Various Mongolian writing systems have been devised for the
Mongolian language
Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia and both the most widely spoken and best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residen ...
over the centuries, and from a variety of scripts. The oldest and native script, called simply the
Mongolian script
The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic in 1946. It is traditionally writte ...
, has been the predominant script during most of Mongolian history, and is still in active use today in the
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
region of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and has ''
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' use in
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
.
It has in turn spawned several alphabets, either as attempts to fix its perceived shortcomings, or to allow the notation of other languages, such as
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
,
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and
Tibetan
Tibetan may mean:
* of, from, or related to Tibet
* Tibetan people, an ethnic group
* Tibetan language:
** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
. In the 20th century,
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
briefly switched to the
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
, but then almost immediately replaced it with the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, ...
under the
Mongolian People's Republic
The Mongolian People's Republic ( mn, Бүгд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс, БНМАУ; , ''BNMAU''; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It w ...
's for compatibility with the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, as it was its
satellite state
A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting ...
. Nevertheless, Mongols living in
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
as well as other parts of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, on the other hand, continued to use alphabets based on the traditional Mongolian script.
In March 2020, the
Government of Mongolia
Politics of Mongolia takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential multi-party representative democracy. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister, who is the head of government, and the Cabinet. The President is the head of state, ...
announced plans to use the traditional Mongolian script alongside the Cyrillic script in official documents (e.g.
identity documents
An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID card, citizen ca ...
,
academic certificate
An academic certificate is a document that certifies that a person has received specific education or has passed a test or series of tests.
In many countries, a certificate is a qualification attained in secondary education. For instance, studen ...
s,
birth certificates
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuin ...
,
marriage certificate
A marriage certificate (sometimes: marriage lines) is an official statement that two people are married. In most jurisdictions, a marriage certificate is issued by a government official only after the civil registration of the marriage.
In so ...
s, among others) as well as the
State Great Khural
The State Great Khural, ; "State Great Assembly" is the unicameral parliament of Mongolia.Montsame News Agency. ''Mongolia''. 2006, Foreign Service office of Montsame News Agency, , p. 40 It is located in the Government Palace.
History
;1 ...
by 2025, although the Cyrillic script could be used alone on an optional basis for less official writing.
[Official documents to be recorded in both scripts from 2025]
Montsame, 18 March 2020.[Mongolian Language Law is effective from July 1st]
Gogo, 1 July 2015. ''Use of cyrillic is to be terminated and only Mongolian script to be used.'' There is no provision in the law that states the termination of use of cyrillic. It clearly states that Mongolian script is to be added to the current use of cyrillic. Mongolian script will be introduced in stages and state and local government is to conduct their correspondence in both cyrillic and Mongolian script. This provision is to be effective starting January 1st of 2025. ID, birth certificate, marriage certificate and education certificates are to be both in Mongolian cyrillic and Mongolian script and currently Mongolian script is being used in official letters of President, Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament."
Precursors
![Small Khitan Fish Tally](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Small_Khitan_Fish_Tally.jpg)
The
Xianbei
The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into the ...
spoke a proto-Mongolic language and wrote down several pieces of literature in their language. They are believed to have used
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
to phonetically represent Xianbei, like the Japanese system of
Man'yōgana
is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically. The date of the earliest usage of this ...
with Chinese, but all works written in Xianbei are now lost.
In 2019, with the emergence of new evidence through the analysis of the ''Brāhmī Bugut'' and ''
Khüis Tolgoi'',
Ruanruan language
Ruanruan (; also called Rouran) is an unclassified extinct language of Mongolia and northern China, spoken in the Rouran Khaganate from the 4th to the 6th centuries AD, considered a likely early precursor to Mongolic.
Peter A. Boodberg claime ...
was deciphered, and Ruanruan was spelled in
Brahmi script
Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' o ...
.
The
Khitan spoke
another proto-Mongolic language and developed two scripts for writing it:
Khitan large script
The Khitan large script () was one of two writing systems used for the now-extinct Khitan language (the other was the Khitan small script). It was used during the 10th–12th centuries by the Khitan people, who had created the Liao Empire in nor ...
and
Khitan small script
The Khitan small script () was one of two writing systems used for the now-extinct Khitan language (the other was the Khitan large script). It was used during the 10th–12th century by the Khitan people, who had created the Liao Empire in present- ...
