gza' nyi ma	gza' zla ba	gza' mig dmar	gza' lhag pa	gza' phur bu	gza' pa sangs	gza' spen pa
Meaning	'planet sun'	'planet moon'	'planet Mars'	'planet Mercury'	'planet Jupiter'	'planet Venus'	'planet Saturn'

The borrowed names as used in Mongolian are:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Traditional script
Cyrillic	ням	даваа	мягмар	лхагва	пүрэв	баасан	бямба
Transliteration	nyam	davaa	myagmar	khlagv	pürev	baasaŋ	byamb
Meaning	'sun'	'moon'	'Mars'	'Mercury'	'Jupiter'	'Venus'	'Saturn'

In their full form, these names include the word гариг garig (or гарaг garag) meaning ‘planet’: ням гариг nyam garig, даваа гариг, davaa garig, мягмар гариг myagmar garig, хлагва гариг khlagv garig, пүрэв гариг pürev garig, баасан гариг baasaŋ garig, and бяамба гариг byamb garig. However it is more common to omit it, as in the table.

The original meaning of гариг/гарaг garig/garag is ‘planet’, but thanks to its association with the names of the days of the week, it now means 'week' in Inner Mongolia. (In Mongolia itself, the word for week is долоон хоног dolooŋ honog 'seven days'.)

The Buryat forms of the Tibetan names are as follows (Buryat transliterations are from geonames.de):

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Traditional script
Cyrillic	няма	дабаа	мягмар	һагба	пүрбэ	баасан	бямба
Transliteration	njama	dabaa	mjagmar	hagba	pürbä	baasan	bjamba
Meaning	'sun'	'moon'	'Mars'	'Mercury'	'Jupiter'	'Venus'	'Saturn'

The Tibetan-based names are still in use in Mongolia, where they have undergone something of a revival, as well as Buryat and also partially in the Kalmyk names.

The Kalmyk names are as follows (from geonames.de):

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Cyrillic	нарн	сарң	мигмр	үлмҗ	пүрвә	басң	бембә
Transliteration	narn	sarṅ	migmr	ülmǰ	pürvä	basṅ	bembä
Meaning	'sun'	'moon'	'Mars'	'Mercury'	'Jupiter'	'Venus'	'Saturn'

Note that the Tibetan names survive at Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, while Sunday and Monday use native words (see below).

However, the Tibetan names have almost completely fallen out of use in Inner Mongolia, and even in Mongolia itself they are now found only in written use, principally found in documents and public signs advertising hours of business.

The Tibetan names are frequently used in Mongolian personal names, usually reflecting the day of the week on which the person was born.

Besides the Tibetan planetary names, Mongolian in the past has also used planetary names based on Indian names (also under Tibetan influence) and Mongolian native words (reflecting Chinese influence).

2. Indian planetary names

The Indian planetary names for the days of the week are:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Traditional script
Cyrillic	адъяа	сумъяа	ангараг	буд	бархасбадь	сугар	санчир
Transliteration	ad-yaa	sum-ya	angarag	bud	barkhasbad'	sugar	sanchir
Meaning	'sun'	'moon'	'Mars'	'Mercury'	'Jupiter'	'Venus'	'Saturn'

These names in their full form are, like the Tibetan-based names, accompanied by the word гариг garig (or гарaг garag) ‘planet’. Slight variations in spelling include Ангариг angarig for Ангараг angarag and Бархасбад barkhasbad for Бархасбадь barkhasbad'.

These names are now principally used for the planets themselves. However, the connection with the days of the week is still alive, for instance, in their use in personal names reflecting the day of birth (the most common being Санчир sanchir and Сугар sugar).

The Indian planetary names themselves were a result of Western influence dating back to the 5th century. (Note 4: The Buddhist route of transmission) They are still used for the days of the week both in India and those areas culturally influenced by India. For reference, the following table shows Sanskrit, Hindi, and Thai names for the days of the week (thanks to geonames.de).

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Sanskrit	आदित्यवारः, रविवारः	सोमवारः	मङ्गलवारः	बुधवारः	बृहस्पतिवारः गुरुवारः	शुक्रवारः	शनैस्चरवारः, शनिवारः
Transliteration	ādityavāraḥ, ravivāraḥ	somavāraḥ	maṅgalavāraḥ	budʰavāraḥ	br̥haspativāraḥ, guruvāraḥ	śukravāraḥ	śanaiscaravāraḥ, śanivāraḥ
Hindi	इतवार, रविवार	सोमवार	मंगलवार	बुधवार	बृहस्पतिवार, गुरुवार	शुक्रवार	शनिवार
Transliteration	itvār, ravivār	somvār	maṃgalvār	budʰvār	br̥haspativār, guruvār	šukravār	šanivār
Thai	วันอาทิตย์	วันจันทร์	วันอังคาร	วันพุธ	วันพฤหัสบดี, วันพฤหัสฯ	วันศุกร์	วันเสาร์
Transliteration	wân ātʰit	wân čân	wân âṅkʰān	wân put	wân priahâtbadī, wân prihât	wân suk	wân saw
Meaning	'sun (planet)'	'moon (planet)'	'Mars (planet)'	'Mercury (planet)'	'Jupiter (planet)'	'Venus (planet)'	'Saturn (planet)'

