Tsag tsag tsag tsag

English has around 600,000 words. German has about 200,000. I'm guessing Mongolian has fewer words than German, somewhere around the number that French has (about 180,000). Internet sources on the average person's vocabulary vary widely, but let's say that most people use between 10,000 and 40,000 words regularly. In other words, English just has a lot more words than it needs.

However, there are a few places where the Mongolian language is, in my opinion, somewhat inadequate. For instance: the words for clock, watch, and hour are all the same: tsag. "Time" as in "once upon a time" is odaa, but time as a general concept is also "tsag".

I tested out this oddity by creating a sentence, "The clock chimes several times a day on the hour". I then asked several people to translate the sentence. Most of the people who tried could translate it, but no one could understand them once they did. Finally someone translated it in a way that could be understood, but the meaning was somewhat different once it was translated back into English. She translated it as "The wall clock rings regularly throughout the day".

As far as ridiculous homophones go however, no language can top English. I don't think there's a language other than English that can make a sentence as confusing as this next one:

"The blue berry blew buried boars with the Boer, as the bored baler bailed her boat with a board."

I made that myself, thank you. -bows-

Homophones such as these are the bane of people who speak English as a second language. The words "pool" (as in a large, man-made basin used for swimming) and "pool" (as in billiards) have caused a great deal of confusion lately. A few months ago I asked Gerlee and a few other friends if they wanted to go to the pool. Gerlee wanted to go (though no one else did) so I went off to get my swimsuit and towel. When I came back down with my bag she asked me what was in it. I showed her. She was momentarily puzzled, and then said "AAAAAH, you meant swimming pool!".

I thought that it was over after that.

On Thursday I asked Gerlee and Datdag (her boyfriend) if they wanted to go to the pool. Gerleee said we should go in the afternoon on Friday. On Friday Datdag and I waited for her as we put together new tables for the church, but she didn't show up until about seven. When she did show up and saw me with my bag, she said "AAAAAH, you meant swimming pool!"

She then explained that she was too tired, and that she didn't want to go. I'd wasted hours waiting around for her. I wanted to throttler her, so I tried to explain the difference between "go to the pool" and "play pool", but I don't think it worked. I told her that if I ever talked about playing pool, I would refer to it as billiards.