Mongolian script

This article is about the original Mongolian writing system. For later developments, seeMongolian writing systems.For the language, seeMongolian language.

Mongolian script ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ
Poem composed and brush-written byInjinash,19th century
Script type	Alphabet
Creator	Tata-tonga
Time period	c. 1204– 1941 (common use) 1941 – present (common use inInner Mongolia;chiefly ceremonial use inMongolia)
Direction	Vertical up-to-down, left-to-right
Languages	Mongolian language
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic Alpha bet Phoenician Alpha bet Aramaic Alpha bet Syriac Alpha bet Sogdian Alpha bet Old Uyghur Alpha bet Mongolian script
Child systems	Manchu Alpha bet Dagur Alpha bet Xibe Alpha bet Oirat Alpha bet(Clear script) Buryat Alpha bet Galik Alpha bet Evenki Alpha bet
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Mong(145),​Mongolian
Unicode
Unicode alias	Mongolian
Unicode range	U+1800–U+18AFMongolian U+11660–U+1167FMong. Supplement

The traditionalMongolian script,also known as theHudum Mongol bichig,was the firstwriting systemcreated specifically for theMongolian language,and was the most widespread until the introduction ofCyrillicin 1946. It is traditionally written in vertical linesTop-Down, right across the page. Derived from theOld Uyghur Alpha bet,it is a trueAlpha bet,with separate letters for consonants and vowels. It has been adapted for such languages asOiratandManchu.Alphabets based on this classical vertical script continue to be used inMongoliaandInner Mongoliato write Mongolian,Xibeand, experimentally,Evenki.

Computer operating systemshave been slow to adopt support for the Mongolian script; almost all have incomplete support or other text rendering difficulties.

History

The so-calledStone of Genghis KhanorStele of Yisüngge,with the earliest known inscription in the Mongolian script.

The Mongolian vertical script developed as an adaptation of theOld Uyghur Alpha betfor the Mongolian language.Tata-tonga,a 13th-centuryUyghurscribe captured byGenghis Khan,was responsible for bringing the Old Uyghur Alpha bet to theMongolian Plateauand adapting it to the form of the Mongolian script.

From the seventh and eighth to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Mongolian language separated into southern, eastern and western dialects. The principal documents from the period of theMiddle Mongol languageare: in the eastern dialect, the famous textThe Secret History of the Mongols,monuments in theSquare script,materials of theChinese–Mongolian glossary of the fourteenth centuryand materials of the Mongolian language of the middle period in Chinese transcription, etc.; in the western dialect, materials of the Arab–Mongolian and Persian–Mongolian dictionaries, Mongolian texts in Arabic transcription, etc.The main features of the period are that the vowelsïandihad lost their phonemic significance, creating theiphoneme(in theChakhar dialect,the Standard Mongolian inInner Mongolia,these vowels are still distinct); inter-vocal consonantsγ/g,b/whad disappeared and the preliminary process of the formation of Mongolian long vowels had begun; the initialhwas preserved in many words; grammatical categories were partially absent, etc. The development over this period explains why the Mongolian script looks like a vertical Arabic script (in particular the presence of the dot system).

Eventually, minor concessions were made to the differences between theUyghurand Mongol languages: In the 17th and 18th centuries, smoother and more angular versions of the lettertsadibecame associated with[dʒ]and[tʃ]respectively, and in the 19th century, theManchuhookedyodhwas adopted for initial[j].Zainwas dropped as it was redundant for[s].Various schools of orthography, some usingdiacritics,were developed to avoid ambiguity.

Traditional Mongolian words arewritten verticallyfrom top to bottom, flowing in lines from left to right. The Old Uyghur script and its descendants, of which traditional Mongolian is one amongOirat Clear,Manchu,andBuryatare the only known vertical scripts written from left to right. This developed because the Uyghurs rotated theirSogdian-derived script, originally written right to left, 90 degrees counterclockwise to emulate Chinese writing, but without changing the relative orientation of the letters.