, logographic scripts derived from Chinese characters.
Classic Mongolian script
Traditional alphabet
At the very beginning of the
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, ...
, around 1204,
Genghis Khan
''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan''
, birth_name = Temüjin
, successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan
, spouse =
, issue =
, house = Borjigin
, ...
defeated the
Naimans
The Naiman ( Mongolian: Найман, Naiman, "eight"; ; Kazakh: Найман, Naiman; Uzbek: Nayman) were a medieval tribe originating in the territory of modern Western Mongolia (possibly during the time of the Uyghur Khaganate), and are one o ...
and captured a
Uyghur scribe called
Tata-tonga
Tata-tonga ( mn, Тататунга, Mongolian script: , ; zh, c=塔塔统阿, p=Tǎtǎ-tǒng'ā) was a 13th-century Uyghur scribe captured by Genghis Khan from the Naimans and involved in bringing and adapting the Old Uyghur alphabet to the Mo ...
, who then adapted the
Uyghur alphabet—a descendant of the
Syriac alphabet
The Syriac alphabet ( ) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century AD. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares similarities with ...
, via
Sogdian—to write Mongol. With only minor modifications, it is used in
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
to this day. Its most salient feature is its vertical direction; it is the only
vertical script still in use 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 anticlockwise to emulate the Chinese writing system.
As a variant of the traditional script there exists a ''vertical square script'' (Босоо дөрвөлжин), also called ''folded script'', used e.g. on the
Mongolian banknotes.
Galik alphabet
In 1587, the translator and scholar
Ayuush Güüsh created the Galik alphabet, inspired by
Sonam Gyatso, the third
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...
. It primarily added extra letters to transcribe
Tibetan
Tibetan may mean:
* of, from, or related to Tibet
* Tibetan people, an ethnic group
* Tibetan language:
** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
terms in religious texts, and later also from
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
. Later some of these letters officially merged to traditional alphabet as group named "Galig usug" to transcribe foreign word in today's use.
Todo alphabet
In 1648, the
Oirat Buddhist monk Zaya Pandita
Zaya Pandita or Namkhaijamts (1599–1662) was a Buddhist missionary priest and scholar of Oirat origin who is the most prominent Oirat Buddhist scholar. Among his accomplishments is the invention of the Clear Script.
Biography
Zaya Pandita ...
created this variation with the goal of bringing the written language closer to the actual
Oirat pronunciation, and to make it easier to transcribe Tibetan and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
. The script was used by Kalmyks of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
until 1924, when it was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet. In
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
, China, the Oirats still use it.
'Phags-pa script (Square script)
![Monggol in Dorbeljin bicig](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Monggol_in_Dorbeljin_bicig.jpg)
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
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
(ca. 1269),
Kublai Khan
Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of th ...
asked a Tibetan monk,
Drogön Chögyal Phagpa
Drogön Chogyal Phagpa (; ; 1235 – 15 December 1280), was the fifth leader of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was also the first Imperial Preceptor of the Yuan dynasty, and was concurrently named the director of the Bureau of Buddhist ...
, to design a new script for use by the whole empire. Phagpa extended his native
Tibetan script
The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system (''abugida'') of Brahmic scripts, Indic origin used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Lhasa Tibetan, Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese language, Sikkimese, Ladakhi language, Ladakhi, Jire ...
to encompass Mongolian and Chinese; the result was known by several descriptive names, such as the ''Mongolian new script'', but today is known as the 'Phags-pa script. The 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 Mongols learning Chinese characters. However, scholars such as
Gari Ledyard
Gari Keith Ledyard (born 1932 in Syracuse, New York; died 29 October 2021 ) was Sejong Professor of Korean History Emeritus at Columbia University. He is best known for his work on the history of the Hangul alphabet.
Biography
Ledyard was born wh ...
believe that in the meantime it was the source of some of the basic letters of the Korean
hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
alphabet.
Soyombo script
![Monggol in Soyombo bicig](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Monggol_in_Soyombo_bicig.jpg)
The Soyombo script is an
abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...
created by the Mongolian monk and scholar
Bogdo Zanabazar in the late 17th century, that can also be used to write Tibetan and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
. A special glyph in the script, the
Soyombo symbol
The ''Soyombo'' symbol (; mn, Соёмбо, ; from sa, svayambhu) is a special character in the Soyombo alphabet invented by Zanabazar in 1686. The name "Soyombo" is derived from Sanskrit ''svayambhu'' "self-created". It serves as a national ...
