32 The Linguist Vol/63 No/2
ciol.org.uk/thelinguist
OPINION & COMMENT
In the Year of Mongol
of Mongolian cultural
ENKHEE NAMSRAI
The Mongolian language has always been
unique, both in its spoken form and in its
traditional script. These have existed in parallel
for a millennium or more, but during the 70
years of Soviet domination, the connection
between spoken Mongolian and its ancient
written form was broken in Mongolia when it
was replaced by Cyrillic. In contrast, the
traditional script was retained in the Chinese
Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia. Now
it is being revived in democratic Mongolia but
faces suppression in China.
The Mongolian scholar Shagdarsuren
Tsevel once said that "a people's language,
script, and intellectual life are an integrated
unit. If one part gets distorted, the others
get distorted too."
1
Today, the survival of
ancient scripts and languages is a matter of
What's
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8
9 10
11 12
13
14 15
16 17
18
19 20 21 22
23
24 25
26 27
Across
1* 'Gentle way'. (4)
3 One who copies or mimics. (8)
9 If you take this, you accept whatever is
available. (3,4)
10* From Chinese, meaning 'Pulled
noodles'. (5)
11* Name of the home country in 1
down. (5)
12* 'Big root'. (6)
14 Metal obtained from the ore
argentite. (6)
16* 'Art person'. (6)
19 If not passive, a verb is probably this. (6)
21* Wrestling tournament. (5)
24 To fit out. (5)
25* 'Sulphur island', site of a battle in 1945.
(3,4)
26* 'Shine grilling'. (8)
27 A syllabic writing system in 1 down. (4)
Down
1 See preamble. (8)
2 Double it for nonsense. (5)
4* 'Heavenly sovereign'. (6)
5* A traditional gateway. (5)
6 Primitive drums. (3-4)
7 Wife of a raja. (4)
8 Japonica is also known as 1 down ___. (6)
13* Goodbye. (8)
15 Synonym of the home country of 1
down. (7)
17 As one unit or wholesale. (2,4)
18 Euphemistically it denotes financial loss
in the world of accounting. (3,3)
20 To insinuate. (5)
22 Features with Brahma and Vishnu in the
Hindu trinity. (5)
23 Conjunction, for fear that… (4)
Crossword no.36
Solution, page 34
Clues marked * lead to a word derived from 1 down. If the clue is in 'quotes', it is a
literal translation from 1 down.
©
UNSPLASH
