Days of the Week in Mongolian: Planetary and Numbered Names

There are two different systems for naming the days of the week in Mongolian-speaking lands: those based on numbering the days, and those based on the names of the planets. Each country or area uses a different system or systems of names.

A. Mongolia

Numbered names

The predominant system in Mongolia numbers the days of the week, as seen in the following table. (Traditional Mongolian script is given for reference)

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
ᠪᠦᠲᠦᠨ ᠰᠠᠢᠨ ᠡᠳᠦᠷ	ᠨᠢᠭᠡᠳᠡᠬᠢ ᠡᠳᠦᠷ	ᠬᠣᠶᠠᠳᠠᠬᠢ ᠡᠳᠦᠷ	ᠭᠣᠷᠪᠠᠳᠠᠬᠢ ᠡᠳᠦᠷ	ᠳᠦᠷᠪᠡᠳᠡᠬᠢ ᠡᠳᠦᠷ	ᠲᠠᠪᠣᠳᠠᠬᠢ ᠡᠳᠦᠷ	ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠰ ᠰᠠᠢᠨ ᠡᠳᠦᠷ
бүтэн сайн өдөр	нэгдэх өдөр	хоёрдахь өдөр	гуравдахь өдөр	дөрөвдэх өдөр	тавдахь өдөр	хагас сайн өдөр
büteŋ saiŋ ödör	neg dekh ödör	khoyor dakh' ödör	gurav dakh' ödör	döröv dekh ödör	tav dakh' ödör	khagas saiŋ ödör
'full good day' (='full holiday')	'first day'	'second day'	'third day'	'fourth day'	'fifth day'	'half good day' (='half holiday')

(The pronunciation of these names can be heard at the Youtube videos A and B. Both give the numbered names as well as the planetary naming introduced below.)

The word өдөр ödör 'day' is often omitted in ordinary conversation.

Abbreviated forms
бүтэн сайн	нэгдэх	хоёрдахь	гуравдахь	дөрөвдэх	тавдахь	хагас сайн
büteŋ saiŋ	neg dekh	khoyor dakh'	gurav dakh'	döröv dekh	tav dakh'	khagas saiŋ

Features of the naming are:

• The days from Monday to Friday use ordinal numbers; that is, they go ‘day no. 1’, ‘day no. 2’, 'day no. 3', etc. Дахь dakh' / дэх dekh is a word meaning 'number'. The form depends on the vowel in the preceding word. Хоёр khoyor, гурав gurav, and тав tav contain masculine vowels, calling for дахь dakh'. Нэг neg and дөрөв döröv contain feminine vowels, calling for дэх dekh.
• Saturday and Sunday are named according to whether there was a full day off work (Sunday) or only half a day (Saturday) during the socialist era. Although this is now anachronistic, especially in larger companies, the naming remains unchanged.

The word for 'week' in Mongolia is долоо хоног doloo khonog, literally 'seven days'.

This naming system gives little hint of its possible origin, although it may be related to Mongolian as spoken in China (see below).

Planetary names

A second set of names is based on the Tibetan names of the Sun, Moon, and the planets, a result of the profound influence of Tibetan Buddhism (lamaism) through the centuries. In Mongolia, the Tibetan names are now principally used in official contexts such as documents and public signs, e.g., hours of business. They are not normally used in conversation.

The Tibetan names are as follows:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
ᠨᠢᠮ᠎ᠠ (ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ)	ᠳᠠᠸᠠ (ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ)	ᠮᠢᠭᠮᠠᠷ (ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ)	ᡀᠠᠭᠪᠠ (ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ)	ᠫᠦᠷᠪᠦ (ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ)	ᠪᠠᠰᠠᠩ (ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ)	ᠪᠢᠮᠪᠡ (ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ)
ням (гараг)	даваа (гараг)	мягмар (гараг)	лхагва (гараг)	пүрэв (гараг)	баасан (гараг)	бямба (гараг)
nyam (garag)	davaa (garag)	myagmar (garag)	khlagv (garag)	pürev (garag)	baasaŋ (garag)	byamb (garag)
'sun (planet)'	'moon (planet)'	'Mars (planet)'	'Mercury (planet)'	'Jupiter (planet)'	'Venus (planet)'	'Saturn (planet)'

(The pronunciation of the Mongolian names above can be heard at the following Youtube videos: A and B.)

