Mongolian script

The classical Mongolian script was the first of a whole series of Mongolian scripts developed or adapted for the Mongolian language. It is still used, with minor modifications, in Mongolia (since 1994 again alongside the Cyrillic script) and in China to write Mongolian and Evian. In China, the Mongolian script is widely used where Mongolian is an official language, i.e. in Inner Mongolia and in Fuxin, Harqin Left Wing, in the Front Gorlos, in Dorbod, Subei, parts of Haixi and Henan, and in Weichang. In addition, the official script of Western Mongolian is Tôdô Biqig in Bayingolin, Bortala, Hoboksar and parts of Haixi.

The script, an alphabet, was created in 1208 by the Uighur scribe Tatar-Tonga. He had been captured by the Mongols during a campaign against the Naimans and was then commissioned by Genghis Khan to establish a script for the Mongol language. For this purpose he adapted the Uighur alphabet to the new requirements. This in turn descended from the Aramaic script via the Sogdian alphabet. Its greatest peculiarity is the writing direction, it runs vertically from top to bottom and column-wise from left to right (all other vertical scripts go from right to left). The Uyghurs had their script (right to left, lines from top to bottom) rotated 90° counterclockwise to make it more similar to the vertical Chinese script.

Character

The individual signs take on different forms depending on whether they occupy an initial, medial or final position in the word. In some cases, there are additional graphic variants, the choice of which depends on the visual interplay with the character that follows.

The alphabet uses the same character for some vowel pairs (o/u, ö/ü, final a/e) and consonant pairs (t/d, k/g, sometimes ž/y) in Mongolian, respectively, which were not distinguished in Uighur. The result is roughly comparable to the situation in English, which has to represent 10 or more vowels with 5 characters, and uses the digraph th for two different sounds. Nevertheless, real ambiguities are relatively rare, since the requirements of vowel harmony and syllabification usually ensure a clear definition.

Alphabet

Characters				Transliteration		Comments
initial	medial	final		Lat.	Cyrillic
				a	А	Distinction mostly by means of vowel harmony (see also q/γ and k/g).
				e	Э
				i, yi	И,Й, Ы, Ь	At the end of the word often absorbed into preceding syllable.
				o, u	О, У	Distinction by context.
				ö, ü	Ө, Ү	Distinction by context.
				n	Н	Distinction of medial and final a/e by position in syllable order.
				ng	Н, НГ	Only at the end of words (medial for composites). Transcribed Tibetan U+0F44; Sanskrit ङ.
				b	Б, В
				p	П	For Mongolian words, only initial. Transcribed Tibetan U+0F54;
				q	Х	Only with back vowels.
				γ	Г	Only with back vowels. Between vowels today pronounced as a long vowel.
				k	Х	Mostly with front vowels. g between vowels is now pronounced as a long vowel.
				g	Г
				m	М
				l	Л
				s	С
				š	Ш	The pronunciation of this sign has not changed.
				t, d	Т, Д	Distinction by context.
				č	Ч, Ц	Originally no distinction between /ʧ'/ and /ts'/, now by context.
				ǰ	Ж, З	Distinction by context. Originally often interchangeable with y below.
				y	Е, Ё, И, Ю, Я	Part of diphthongs, although actually a consonant.
				r	Р	Usually not initial.
				v	В	Transcribed Sanskrit व.
				f	Ф	Classical Mongolian does not know this sound.
				ḳ	К	Transcribed Russian К.
				(c)	(ц)	Transcribed Tibetan /ts'/ U+0F5A; Sanskrit छ.
				(z)	(з)	Transcribed Tibetan /dz/ u+0F5B; Sanskrit ज.
				(h)		Transcribed Tibetan U+0F63; U+0FB7;

Footnotes:

1. ↑ After consonant transliterated as i.
2. ↑ After vowel transliterated as yi, with rare exceptions such as naim (eight) or naiman.
3. ↑ Character for syllable beginning (n-<vowel>).
4. ↑ Character for syllable end (<vowel>-n).
5. ↑ Examples: qa-γ-an (khan) becomes qaan. Some exceptions such as tsa-g-aan (white) remain.
6. ↑ Example: de-g-er is shortened to deer. Some exceptions like ügüi (no) remain.
7. ↑ Transcribed foreign words are usually preceded by a vowel. Example: Transcription of Русь (Russia) results in Oros.