, became a national symbol of
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
, and has appeared on the
national flag
A national flag is a flag that represents and symbolizes a given nation. It is flown by the government of that nation, but usually can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanings for its colours ...
since 1921, and on the
national coat of arms
A national coat of arms is a symbol which denotes an independent state in the form of a heraldic achievement. While a national flag is usually used by the population at large and is flown outside and on ships, a national coat of arms is normally ...
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.
Horizontal square script
![Monggol in kebtege dorbeljin bicig](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Monggol_in_kebtege_dorbeljin_bicig.png)
At around the same time, Zanabazar also developed the ''horizontal square script'' (Хэвтээ дөрвөлжин), which was only rediscovered in 1801. The script's applications during the period of its use are not known. It was also largely based on the Tibetan alphabet, read left to right, and employed vowel diacritics above and below the consonant letters. Additionally, a dot was used below consonants to show that they were syllable-final.
Horizontal square script is included in the
Unicode Standard
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, whic ...
under the name "Zanabazar Square". The
Zanabazar Square block, comprising 72 characters, was added as part of Unicode version 10.0 in June 2017.
Foreign scripts
Before the 13th century, foreign scripts such as the Uighur and the Tibetan scripts were used to write the Mongolian language. Even during the reign of the Mongol Empire, people in the conquered areas often wrote it in their local systems. In some cases it was transcribed phonetically using
Chinese character
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the Written Chinese, writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are k ...
s, as is the case with the only surviving copies of ''
The Secret History of the Mongols
''The Secret History of the Mongols'' (Middle Mongol: ''Mongɣol‑un niɣuca tobciyan''; Traditional Mongolian: , Khalkha Mongolian: , ; ) is the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language. It was written for the Mongol royal fam ...
''. Subjects from the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
hired into administrative functions would also often use
Perso-Arabic
The Persian alphabet ( fa, الفبای فارسی, Alefbâye Fârsi) is a writing system that is a version of the Arabic script used for the Persian language spoken in Iran ( Western Persian) and Afghanistan (Dari Persian) since the 7th cen ...
script to write their Mongolian language documents.
Latin script
On 1 February 1930, Mongolia officially adopted a Latin alphabet. On 25 March 1941, the decision was reversed. According to later official claims, the alphabet had turned out to have not been thought out well. It was said not to distinguish all the sounds of the Mongolian language, and was 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 ƶ 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 script a short time later, almost simultaneously with most Soviet republics, suggests political reasons. In the advent of the Internet, people who use social networking services prefer typing in the Latin script for the ease of typing compared to the Cyrillic script, using the orthography introduced in 1939.
Cyrillic script
The most recent Mongolian alphabet is based on the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, ...
, more specifically the
Russian alphabet
The Russian alphabet (russian: ру́сский алфави́т, russkiy alfavit, , label=none, or russian: ру́сская а́збука, russkaya azbuka, label=none, more traditionally) is the script used to write the Russian language. I ...
plus the letters, Өө ''Öö'' and Үү ''Üü''. It was introduced in the 1940s and has been in use as the official writing system of
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
ever since.
In March 2020, the Government of Mongolia announced plans to use the traditional Mongolian script alongside Cyrillic in official documents starting from 2025.
[
]
See also
* SASM/GNC romanization § Mongolian
* Mongolian transliteration of Chinese characters
**
*Mongolian Braille
Mongolian Braille is the braille alphabet used for the Mongolian language in Mongolia. It is based on Russian Braille, with two additional letters for print letters found in the Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet.UNESCO (2013World Braille Usage 3rd ed ...
* Mongolian Sign Language
__NOTOC__
Mongolian Sign Language ( mn, Монгол дохионы хэл, Mongol dokhiony khel) is a sign language used in Mongolia. '' Ethnologue'' estimates that there are between 9,000 and 15,000 deaf signers in Mongolia . Mongolian Sign La ...
* Mongolian name
Mongolian names have undergone a number of changes in the history of Mongolia, both with regard to their meaning and their source languages. In Inner Mongolia, naming customs are now similar to Mongolia but with some differences.
Historical evolu ...
References
External links
The Silver Horde: Mongol Scripts
Tseveliin Shagdarsuren, Indiana University
Mongolian Calligraphy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mongolian Writing Systems