In their full form, these names include the word гараг garag (or гариг garig) meaning ‘planet’, but this is often omitted.

The original Tibetan names are:

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

(Spelling is not a good guide to the pronunciation in Tibetan, which is actually very close to the Mongolian. For the pronunciation in Tibetan, see the following Youtube videos: A and B).

In naming the days after the Sun, Moon, and planets, the Tibetans were following Indian models, which were, in turn, based on influence from ancient Mesopotamia. The planetary names in Mongolia are thus related to the planetary names still used in Japanese. (Note: The Buddhist route of transmission).

B. Inner Mongolia and other Mongolian-speaking areas of China

Mongols in China use a similar numbering system to that in Mongolia but with a different format:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ ᠦᠨ ᠡᠳᠦᠷ	ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ ᠦᠨ ᠨᠢᠭᠡᠨ	ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ ᠦᠨ ᠬᠣᠶᠠᠷ	ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ ᠦᠨ ᠭᠣᠷᠪᠠᠨ	ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ ᠦᠨ ᠳᠦᠷᠪᠡᠨ	ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ ᠦᠨ ᠲᠠᠪᠣᠨ	ᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ ᠦᠨ ᠵᠢᠷᠭᠣᠭᠠᠨ
гарагийн өдөр	гарагийн нэгэн	гарагийн хоёр	гарагийн гурван	гарагийн дөрвөн	гарагийн таван	гарагийн зургаан
garagiŋ ödör	garagiŋ negeŋ	garagiŋ khoyor	garagiŋ gurvaŋ	garagiŋ dörvöŋ	garagiŋ tavaŋ	garagiŋ zurgaaŋ
'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'
Chinese (for reference)
星期日 or 星期天	星期一	星期二	星期三	星期四	星期五	星期六
xīngqīrì, xīngqītiān	xīngqīyī	xīngqī'èr	xīngqīsān	xīngqīsì	xīngqīwǔ	xīngqīliù
'week day'	'week one'	'week two'	'week three'	'week four'	'week five'	'week six'

The Inner Mongolian names consist of:

a) Гарагийн garagiŋ, the genitive (possessive) form of the word гараг garag (or гариг garig). The original meaning of гараг garag is 'planet', but it is now also used in Inner Mongolia to mean 'week'.

b) For all but Sunday, a number ending in -н -n, with the exception of хоёр khoyor, which does not normally take a final -н -n. The names literally mean 'x of the week'.

c) Sunday is known as гарагийн өдөр garagiŋ ödör, literally 'day of the week'.

These names run completely parallel to the official Chinese names for the days of the week, which are based on the word 星期 xīngqī 'week' (literally 'star period'). The Mongolian names mechanically equate 星期 xīngqī 'week' ('star period') to гараг garag 'week' ('planet').

As in Chinese, 'Sunday' is known as the 'week day' or 'day of the week'. Like Chinese 星期 xīngqī, which alludes to the planetary names brought to China by the Buddhists over a millennium ago, гараг garag 'planet' refers to the planetary naming familiar from Tibetan. However, the Tibetan planetary names themselves are no longer in general use for days of the week in Mongolian as spoken in China.

C. Buryat (Russia)

The Buryat language is a variety of Mongolian spoken in Buryatia (Russian Federation), Mongolia and China. In China and Mongolia it is treated as a dialect of Mongolian. However, in Russia an independent literary standard has been set up using the Cyrillic script. Buryat is an endangered language in Russia.

Buryat as standardised in Russia uses a system of numbering the days of the week:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
гарагай нэгэн	гарагай хоёр	гарагай гурбан	гарагай дүрбэн	гарагай табан	гарагай зургаан	гарагай долоон
garagaj nägän	garagaj ȟojor	garagaj gurban	garagaj dürbän	garagaj taban	garagaj zurgaan	garagaj doloon
'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 names follow the Inner Mongolian format, using the term гараг garag, 'planet' or 'week'. Since it is found both to the north and the south of modern Mongolia, his suggests that the "гараг garag plus genitive" format may previously have been more widespread in Mongolian-speaking areas.

What is curious, however, is that Buryat uses a different numbering convention from Inner Mongolia and Mongolia. Sunday, not Monday, is identified as the 'first day of the week' and the subsequent days are numbered accordingly. The reason for this divergence is not clear.