Thereed penwas the writing instrument of choice until the 18th century, when thebrushtook its place under Chinese influence.Pens were also historically made of wood,bamboo,bone,bronze,or iron. Ink used was black orcinnabarred, and written with onbirch bark,paper, cloths made ofsilkor cotton, and wooden orsilverplates.

• 
  Reed pens
• 
  Ink brushes
• 
  Writing implementsof theBogd Khan

Mongols learned their script as asyllabary,dividing the syllables into twelve different classes, based on the final phonemes of the syllables, all of which ended in vowels.

The script remained in continuous use by Mongolian speakers inInner Mongoliain thePeople's Republic of China.In theMongolian People's Republic,it was largely replaced by theMongolian Cyrillic Alpha bet,although the vertical script remained in limited use. In March 2020, the Mongolian government announced plans to increase the use of the traditional Mongolian script and to use both Cyrillic and Mongolian script in official documents by 2025.However, due to the particularity of the traditional Mongolian script, a large part (40%) of theSinicizedMongols in Chinaare unable to read or write this script, and in many cases the script is only used symbolically on plaques in many cities.

Names

The script is known by a wide variety of names. As it was derived from theOld Uyghur Alpha bet,theMongol scriptis known as theUighur(-)Mongol script.From 1941 onwards, it became known as theOld Script,in contrast to theNew Script,referring to Cyrillic. The Mongolian script is also known as theHudumor 'not exact' script,in comparison with theTodo'clear, exact' script,and also as 'vertical script'.

Overview

The traditional or classicalMongolian Alpha bet,sometimes calledHudum'traditional' inOiratin contrast to theClear script(Todo'exact'), is the original form of the Mongolian script used to write theMongolian language.It does not distinguish several vowels (o/u,ö/ü,finala/e) and consonants (syllable-initialt/dandk/g,sometimesǰ/y) that were not required forUyghur,which was the source of the Mongol (or Uyghur-Mongol) script.The result is somewhat comparable to the situation ofEnglish,which must represent ten or more vowels with only five letters and uses thedigraphthfor two distinct sounds. Ambiguity is sometimes prevented by context, as the requirements ofvowel harmonyand syllable sequence usually indicate the correct sound. Moreover, as there are few words with an exactly identical spelling, actual ambiguities are rare for a reader who knows the orthography.

Letters have different forms depending on their position in a word: initial, medial, or final. In some cases, additional graphic variants are selected for visual harmony with the subsequent character.

The rules for writing below apply specifically for theMongolianlanguage, unless stated otherwise.

Vowel harmony

Mongolian vowel harmonyseparates the vowels of words into three groups – two mutually exclusive and one neutral:

• Theback,male,masculine,hard,oryangvowelsa,o,andu.
• Thefront,female,feminine,soft,oryinvowelse,ö,andü.
• The neutral voweli,able to appear in all words.

Any Mongolian word can contain the neutral voweli,but only vowels from either of the other two groups. The vowel qualities of visually separated vowels and suffixes must likewise harmonize with those of the preceding word stem. Such suffixes are written withfrontor neutral vowels when preceded by a word stem containing only neutral vowels. Any of these rules might not apply for foreign words however.

Separated final vowels

Two examples of the two kinds of letter separation: with the suffix‑un()and the final vowel‑a()

A separated final form of vowelsaore(᠎ᠠ^⟨?⟩‑a/‑e) is common, and can appear at the end of aword stem,orsuffix.This form requires a final-shaped preceding letter, and an word-internal gap in between. This gap can be transliterated with a hyphen.

The presence or lack of a separatedaorecan also indicate differences in meaning between different words (compareᠬᠠᠷ᠎ᠠ^⟨?⟩qar‑a'black' withᠬᠠᠷᠠqara'to look').

It has the same shape as thetraditionaldative-locative suffix‑a/‑eexemplified in the next section. This form of the suffix is, however, more commonly found in older texts, and is restricted in its Post-Classicaluse.

