New dictionary to end uncertainty over spelling

By B.DULGUUN

The National Board of Language Policy has published a new Mongolian spelling dictionary to provide a comprehensive and standard spelling for all Mongolian speakers so that they can avoid making common misspellings in their writing.

The new dictionary provides spelling and proper usage of 37,486 Mongolian words and 1,000 loanwords. The board decided to include 1,000 of the most common loanwords in the dictionary out of some 6,000 words adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification to the Mongolian language.

Over 20 members of the board developed the dictionary with assistance from linguistics experts. Anyone who wishes to check spellings for specific words can access a digital version of the dictionary at toli.gov.mn.

Until now, the “Mongolian Spelling Dictionary” written by Ts.Damdinsuren and B.Osor in 1983 has been in use. However, the board strongly encourages the public to use the new, updated dictionary.