The planetary names appear to also be known in Buryatia in the following form:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
нима	дабаа	мигмар	һагба	пүрбэ	баасан	бимба
nima	dabaa	migmar	hagba	pürbä	baasan	bimba
'Sun'	'Moon'	'Mars'	'Mercury'	'Jupiter'	'Venus'	'Saturn'

However, Buryats now mostly use the Russian names for the days of the week:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
воскресенье	понедельник	вторник	среда	четверг	пятница	суббота
voskresen'ye	ponedel'nik	vtornik	sreda	chetverg	pyatnitsa	subbota
'resurrection'	'day after Sunday'	'second'	'middle'	'fourth'	'fifth'	'Sabbath'

D. Kalmyk

Kalmyk, which is closely related to the Oirat form of Mongolian, is spoken in Kalmykia in Russia, where it has been standardised with a different Cyrillic orthography from Mongolian and Buryat.

Kalmyk does not use a system of numbering the days of the week. Instead it uses a mixture of Tibetan and native planetary names (names are from geonames.de).

The Tibetan names survive at Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. For Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, Kalmyk uses native Mongolian names.

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

E. Background and origins

Numbered names

Numerically-based names are used in Mongolia, Mongolian-speaking areas of China, and Buryatia in Russia. The relationship among the three can be summed up as follows:

1. Naming in China is modelled on the Chinese 星期 xīngqī names, which came into official use in 1912. The names feature the word гараг garag 'planet', which was familiar from the Tibetan planetary names. Possibly under the influence of 星期 xīngqī, the word гараг garag now also means 'week' in Inner Mongolia.

2. Mongolia has an ordinal numbering system for the weekdays while naming the weekend days as rest days. Mongolia does not use the word гараг garag in numbering the days of the week, although the word is familiar from the Tibetan planetary names.

3. Buryat has a system of names that resembles the Inner Mongolian names in form. However, the numbering is different, starting with Sunday as day no. 1. There does not appear to be a plausible explanation for this difference.

Teasing out connections among the three is difficult.

Although the relationship between the Mongolian and Inner Mongolian names is unclear, there is a distinct possibility that they have a common origin. One Inner Mongolian dictionary captures this possibility by listing a format incorporating both systems, with Monday as гарагийн нэгдэх өдөр garagiŋ neg dekh ödör 'number one day of the week', гарагийн хоёр дахь өдөр garagiŋ khoyor dakh' ödör 'number two day of the week', etc. This uses both гарагийн garagiŋ 'week/planet' and дахь dakh' / дэх dekh 'number'. It's not possible to state definitively, however, that the two sets of modern names actually derive from this single format.

The origins of the divergent Buryat numbering are unclear. Most languages in the surrounding area, as well as Russian, treat Monday as the first day of the week. The closest languages geographically that take Monday as the second day are Turkic languages of central Asia that have borrowed the Persian names. For example, the Persian word for Monday, دوشَنبه dūshanbah 'second day', has been borrowed into Kazakh (дүйсенбi düysenbi), Kyrgyz (дүйшөмбүa düyşömbü), Uyghur (دۈشەنبە düshenbe) and others. The Iranian language Tajik also uses the term душанбе duşanbe. It is not inconceivable that these languages influenced Buryat. However, there is no clear channel of influence in the given time frame (early 20th century). Without a proper study of historical materials, any hypothesis remains mere conjecture.

Planetary names

Mongolian has historically used a range of names for the planets, which are linked with the days of the week. This includes Tibetan, Indian, Chinese-influenced, and native Mongolian names for the planets. These names are associated with Buddhism, and more particularly lamaism, which came from Tibet. All of these systems survive and are still theoretically available for use as names of days of the week. However, they are seldom used except for the purpose of bestowing personal names.