Separated suffixes

1925 logo of Buryat–Mongolian newspaper:
ᠪᠤᠷᠢᠶᠠᠳᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠤᠨᠦᠨᠡᠨ᠃
Buriyad Mongγol‑un ünen'Buryat-Mongol truth' with the suffix ᠤᠨ^⟨?⟩‑un.

Allcasesuffixes,as well as any plural suffixes consisting of one or two syllables, are likewise separated by a preceding and hyphen-transliterated gap.A maximum of two case suffixes can be added to a stem.

Such single-letter vowel suffixes appear with the final-shaped forms ofa/e,i,oru/ü,as inᠭᠠᠵᠠᠷ ᠠ^⟨?⟩γaǰar‑a'to the country' andᠡᠳᠦᠷ ᠡ^⟨?⟩edür‑e'on the day',orᠤᠯᠤᠰ ᠢ^⟨?⟩ulus‑i'the state' etc.Multi-letter suffixes most often start with an initial- (consonants), medial- (vowels), or variant-shaped form. Medial-shapeduin the two-letter suffix ᠤᠨ^⟨?⟩‑un/‑ünis exemplified in the adjacent newspaper logo.

Consonant clusters

Two medial consonants are the most that can come together in original Mongolian words. There are however, a few loanwords that can begin or end with two or more.

Compound names

In the modern language,proper namescan usually join two words into graphic compounds (such as those ofᠬᠠᠰᠡᠷᠳᠡᠨᠢQas'erdeni'Jasper-jewel' orᠬᠥᠬᠡᠬᠣᠲᠠKökeqota– the city ofHohhot;as opposed to other compound words). This also allows components of different harmonic classes to be joined together, and vowels of an added suffix will harmonize with those of the latter part of the compound. Orthographic peculiarities are most often retained, as with the short and longteethof an initial-shaped⟨ᠥ‍→᠊ᠥ᠌‍⟩öinᠮᠤᠤ‍‍ᠥ᠌‍‍ᠬᠢᠨMuu'ökin'Bad Girl' (protective name). Medialtandd,in contrast, are not affected in this way.

Isolate citation forms

Isolate citation forms for syllables containingo,u,ö,andümay in dictionaries appear without a final tail as in⟨ᠪᠣ⟩bo/buor⟨ᠮᠣ᠋⟩mo/mu,and with a vertical tail as in⟨ᠪᠥ᠋⟩bö/büor⟨ᠮᠥ᠋⟩mö/mü(as well as in transcriptions of Chinese syllables).

Letters

Sort orders

Only in a late form can a definite order of signs be established for the Alpha bet, but can likely be traced back to an earlier Uyghur model.

Example orders

South (inner) Mongolianorder	a	e	i	o	u	ö	ü	n	b	p	q	k	ɣ	g	m	l	s	š	t	d	č	ǰ	y	r	v	(f)	(ž)	(c)	(k)	(h)
Dictionaries after 1924,Mongolian Republic										q	k	ɣ	g	ǰ	y	t	d	m	č	r	s	š	l	v	(f)	(p)
1986primer,Mongolian Republic																									(p)	(f)	(z)