Unicode

1800 ᠀ Birga

1801 ᠁ Ellipse

1802 ᠂ comma

1803 ᠃ Item

1804 ᠄ Semicolon

1805 ᠅ 4 points

1806 ᠆ Hyphen

1807 ᠇ Syllable boundary

1808 ᠈ mansch. comma

1809 ᠉ mansch. Point

180A ᠊ Nirugu

180B ᠋

180C ᠌

180D ᠍

180E

1810 ᠐ 0

1811 ᠑ 1

1812 ᠒ 2

1813 ᠓ 3

1814 ᠔ 4

1815 ᠕ 5

1816 ᠖ 6

1817 ᠗ 7

1818 ᠘ 8

1819 ᠙ 9

1820 ᠠ A

1821 ᠡ E

1822 ᠢ I

1823 ᠣ O

1824 ᠤ U

1825 ᠥ Oe

1826 ᠦ Ue

1827 ᠧ Ee

1828 ᠨ Na

1829 ᠩ Ang

182A ᠪ Ba

182B ᠫ Pa

182C ᠬ Qa

182D ᠭ Ga

182E ᠮ Ma

182F ᠯ La

1830 ᠰ Sat

1831 ᠱ Sha

1832 ᠲ Ta

1833 ᠳ Sync and corrections by n17t01

1834 ᠴ Cha

1835 ᠵ Yes

1836 ᠶ Ya

1837 ᠷ Ra

1838 ᠸ Wa

1839 ᠹ Fa

183A ᠺ Ka

183B ᠻ Kha

183C ᠼ Tsa

183D ᠽ Za

183E ᠾ Haa

183F ᠿ Zra

1840 ᡀ Lha

1841 ᡁ Zhi

1842 ᡂ Chi

1843 ᡃ Todo long vowel

1844 ᡄ Todo E

1845 ᡅ Todo I

1846 ᡆ Todo O

1847 ᡇ Todo U

1848 ᡈ Todo Oe

1849 ᡉ Todo Ue

184A ᡊ Todo Ang

184B ᡋ Todo Ba

184C ᡌ Todo Pa

184D ᡍ Todo Qa

184E ᡎ Todo Ga

184F ᡏ Todo Ma

1850 ᡐ Todo Ta

1851 ᡑ Todo Da

1852 ᡒ Todo Cha

1853 ᡓ Todo Yes

1854 ᡔ Todo Tsa

1855 ᡕ Todo Ya

1856 ᡖ Todo Wa

1857 ᡗ Todo Ka

1858 ᡘ Todo Gaa

1859 ᡙ Todo Haa

185A ᡚ Todo Jia

185B ᡛ Todo Nia

185C ᡜ Todo Dza

185D ᡝ Sibe E

185E ᡞ Sibe I

185F ᡟ Sibe Iy

1860 ᡠ Sibe Ue

1861 ᡡ Sibe U

1862 ᡢ Sibe Ang

1863 ᡣ Sibe Ka

1864 ᡤ Sibe Ga

1865 ᡥ Sibe Ha

1866 ᡦ Sibe Pa

1867 ᡧ Sibe Sha

1868 ᡨ Sibe Ta

1869 ᡩ Sibe Da

186A ᡪ Sibe Yes

186B ᡫ Sibe Fa

186C ᡬ Sibe Gaa

186D ᡭ Sibe Haa

186E ᡮ Sibe Tsa

186F ᡯ Sibe Za

1870 ᡰ Sibe Raa

1871 ᡱ Sibe Cha

1872 ᡲ Sibe Zha

1873 ᡳ mansch. I

1874 ᡴ Manch. Ka

1875 ᡵ Manch. Ra

1876 ᡶ mansch. Fa

1877 ᡷ Manch. Zha

1880 ᢀ Ali Gali Anusvara One

1881 ᢁ Ali Gali Visarga One

1882 ᢂ Ali Gali Damaru

1883 ᢃ Ali Gali Ubadama

1884 ᢄ Ali Gali umgedr. Ubadama

1885 ᢅ Ali Gali Baluda

1886 ᢆ Ali Gali 3 Baluda

1887 ᢇ Ali Gali A

1888 ᢈ Ali Gali I

1889 ᢉ Ali Gali Ka

188A ᢊ Ali Gali Nga

188B ᢋ Ali Gali Ca

188C ᢌ Ali Gali Tta

188D ᢍ Ali Gali Ttha

188E ᢎ Ali Gali Dda

188F ᢏ Ali Gali Nna

1890 ᢐ Ali Gali Ta

1891 ᢑ Ali Gali Da

1892 ᢒ Ali Gali Pa

1893 ᢓ Ali Gali Pha

1894 ᢔ Ali Gali Ssa

1895 ᢕ Ali Gali Zha

1896 ᢖ Ali Gali Za

1897 ᢗ Ali Gali Ah

1898 ᢘ Todo Ali Gali Ta

1899 ᢙ Todo Ali Gali Zha

189A ᢚ Manch. Ali Gali Gha

189B ᢛ Manch. Ali Gali Nga

189C ᢜ Manch. Ali Gali Ca

189D ᢝ Manch. Ali Gali Jha

189E ᢞ Manch. Ali Gali Tta

189F ᢟ Manch. Ali Gali Ddha

18A0 ᢠ Manch. Ali Gali Ta

18A1 ᢡ Manch. Ali Gali Dha

18A2 ᢢ Manch. Ali Gali Ssa

18A3 ᢣ Manch. Ali Gali Cya

18A4 ᢤ Manch. Ali Gali Zha

18A5 ᢥ Manch. Ali Gali Za

18A6 ᢦ Ali Gali Half U

18A7 ᢧ Ali Gali Half Ya

18A8 ᢨ Manch. Ali Gali Bha

18A9 ᢩ Ali Gali Dagalga

18AA ᢪ Manch. Ali Gali Lha

The word "Mongol" in the classical script

Examples

Different forms

The same vowel written three times in connected form, red the form at the beginning of a word, green that within a word and blue that at the end of a word.

a / e	i	o / u	ö / ü

Historical forms

Historical forms	Modern print	First word transliterated:
		v i k i p e d i y a

• Transliteration: Vikipediya. čilügetü nebterkei toli bičig bolai.
• Cyrillic: Википедиа, Чөлөөт Нэвтэрхий Толь Бичиг Болой.
• Transcription: wikipedia, tschölööt newterchii tolj bitschig boloi.
• Literally: Wikipedia, encyclopedia writing is free.
• Translation: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.