3. Mongolian planetary names

In addition to the Tibetan and Indian names, a third set of planetary names using native Mongolian words also exists. For the weekdays, these are based on the five elements of Chinese. They thus parallel the Seven Luminaries of Chinese and are similar to the Japanese names of the days of the week. (See also the Seven Luminaries in Mongolian). However, they are very seldom used and are not found in most ordinary Mongolian sources. One notable exception is the use of the word for 'sun' and 'moon' in the Kalmyk names for the days of the week.

The native planetary names are as shown below (from Mongolian Wikipedia and Antoine Mostaert via China History Forum, with disagreement about the word for Friday):

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Cyrillic	наран өдөр	саран өдөр	гал өдөр	усан өдөр	модон өдөр	төмөр өдөр, алтан өдөр	шороон өдөр
Transliteration	naraŋ ödör	saraŋ ödör	gal ödör	usaŋ ödör	modoŋ ödör	tömör ödör, altaŋ ödör	shorooŋ ödör
Meaning	'sun day'	'moon day'	'fire day'	'water day'	'wood day'	'iron day, gold day'	'earth day'

B. NUMBERED NAMES

In the everyday spoken language, Mongolian speakers in both Mongolia and Inner Mongolia use systems of numbered days. Buryat also uses a slightly different numbering system.

1. Numbered days of the week (Mongolia)

In Mongolia, the days of the week are named as follows:

a) The days from Monday to Friday use ordinals, that is, they are called ‘day no. 1’, ‘day no. 2’, etc. This is based on the use of дахь dakh' or дэх dekh, with the actual form being determined by vowel harmony, based on whether the vowel of the number itself is masculine or feminine. Хоёр khoyor, гурав gurav, and тав tav contain masculine vowels; нэг neg and дөрөв döröv contain feminine vowels.

b) Sunday is known as ‘full good day’ (i.e. 'full holiday') and Saturday is known as ‘half good day’ ('half holiday'). The name for Sunday is based on the fact that it is a full day of rest.

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Traditional script
Cyrillic	бүтэн сайн өдөр	нэгдэх өдөр	хоёрдахь өдөр	гуравдахь өдөр	дөрөвдэх өдөр	тавдахь өдөр	хагас сайн өдөр
Transliteration	büteŋ saiŋ ödör	neg dekh ödör	khoyor dakh' ödör	gurav dakh' ödör	döröv dekh ödör	tav dakh' ödör	khagas saiŋ ödör
Rough meaning	'full good day' (='full holiday')	'first day'	'second day'	'third day'	'fourth day'	'fifth day'	'half good day' (='half holiday')

2. Numbered days of the week (Inner Mongolia)

Inner Mongolia uses a slightly different set of numbered names that follow the Chinese official names.

Chinese officially uses 星期 xīngqī, meaning 'week', to form the names of days of the week, counting the days from Monday as 'week one', Tuesday as 'week two', through to Saturday as 'week six'. Sunday is 'week day', an incongruous term as explained here. This system was first recorded in 1889.

Inner Mongolian usage is based on the word гариг/гараг garig/garag 'planet'. The use of гариг/гараг garig/garag here is probably a result of the Tibetan planetary names and is reason for assuming that the Tibetan planetary names must have come before the numbered names.

Where Chinese says ‘week one, week two, etc.’ for the days of the week, Mongolian uses ‘one of the week’, ‘two of the week, etc.’ This takes the form 'гарагийн garagiŋ + number', where гарагийн garagiŋ is the genitive (possessive) of гараг garag.

This is similar to the normal method of citing dates in Mongolian. For instance, the 'first of January' is нэгдүгээр сарын нэгэн negdügeer sariŋ negeŋ 'one of the first-month'. In both cases the word 'day' is understood. The names of the days of the week thus mean '(day) one of the week', '(day) two of the week', and so on.

The giveway to a Chinese origin is the name for Sunday, гарагийн өдөр garagiŋ ödör, literally ‘day of the planet’ or 'day of the week', which is clearly modelled on the Chinese term 星期天 xīngqītian ‘week day’.