Native Mongolian

Further information:Mongolian script multigraphs

The script represented as a syllabary, 19th century

Native Mongolian

Letters ​	Contextual forms			Transliteration​		International Phonetic Alphabet
	Initial	Medial	Final	Latin	Mong. Cyrillic​	Khalkha​	Chakhar​
ᠠ	ᠠ‍	‍ᠠ‍	‍ᠠ ‍ᠠ᠋	a	а	/a/	/ɑ/
ᠡ	ᠡ‍	‍ᠡ‍	‍ᠡ ‍ᠡ᠋	e	э	/ə/
ᠢ	ᠢ‍	‍ᠢ‍	‍ᠢ	i	и	/i/	/i/or/ɪ/
ᠣ	ᠣ‍	‍ᠣ‍	‍ᠣ	o	о	/ɔ/
ᠤ	ᠤ‍	‍ᠤ‍	‍ᠤ	u	у	/ʊ/
ᠥ	ᠥ‍	‍ᠥ᠋‍ ‍ᠥ‍	‍ᠥ	ö	ө	/ɵ/	/o/
ᠦ	ᠦ‍	‍ᠦ᠋‍ ‍ᠦ‍	‍ᠦ	ü	ү	/u/
ᠨ	ᠨ‍	‍ᠨ‍ ‍ᠨ᠋‍	‍ᠨ ‍ᠨ᠎	n	н	/n/
ᠩ	—	‍ᠩ‍	‍ᠩ	ng	нг	/ŋ/
ᠪ	ᠪ‍	‍ᠪ‍	‍ᠪ	b	б	/p/and/w/	/b/
ᠫ	ᠫ‍	‍ᠫ‍	—	p	п	/pʰ/	/p/
ᠬ	ᠬ	‍ᠬ‍	‍ᠬ	q k	х	/x/
ᠭ	ᠭ	‍ᠭ‍ ‍ᠭ᠋‍	‍ᠭ ‍ᠭ᠎	ɣ g	г	/ɢ/	/ɣ/
ᠮ	ᠮ‍	‍ᠮ‍	‍ᠮ	m	м	/m/
ᠯ	ᠯ‍	‍ᠯ‍	‍ᠯ	l	л	/ɮ/	/l/
ᠰ	ᠰ‍	‍ᠰ‍	‍ᠰ	s	с	/s/or/ʃ/beforei
ᠱ	ᠱ‍	‍ᠱ‍	‍ᠱ	š	ш	/ʃ/
ᠲ	ᠲ‍	‍ᠲ‍	—	t	т	/t/
ᠳ	ᠳ‍	‍ᠳ‍ ‍ᠳ᠋‍	‍ᠳ	d	д	/t/and/tʰ/	/d/
ᠴ	ᠴ‍	‍ᠴ‍	—	č	ч	/t͡ʃʰ/and/t͡sʰ/	/t͡ʃ/
ᠵ	ᠵ‍	‍ᠵ‍	—	ǰ	ж	/d͡ʒ/andd͡z	/d͡ʒ/
ᠶ	ᠶ‍	‍ᠶ‍	‍ᠶ	y	й	/j/
ᠷ	ᠷ‍	‍ᠷ‍	‍ᠷ	r	р	/r/

Galik characters

Main article:Galik Alpha bet

In 1587, the translator and scholarAyuush Güüshcreated the Galik Alpha bet (Али-галиAli-gali), inspired by the thirdDalai Lama,Sonam Gyatso.It primarily added extra characters for transcribingTibetanandSanskritterms when translating religious texts, and later also fromChinese.Some of those characters are still in use today for writing foreign names (as listed below).

In 1917, the politician and linguistBayantömöriin Khaisanpublished therime dictionaryMongolian-Han Bilingual Original Sounds of the Five Regions,a bilingual edition of the earlierOriginal Sounds of the Five Regions,to aid Mongolian speakers in learning Mandarin Chinese. To that end, he included transliterations of Mandarin using the Mongolian script, and repurposed three Galik letters to represent the Mandarinretroflex consonants.These letters remain in use inInner Mongoliafor the purpose of transcribing Chinese.

From left to right:Phagspa,Lantsa,Tibetan,Mongolian,ChineseandCyrillic,from 1903 or earier

