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The Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet ( Mongolian: , or , ) is the writing system used for the standard dialect of 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 ...
in the modern state 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 ...
. It has a largely phonemic orthography, meaning that there is a fair degree of consistency in the representation of individual sounds. Cyrillic has not been adopted as the writing system 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 List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, which continues to use the traditional Mongolian script.


History

Mongolian Cyrillic is the most recent of the many writing systems that have been used for Mongolian. It uses the same characters as the Russian alphabet except for the two additional characters Өө and Үү . It was introduced in the 1940s in the Mongolian People's Republic under Soviet influence, after two months in 1941 where Latin was used as the official script, while
Latinisation in the Soviet Union In the USSR, latinisation or latinization (russian: латиниза́ция, ') was the name of the campaign during the 1920s–1930s which aimed to replace traditional writing systems for all languages of the Soviet Union with systems that ...
was in vogue. After the Mongolian democratic revolution in 1990, the traditional
Mongolian script The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first Mongolian alphabet, writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic script, Cyrillic ...
was briefly considered to replace Cyrillic, but the plan was canceled in the end. However, the Mongolian script has become a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schooling and is slowly gaining in popularity. The Mongolian script is a highly uncommon vertical script, and unlike other historically vertical-only scripts such as the Chinese script it cannot easily be adapted for horizontal use, which puts it at a disadvantage compared to Cyrillic for many modern purposes. Thus, the Cyrillic script continues to be used in everyday life. In March 2020, the Mongolian government announced plans to use both Cyrillic and the traditional Mongolian script in official documents by 2025. In China, Cyrillic alphabet also used by the Chinese to learn the modern Mongolian language, and by some Mongols in Inner Mongolia to their demonstrate ethnic identity.


Description

The Cyrillic alphabet used for Mongolian is as follows (with borrowed sounds in parentheses): Үү and Өө are sometimes also written as the Ukrainian letters Її (or Vv) and Єє respectively, when using Russian software or keyboards that do not support them. Initial long vowels and non-initial full vowels are written with double vowel letters, while initial short vowels and non-initial epenthetic vowels are written with single vowel letters. Conversely, every vowel letter except у and ү can also represent schwa and zero in non-first syllables. Palatalisation is indicated by и (i), the soft sign ь (') or е (ye), ё (yo), я (ya) and ю (yu) after the palatalised consonant. These latter letters are pronounced without in that position. Щ is never used in Mongolian and only used in Russian words containing the letter.Svantesson et al. 2005: 30-40. It is pronounced identically to Ш, and is often omitted when teaching the Cyrillic alphabet. Sometimes, Russian loanwords with Щ will be spelled with Ш instead: борш, Хрушев. The difference between ~imight be dialectal, while the difference between ɵ~o is positional. and are both indicated by the letter г , but the phonetic value of that letter is mostly predictable. In words with "front" (+ATR) vowels (see Mongolian phonology for details), it always means , because only occurs in such words. In words with "back" (−ATR) vowels, it always means , except syllable-finally, where it means ; to acquire the value of , it is written as followed by a single mute syllable-final vowel letter. Similarly, a mute vowel is added to final н to make it denote and not . ф (f) and к (k) are loan consonants and will often be adapted into the Mongolian sound system as and . The original plan as at 10 October 1945 was to use э only at the beginning of words and in long vowel combinations (as is done in other languages written using Russian-based Cyrillic), дз for modern з, дж for modern ж, ии for modern ий and йө for modern е (to represent the "yö" sound at the beginning of words), but the alphabet was changed to its final form on 13 November.Tseveliin Shagdagsüren, ''Mongolchuudyn üseg bichigiin tovchoon'', 2001
page 190


Keyboard layout

The standard Mongolian Cyrillic keyboard layout for personal computers is as follows: ::


See also

* Mongolian writing systems **
Mongolian script The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first Mongolian alphabet, writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic script, Cyrillic ...
***
Galik alphabet The Galik script (, ''Ali-Gali üseg'') is an extension to the traditional Mongolian script. It was created in 1587 by the translator and scholar Ayuush Güüsh (), inspired by the third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso. He added extra characters for ...
*** Todo alphabet ** ʼPhags-pa script ***
Horizontal square script Zanabazar's square script is a horizontal Mongolian square script ( mn, Хэвтээ Дөрвөлжин бичиг, ''Khevtee Dörvöljin bichig'' or mn, Хэвтээ Дөрвөлжин Үсэг, ''Khevtee Dörvöljin Üseg''), an abugida develo ...
** Soyombo script **
Mongolian Latin alphabet The Mongolian Latin script (Mongolian Cyrillic: , ; Mongolian Latin: ; Traditional Mongolian script: ; ) was officially adopted in Mongolia in 1931. In 1939, a second version of the Latin alphabet was introduced but not widely used, and was repla ...
*** 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 Russian Braille is the braille alphabet of the Russian language. With suitable extensions, it is used for languages of ne ...
*
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 evol ...


References

{{Authority control Cyrillic alphabets Mongolian writing systems mn:Кирилл монгол бичгийн дүрэм