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Traditional script
Cyrillic	гарагийн өдөр	гарагийн нэгэн	гарагийн хоёр	гарагийн гурван	гарагийн дөрвөн	гарагийн таван	гарагийн зургаан
Transliteration	garagiŋ ödör	garagiŋ negeŋ	garagiŋ khoyor	garagiŋ gurvaŋ	garagiŋ dörvöŋ	garagiŋ tavaŋ	garagiŋ zurgaaŋ
Rough meaning	'day of the week'	'one of the week'	'two of the week'	'three of the week'	'four of the week'	'five of the week'	'six of the week'

The relationship with the numbering system used in Mongolia is unclear. To sum up the situation:

1. Inner Mongolia uses names modelled on the Chinese 星期 xīngqī names, a system first recorded in 1889. The Inner Mongolian names use the word гариг/гараг garig/garag 'planet', probably a relic of the old Tibetan planetary names. Гариг/гараг garig/garag also means 'week' in modern usage.

2. For the weekdays, Mongolia has an ordinal numbering system and does not use the word гариг/гараг garig/garag. In Mongolia, гариг/гараг garig/garag is not normally used to mean 'week'. The two weekend days have separate names.

An intriguing bridge between the two systems is found in one particular dictionary published in China, the Shin monggol-khyatad tol' / Xīn hàn-měng cídiǎn (Шинэ Монгол Хятад толь / 新汉蒙词典), which gives a longer version of the numbered day names. For the weekday names, these look like full forms of both the Inner Mongolian names and the Mongolian names, and are thus possibly the original forms. They mean quite explicitly 'first day of the week', 'second day of the week', etc. The names are:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Traditional script
Cyrillic	гарагийн өдөр	гарагийн нэгдэх өдөр	гарагийн хоёрдахь өдөр	гарагийн гуравдахь өдөр	гарагийн дөрөвдэх өдөр	гарагийн тавдахь өдөр	гарагийн зургаадахь өдөр
Transliteration	garagiŋ ödör	garagiŋ neg dekh ödör	garagiŋ khoyor dakh' ödör	garagiŋ gurav dakh' ödör	garagiŋ döröv dekh ödör	garagiŋ tav dakh' ödör	garagiŋ zurgaa dakh' ödör
Rough meaning	'week day'	'first day of the week'	'second day of the week'	'third day of the week'	'fourth day of the week'	'fifth day of the week'	'sixth day of the week'

If this set of names is the common source for the two sets of names, the names quite likely date back to the late Qing dynasty (specifically the period between 1889 and 1911), when all of Mongolia was under Chinese rule.

However, the above must be treated cautiously. First, the dictionary concerned is not entirely trustworthy as a source of Mongolian since it adopts an idiosyncratic approach to vocabulary, listing names that are not in actual use. Secondly, I have no solid sources detailing the origins or history of these names.

3. Numbered days of the week (Buryat)

As in Mongolian, the most common Buryat names for days of the week are numbered names. The names closely resemble those of Inner Mongolia, taking the form of the genitive of гараг garag ('day', 'week') -- гарагай garagaj in Buryat -- followed by a number. But unlike either of the Mongolian numbering systems, the days are counted from Sunday rather than Monday. Thus, Sunday is 'one of the week', Monday is 'two of the week', Tuesday is 'three of the week', etc. There are no special names for Saturday or Sunday.

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Cyrillic	гарагай нэгэн	гарагай хоёр	гарагай гурбан	гарагай дүрбэн	гарагай табан	гарагай зургаан	гарагай долоон
Transliteration	garagaj nägän	garagaj ȟojor	garagaj gurban	garagaj dürbän	garagaj taban	garagaj zurgaan	garagaj doloon
Rough meaning	'one of the week'	'two of the week'	'three of the week'	'four of the week'	'five of the week'	'six of the week'	'seven of the week'

The source of this numbering is a mystery. Worldwide there are not many languages that clearly number the days from Sunday. The Russian names, which would be the most obvious model, clearly count from Monday. Languages that do start on Sunday include Persian, Hebrew, Old Turkic, modern Greek, and Vietnamese. The mechanism by which Buryat adopted the form of naming found in Inner Mongolia but a different starting day for the numbering is simply unknown.

C. RUSSIAN NAMES

1. Russian names

Buryat has belonged to Russia since Tsarist times and has been strongly influenced by Russian. As a consequence, Buryat also uses the Russian names for days of the week:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Cyrillic	Воскресени	Понедельник	Вторник	Среда	Четверг	Пятница	Суббото
Transliteration	voskreseni	ponedel'nik	vtornik	sreda	četverg	pjatnica	subboto

Source

cjvlang.com