Galik characters

Letters​​	Contextual forms			Transliteration​				IPA
	Initial	Medial	Final	Latin	Mong. Cyrillic​	Sanskrit	Tibetan​
ᠧ	ᠧ‍	‍ᠧ‍	‍ᠧ	ē/é	е	ए	ཨེ	/e/
ᠸ	ᠸ‍	‍ᠸ‍	‍ᠸ	w/v	в	व	ཝ	/w/
ᠹ	ᠹ‍	‍ᠹ‍	‍ᠹ	f	ф	फ	ཕ	/f/
ᠺ	ᠺ‍	‍ᠺ‍	‍ᠺ	g/k	к	ग	ག	/k/
ᠻ	ᠻ‍	‍ᠻ‍	‍ᠻ	k/kh	к	ख	ཁ	/kʰ/
ᠼ	ᠼ‍	‍ᠼ‍	‍ᠼ	c	ц	छ	ཚ	/t͡s/
ᠽ	ᠽ‍	‍ᠽ‍	‍ᠽ	z	з	च	ཙ ཛ	/d͡z/
ᠾ	ᠾ‍	‍ᠾ‍	‍ᠾ	h	х	ह	ཧ	/h/
ᠿ	ᠿ‍	—	—	ž	ж		ཞ	/ʐ/,/ɻ/
ᡀ	ᡀ‍	‍ᡀ‍	—	lh	лх		ལྷ	/ɬ/
ᡁ	ᡁ‍	—	—	zh	з			/d͡ʐ/
ᡂ	ᡂ‍	—	—	ch	ч		ཋ	/t͡ʂ/

Punctuation and numerals

Punctuation

Further information:Mongolian Supplement (Unicode block)

Example ofword-breakingthe nameOyirad'Oirat', 1604 manuscript

Abbreviation exemplified with the initial syllable of theMongolian tögrög(ᠲᠥ‍᠂)

When written between words, punctuation marks use space on both sides of them. They can also appear at the very end of a line, regardless of where the preceding word ends.Red (cinnabar) ink is used in many manuscripts, to either symbolize emphasis or respect.Modern punctuation incorporates Western marks: parentheses; quotation, question, and exclamation marks; including precomposed⁈and⁉.

Punctuation

Form(s)	Name	Function(s)
᠀	Birga	Marks start of a book, chapter, passage, or first line
᠀᠋
᠀᠌
᠀᠍
[...]
᠂	'Dot'	Comma
᠃	'Double-dot'	Period / full stop
᠅	'Four-fold dot'	Marks end of a passage, paragraph, or chapter
᠁	'Dotted line'	Ellipsis
᠄	[...]	Colon
᠆	'Spine, backbone'	Mongoliansoft hyphen(wikt:᠆)
᠊		Mongoliannon-breaking hyphen,or stem extender (wikt:᠊)

Numerals

Main article:Mongolian numerals

	Text	Image
15 on'year of 15' on a 1925 tögrög coin, with the number written across the baseline.	᠑᠕ ᠣᠨ
89(top) written vertically on a hillside, with the number written along the baseline.	᠘ ᠙
Printed numeral3,written along the baseline and rotated 90 degrees clockwise.	᠁‍ᠤᠢ ᠓ ᠬᠡ‍᠁

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
᠐	᠑	᠒	᠓	᠔	᠕	᠖	᠗	᠘	᠙

Mongolian numerals are either written from left to right, or from top to bottom.For typographical reasons, they are rotated 90° in modern books to fit on the line.

Components and writing styles

Components

Listed in the table below are letter components (graphemes)commonly used across the script. Some of these are used with several letters, and others to contrast between them. As their forms and usage may differ betweenwriting styles,however, examples of these can be found under this section below.

