GERTEE means "at home" in Mongolian!

For months Nordica has been looking for a "formal" translation of the word gertee. She's seen it used to imply it meant "at home." But she couldn't locate it in a dictionary for me, and so, being the picky researcher that I am, I wouldn't use it. But now I can! This is really an amazing discovery for me. I combined construction concepts for a ger and a teepee to create a "gertee." A ger uses a roofring-poles-lattice walls=tension, a teepee/tipi uses leaning long poles and an inside liner that creates an upward draft/smoke flow allowing for an open, interior fire. In my first gertee design I considered making a short teepee and putting it on top of ger's lattice walls because I didn't know how to make a roofring. I still think it would work in an emergency.

Many thanks to author Radigan Neuhalfen, www.TheSteppe.com:

In Mongolian, "ger" means "home."

"Gert" is "ger" declined to mean "at home." The concluding doubled vowel simply adds emphasis: "gert" and "gertee" both mean "at home."

So, "gertee" is not really a thing in Mongolian, but a grammatical construction. Incidentally, this Mongolian "e" (in Cyrillic, a very different letter) is pronounced like a Scottish long clipped "a," such as in "nae." Doubled vowels are pronounced the same as the single vowel, but sounded longer in speech. The pronunciation of "gertee" is approximately "gaer-taeae."

Photos of standard models from Mongol Yurt
http://www.mongolyurt.mn/en/yourtegb.html#yurt

Just the frame.

The Mongolians make beautiful doors, don't they?

These kids are from Nomin2007's photo blog.

Mongolian interiors are usually very colorful.

Mongol Yurt's roofrings are way larger than mine.