Mongolian writing systems

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Various scripts that were historically used in Mongolia, on the table at the entrance into a temple. The scripts are Phags-pa, Lantsa, Tibetan, Soyombo, and Classical Mongolian.

Many Mongolian writing systems have been devised over the centuries. The number of scripts dedicated to the Mongolian language is matched by few other tongues.

The oldest has also been the most successful one, and still in active use today. Others have been developed either as attempts to fix its perceived shortcomings, or to allow the notation of other languages as well, most often Sanskrit and Tibetan. In the 20th century, Mongolia chose a Cyrillic script to be more compatible with the Soviet Union, its political ally of the time.

[edit] Classic Mongolian script

Main article: Mongolian script

“Mongol” written in Mongolian script.

At the very beginning of the Mongol Empire, around 1204, Genghis Khan defeated the Naimans and captured an Uyghur scribe, Tatar-Tonga, who then adapted the Uyghur alphabet — a descendant of the Syriac alphabet, via Sogdian — to write Mongol. With only minor modifications, it is used in Inner Mongolia to this day. Its most salient feature is its vertical direction; it is the only vertical script that is written from left to right. (All other vertical writing systems are written right to left.) This is because the Uyghurs rotated their script 90 degrees counterclockwise to emulate the Chinese writing system.

Besides the Mongolian language, the Evenki language in China is written in the Mongolian script.

[edit] Clear script

Main article: Clear script

In 1648, the Oirat Buddhist monk Zaya-pandita Namkhaijamco created this variation with the goal of bringing the written language closer to the actual pronunciation, and to make it easier to transcribe Tibetan and Sanskrit. The script was used by Kalmyks of Russia until 1924, when it was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet. In Xinjiang, China the Oirat people still use it.

[edit] Vaghintara script

Another variant was developed in 1905 by the Buryat monk Agvan Dorjiev (1850-1938). It was meant to also reduce ambiguity, and to support the Russian language in addition to Mongolian. The most significant change however was the elimination of the positional shape variations. All characters were based on the medial variant of the original Mongol script.

[edit] Phagspa script

The word "Wiki" in Phagspa characters

Main article: Phagspa script

The traditional Mongolian alphabet is not a perfect fit for the Mongolian language, and it would be impractical to extend it to a language with a very different phonology like Chinese. Therefore, during the Yuan Dynasty (ca. 1269), Kublai Khan asked a Tibetan monk, Phagspa, to design a new alphabet for use by the whole empire. Phagspa extended his native Tibetan script to encompass Mongolian and Chinese; the result was known by several descriptive names, such as the Mongolian seal script, but today is known as the Phagspa alphabet. This script did not receive wide acceptance and fell into disuse with the collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 1368. After this it was mainly used as a phonetic gloss for Mongolians learning Chinese characters. However, scholars such as Gari Ledyard believe that in the meantime it was the source of some of the features of the Korean hangul alphabet.

[edit] Soyombo script

Two variants of the Soyombo symbol

Main article: Soyombo script

The Soyombo script is an abugida created by the Mongolian monk and scholar Bogdo Zanabazar in the late 17th century, that can also be used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit. A special character of the script, the Soyombo, became a national symbol of Mongolia, and has appeared on the national flag since 1921, and on the national coat of arms since 1992, as well as money, stamps, etc.

Zanabazar had created it for the translation of Buddhist texts from Sanskrit or Tibetan, and both he and his students used it extensively for that purpose. Aside from historical texts, it can usually be found in temple inscriptions. It also has some relevance to linguistic research, because it reflects certain developments in the Mongolian language, such as that of long vowels.

[edit] Horizontal square script

At around the same time, Zanabazar also developed the Horizontal square script, which has only been rediscovered in 1801. Its actual use is unknown.

[edit] Latin script

Main article: Mongolian Latin script

On February 1, 1941, Mongolia officially adopted the Latin alphabet. Only two months later, on March 25 the decision was reversed again. According to later official claims the system chosen had turned out not to have been thought out well. It was said not to cover all the sounds of the Mongolian language, and to be difficult to use. However, those seem to have been pretexts rather than the true reasons. Using "y" as feminine "u", with additional feminine "o" ("ө") and with additional consonants "ç" for "ch", "ş" for "sh" and z for "zh", it successfully served in printing books and newspapers. Many of the Latin letters (f, h, p, v) were even rarely used while q, w and x were completely excluded. The adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet a short time later, almost simultaneously with most Soviet republics, rather suggests political reasons.

[edit] Mongolian Cyrillic script

The word 'Mongol' in Cyrillic script

The most recent Mongolian alphabet is a slightly modified Cyrillic alphabet (the Russian alphabet plus 2 letters, Өө /ö/ and Үү /ü/). It is a phonemic alphabet, meaning that there is a high level of consistency in the representation of individual sounds. It was introduced following the communist revolution in Mongolia and is used in everyday life and on the Internet.

The modified Cyrillic alphabet used for Mongolian is as follows:

Үү and Өө are sometimes written as Vv and Єє, mainly when using Russian software or keyboards that don't support them.

[edit] Foreign scripts

Before the 13th century, foreign scripts had to be used to write the Mongolian language. And even during the reign of the Mongol Empire, people in the conquered areas often wrote it in their local systems. Most often it was transcribed phonetically using Chinese characters, as is the case with the only surviving copies of The Secret History of the Mongols. Subjects from the Middle East hired into administrative functions would also often use Persian or Arabic scripts to write their Mongolian language documents.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Mongolian writing

• The Silver Horde: Mongol Scripts
• The Mongolian language and scripts, Tseveliin Shagdarsuren, Indiana University
• Inkway Mongolian Calligraphy