Common components

Form	Name(s)	Use
᠊ᠡ‍	'Tooth'	A main part of lettersa/e(from Old Uyghuraleph),n(nun,alsopart of thedigraphng),q/γ(gimel-heth),m(mem),l(hookedresh), initialt/d(taw), etc.Historically alsopart ofk/g(kaph), as well asr(resh).
	'Tooth'
ᠡ‍	'Crown'	An exaggerated initial (swash) tooth. Used for the leadingalephof initial vowels (a,e,i,o,u,ö,ü,ē), and with some initial consonants (n,m,l,h=nun,mem,hooked resh,haetc.). Historically unused.
᠊᠊	'Spine, backbone'	The vertical line running through words.
‍᠊ᠠ	'Tail'	The swash final ofa/e,n,d,etc.
‍᠊ᠰ᠋	'Short tail'	The swash final ofq/γ,m,ands(samekh-shinorzayin).
᠎ᠠ⟨?⟩⟨⟩	Crook	The separated finala/e.
	Crook, 'Sprinkling, dusting'	The connected lower part of finala/e;the lower part of finalg(kaph).
‍ᡳ᠌	'Hook'	The final part of finali(after bow-shapedb,k/g) and some galik letters.
ᠵ‍	'Shin, stick'	A main part ofi,ǰ,andy,and final part of initialö/ü(yodh). Also the upper part of finalg(kaph).
	'Straight shin'
	'Long tooth'
ᠶ‍	'Shin with upturn'	Initial and medialy(yodh).
ᠸ‍	Shin with downturn	The lettersēandw(bet).
ᠷ‍	Horned shin	The letterr(resh). Historically also the upper part of finalgand separateda/e.
ᠳ᠋‍	'Looped shin'	A medialt/d(lamedh). Historically with its enclosed (counter) endpoint varying in shape: as open/closed, hook-shaped, pointy/round etc.
ᡁ‍	'Hollow shin'	The lettershandzh(from the Tibetan script).
‍ᠢ	'Bow'	Finali,o/u/ö/ü,andr;ng,b/p(pe),k/g,etc.
‍᠊ᠣ‍	'Belly, stomach,' loop, contour	The counter ofo/u/ö/ü(waw),b,p,initialt/d,etc.
ᠲ‍	'Hind-gut'	An initialt/d(taw).
ᠬ	[...]	An initialq/γ(gimel-heth).
‍᠊ᠮ‍	'Braid, pigtail'and'Horn'	The lettersm(mem) andl(hooked resh).
‍᠊ᠯ‍
‍᠊ᠰ‍	'Corner of the mouth'	The letterss/š(samekh-shin).
‍ᠴ‍	[...]	The letterč(angulartsade).
	'Fork'
‍ᠵ‍	[...]	The letterǰ(smoothtsade).
	'Tusk, fang'
‍᠊ᠹ‍	Flaglet, tuft	The left-sidediacriticoff,z,etc. These names are only used for such components created for words of foreign origin.
‍ᠽ‍

Writing styles

As exemplified in this section, the shapes of glyphs may vary widely between different styles of writing and choice of medium with which to produce them. The development of written Mongolian can be divided into the three periods ofpre-classical(beginning – 17th century),classical(16/17th century – 20th century), andmodern(20th century onward):

Cursivesample in (pre-classical) Middle Mongol:Uridu maqam‑un qaǰiun medekü

Rounded letterforms

• Rounded letterforms tend to be more prevalent with handwritten styles (compare printed and handwrittenarban'ten').

Block‑printed		Pen-written form	Modern brush‑​written​ form	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s)& 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. form	semi-modern forms
				arban'ten'

Tail

• Final letterforms with a right-pointing tail (such as those ofa,e,n,q,γ,m,l,s,š,andd) may have the notch preceding it in printed form, written in a span between two extremes: from as a more or less tapered point, to a fully rounded curve in handwriting.
• The long final tails ofa,e,n,anddin the texts of pre-classical Mongolian can become elongated vertically to fill up the remainder of a line. Such tails are used consistently for these letters in the earliest 13th to 15th centuryUyghur Mongolianstyle of texts.

Examples of lengthened letterformsdandnin‑daγan(left), and their regular equivalents (right)

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Modern brush‑​written​ forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s)& 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
				‑ača/​‑eče
				‑un/​‑ün
				‑ud/​‑üd
				ba'and'

Yodh

• A hooked form ofyodhwas borrowed from theManchu Alpha betin the 19th century to distinguish initialyfromǰ.The handwritten form of final-shapedyodh(i,ǰ,y), can be greatly shortened in comparison with its initial and medial forms.