Planet	Tibetan	Indian	Mongolian	Luminaries (Chinese)	Sinosphere
Sun	ᠨᠢᠮ᠎ᠠ ням nyam	ᠠᠳᠢᠶ᠎ᠠ адъяа adya	ᠨᠠᠷᠠᠨ наран naraŋ 'sun'	ᠨᠠᠷᠠᠨ ᠣᠳᠣ наран од naraŋ od 'sun star'	日曜 Ch: rìyào Ja: nichiyō Ko: illyo
Moon	ᠳᠠᠸᠠ даваа davaa	ᠰᠣᠮᠢᠶ᠎ᠠ сумъяа sumya	ᠰᠠᠷᠠᠨ саран saraŋ 'moon'	ᠰᠠᠷᠠᠨ ᠣᠳᠣ саран од saraŋ od 'moon star'	月曜 Ch: yuèyào Ja: getsuyō Ko: wollyo
Mars	ᠮᠢᠭᠮᠠᠷ мягмар myagmar	ᠠᠩᠭᠠᠷᠠᠭ ангараг aŋgarag	ᠣᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠨᠢᠳᠦᠨ улаан нүдэн ulaaŋ nüdeŋ 'red eye'	ᠭᠠᠯ ᠣᠳᠣ гал од gal od 'fire star'	火曜 Ch: huǒyào Ja: kayō Ko: hwayo
Mercury	ᡀᠠᠭᠪᠠ лхагва lkhagv	ᠪᠣᠳ᠋ буд bud	ᠦᠯᠡᠮᠵᠢ үлэмж ülemj 'gigantic'	ᠣᠰᠣᠨ ᠣᠳᠣ усан од usaŋ od 'water star'	水曜 Ch: shuǐyào Ja: suiyō Ko: suyo
Jupiter	ᠫᠦᠷᠪᠦ пүрэв pürev	ᠪᠠᠷᠠᠬᠠᠰᠪᠠᠳᠢ бархасбадь barkhasbad'	ᠭᠠᠳᠠᠰᠣᠨ гадсан gadsaŋ	ᠮᠣᠳᠣᠨ ᠣᠳᠣ модон од modoŋ od 'wood star'	木曜 Ch: mùyào Ja: mokuyō Ko: mogyo
Venus	ᠪᠠᠰᠠᠩ баасан baasaŋ	ᠱᠣᠭᠠᠷ᠎ᠠ сугар sugar	ᠴᠣᠯᠮᠣᠨ цолмон tsolmoŋ	ᠠᠯᠲᠠᠨ ᠣᠳᠣ алтан од altaŋ od 'gold star'	金曜 Ch: jīnyào Ja: kin'yō Ko: geumyo
Saturn	ᠪᠢᠮᠪᠠ бямба byamb	ᠰᠠᠨᠢᠴᠠᠷ санчир saŋchir	ᠬᠣᠪᠳᠣᠭ ᠡᠮᠭᠡᠨ ховдог эмгэн khovdog emgeŋ 'greedy old woman'	ᠰᠢᠷᠣᠢ ᠣᠳᠣ шороон од shorooŋ od 'earth star'	土曜 Ch: tǔyào Ja: doyō Ko: toyo

The second column shows the Tibetan names, which are currently used for days of the week in Mongolia and (possibly) in Buryatia. The Kalmyk language (see above) also partially employs the Tibetan names in naming the days of the week.

The third column shows Indian terms for the planets and the days of the week. These are currently used as the general names for the planets in Mongolia, and also in giving personal names based on the day of the week on which a person was born. For example Санчир sanchir is used for people born on Saturday, Сугар sugar for people born on Friday, Адъяа adyaa for people born on Sunday, and Ангараг angarag for people born on Wednesday.

In their full form, the names are also accompanied by the word гараг garag ‘planet’. Slight variations in spelling include Ангариг angarig for Ангараг angarag and Бархасбад barkhasbad for Бархасбадь barkhasbad'. These Sanskrit planetary names are still used in both Hindi and Southeast Asian languages such as Thai.

The fourth column shows the native Mongolian names for the planets. They start with the sun and the moon, then cycle through some well-known as well as obscure terms. The name for Jupiter is more normally found in the term алтан гадасан altan gadasan 'golden gadasan' or Pole Star. Цолмон tsolmon is a common word used in Mongolian names. These names are used for certain of the Kalmyk names of days of the week.

The fifth column shows names of planets based on the five elements of Chinese, that is, the Seven Luminaries, which are used in the Japanese and Korean names of the days of the week. There are actually two alternatives for rendering 金 jīn (алт alt 'gold' and төмөр tömör 'iron'). The sixth column shows the actual names, including how they are read in Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean.

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