# Mongolian: suffix of reflexivity



## eleus

Hello,

What is the suffix of reflexivity in Mongolian? According to Ramstedt, it is /ni/, but his examples are confusing, not about only reflexivity.

Thanks for any help.


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## Matyi

HI!
 Yes 'ni' in cirillic 'нь' is something similar to the English 'the' in certain cases. For example: 'Noxoi ni' - 'The Dog'.
It can also function as a genitive when we speak about somebody whose name is not mentioned. For example: utas (cell phone) ni gazar (ground) deer (onto) unachixsan (fell) -His phone fell to the ground.
Reflexivity can be expressed with other suffixes as well depending on what you exactly want to say? Please write it to me !


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## eleus

Thanks...

i mean: f.e. he cuts his hand by himself. In Mong., how can i say?  Is there any suffix which is added to verb, to describe reflexivity?


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## Matyi

Oh yes, it is much clearer now. In Mongolian it is: Garaa ööröö zusne.

Gar:hand, suffix -aa refers to the person the hand belongs to
 ööröö: him/herself, by his/her own
zus-:to cut, suffix -ne: infinitive

So my answer to your question in this case, is the suffix: -aa, -ee, -oo, -öö which is used to express that sg belongs to sy or sg. Another example: Bi aaw eejdee xairtai -
I love my parents.
aaw eej: parents
-d: dativus locativus
-ee indicates that the parents are mine.

Are you studying Mongolian?


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## eleus

Again thanks

I'm studying on altaic languages. I'm interested in Turkic languages. But, sometimes it is necessary that i deal with mutual influences of the Altaic languages (e.g Mong influence on Turkish) So i have to get knowledge of mong.  I try to learn. (especially classic mong.)


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## eleus

One more question: Poppe says that in Written Mongolian, there is no reflexive voice. In such expression, they use  reflexive-possessive suffix. Your examples show that this usage continues in modern mong, isn't it?


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## Zsuzsu

Hi eleus,

I think there is a little confusion about reflexives here that should be cleared out.
To express the himself/herself/itself idea, Mongolian has got the reflexive pronoun ööröö (written Mong. öber-iyen).

And to express the idea of my/his/her etc. own (what Matyi wrote, for example: "I love my parents), they have the endings -aa, -ee, -oo, -öö, added to the case suffix needed for what you want to express.

so I love my parents is: bi aaw eejdee xairtai.

Here the word "xairtai" (love) needs a dativus-locativus suffix (-d) to which we added the reflexive possessive suffix (-ee), which means that it is the "bi" (I) whose parents we are talking about. (Note that if there are more nouns following each other in the same case - here dat-loc. - we only add the suffix to the last one. In Mongolian we refer to parents as father and mother).

The reflexive-possessive suffixes in written Mongolian are -iyan and -iyen, -ban and -ben, yugan and yügen, if dative-locative, it can be -dagan and degen, etc. (you will find all of them in Poppe).

Note also that in modern Mong. ööröö (himself, herself etc.) and writtem Mong. öber-iyen, the -öö and the -iyen at the end is also the reflexive-possessive suffix.


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## eleus

Thansks Zsuzsu for your explanation. It's so instructive


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