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Modern brush‑​written​ forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s)& 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
				‑i
				‑yi
				‑yin
				sain/sayin'good'
				yeke'great'

Diacritics

• The definite status or function of diacritics was not established prior to classical Mongolian. As such, the dotted lettersn,γ,andš,can be found sporadically dotted or altogether lacking them. Additionally, bothqandγcould be (double-)dotted to identify them regardless of their sound values. Final dottednis also found in modern Mongolian words. Any diacritical dots ofγandncan be offset downward from their respective letters(as inᠭᠣᠣᠯγoolandᠭᠦᠨ ᠢ^⟨?⟩gün‑i).

Bow

• When abow-shaped consonant is followed by a vowel in Uyghur style text, said bow can be found to notably overlap it (seebi). A finalbhas, in its final pre-modern form, a bow-less final form as opposed to the common modern one:

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Modern brush‑​written​ forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s)& 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
				‑u/​‑ü
				bi'I'
				ab(intensifying particle)

Gimel-heth and kaph

• As inkü,köke,ǰügand separateda/e,two teeth can also make up the top-left part of akaph(k/g) oraleph(a/e) in pre-classical texts. In back-vocalic words of Uyghur Mongolian,qiwas used in place ofki,and can therefore be used to identify this stage of the written language. An example of this appears in the suffix‑taqi/‑daqi.

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Modern brush‑​written​ forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s)& 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
				‑a/​‑e
				‑luγ‑a
			[...]	kü(emphatic particle)
				köke'blue'
				köge'soot'
				ǰüg'direction'

Ligatures

• In pre-modern Mongolian, medialml(‍ᠮᠯ‍) forms a ligature:.

The wordčiγšabdin a Uyghur Mongolian style: exemplifying a dotted syllable-finalγ,and a finalbdligature.

Short tail

• A pre-modern variant form for finalsappears in the shape of a short finaln⟨‍ᠰ᠋⟩,derived from Old Uyghurzayin(𐽴). It tended to be replaced by themouth-shaped form and is no longer used. An early example of it is found in the name ofGengis Khanon the Stele of Yisüngge:ᠴᠢᠩᠭᠢᠰ᠋Činggis.A zayin-shaped final can also appear as part of finalmandγ.

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s)& 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
			es(‑)e'not, no', (negation)
			ulus'nation'
			nom'book'
			čaγ'time'

Taw and lamedh

• Initialtaw(t/d) can, akin to finalmem(m), be found written quite explicitly loopy (as innom'book' andtoli'mirror'). Thelamedh(tord) may appear simply as an oval loop or looped shin, or as more angular, with an either closed or opencounter(as in‑daki/‑dekior‑dur/‑dür). As inmetü,a Uyghur style word-medialtcan sometimes be written with the pre-consonantal form otherwise used ford.Tawwas applied to both initialtanddfrom the outset of the script's adoption. This was done in imitation of Old Uyghur which, however, had lacked the phonemedin this position.

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Modern brush‑​written​ forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s)& 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
		[...]		toli'mirror'
			[...]	‑daki/‑deki
			[...]	‑tur/​‑tür
				‑dur/​‑dür
			[...]	metü'as'

Tsade

• Following the late classical Mongolian orthography of the 17th and 18th centuries, a smooth and angulartsade(‍ᠵ‍andᠴ) has come to representǰandčrespectively. Thetsadebefore this was used for both these phonemes, regardless of graphical variants, as noǰhad existed in Old Uyghur:

Block‑printed		Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s)& 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. form	semi-modern form
		čečeg'flower'

Block-printed semi-modern form	Pen-written form	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s)& 'trans­la­tion'
		qačar/γaǰar'cheek/place'

Resh

• As insaraand‑dur/‑dür,aresh(ofr,and sometimes ofl) can appear as two teeth or crossed shins; adjacent, angled, attached to a shin and/or overlapping.

Block‑printed		Pen-written form	Modern brush‑​written​ form	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s)& 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. form	semi-modern forms
				sar(‑)a'moon/month'

Example

Wikipedia slogan

Manuscript	Type	Unicode	Transliteration (first word)
		ᠸᠢᠺᠢᠫᠧᠳᠢᠶᠠ᠂ ᠴᠢᠯᠦᠭᠡᠲᠦ ᠨᠡᠪᠲᠡᠷᠬᠡᠢ ᠲᠣᠯᠢ ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ ᠪᠣᠯᠠᠢ᠃	ᠸᠢ‍wi/​vi
			‍ᠺᠢ‍gi/ki
			‍ᠫᠧ‍pē/pé
			‍ᠳᠢ‍di
			‍ᠶ᠎ᠠ⟨?⟩y‑aor‍ᠶᠠya
Transliteration:Wikipēdiya čilügetü nebterkei toli bičig bolai. Cyrillic:Википедиа чөлөөт нэвтэрхий толь бичиг болой. Transcription:Vikipedia chölööt nevterkhii toli bichig boloi. Translation: Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia.

Gallery

• 
  Decorative 'wrapped/folded' letters on a 2023 passport.
• 
  Mongolian calligraphyof the 13th century workОюун Түлхүүр(Key of Intelligence)
• 
  Imperial seal of theBogd Khan,ca 1911.
• 
  Mixed Manchu–Mongolian text on aPaiza.
• 
  Brush-writtenČoyijod Daginimanuscript, 19th century
• 
  Book of Jeremiah,printed 1840 at Khodon in Siberia.

Unicode

The Mongolian script was added to theUnicodestandard in September 1999 with the release of version 3.0. However, several design issues have been pointed out.

• The 1999 Mongolian script Unicode codes are duplicated and not searchable.
• The 1999 Mongolian script Unicode model has multiple layers of FVS (free variation selectors), MVS, ZWJ, NNBSP, and those variation selections conflict with each other, which create incorrect results.Furthermore, different vendors understood the definition of each FVS differently, and developed multiple applications in different standards.
• The characters themselves are typed left to right, instead of the correct up to down.

Blocks

Main articles:Mongolian (Unicode block)andMongolian Supplement (Unicode block)

The Unicode block for Mongolian is U+1800–U+18AF. It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks forHudum Mongolian,Todo Mongolian,Xibe (Manchu),Manchu proper,andAli Gali,as well as extensions for transcribingSanskritandTibetan.

Mongolian[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart(PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+180x

᠀

᠁

᠂

᠃

᠄

᠅

᠆

᠇

᠈

᠉

᠊

FVS 1

FVS 2

FVS 3

MVS

FVS 4

U+181x

᠐

᠑

᠒

᠓

᠔

᠕

᠖

᠗

᠘

᠙

U+182x

ᠠ

ᠡ

ᠢ

ᠣ

ᠤ

ᠥ

ᠦ

ᠧ

ᠨ

ᠩ

ᠪ

ᠫ

ᠬ

ᠭ

ᠮ

ᠯ

U+183x

ᠰ

ᠱ

ᠲ

ᠳ

ᠴ

ᠵ

ᠶ

ᠷ

ᠸ

ᠹ

ᠺ

ᠻ

ᠼ

ᠽ

ᠾ

ᠿ

U+184x

ᡀ

ᡁ

ᡂ

ᡃ

ᡄ

ᡅ

ᡆ

ᡇ

ᡈ

ᡉ

ᡊ

ᡋ

ᡌ

ᡍ

ᡎ

ᡏ

U+185x

ᡐ

ᡑ

ᡒ

ᡓ

ᡔ

ᡕ

ᡖ

ᡗ

ᡘ

ᡙ

ᡚ

ᡛ

ᡜ

ᡝ

ᡞ

ᡟ

U+186x

ᡠ

ᡡ

ᡢ

ᡣ

ᡤ

ᡥ

ᡦ

ᡧ

ᡨ

ᡩ

ᡪ

ᡫ

ᡬ

ᡭ

ᡮ

ᡯ

U+187x

ᡰ

ᡱ

ᡲ

ᡳ

ᡴ

ᡵ

ᡶ

ᡷ

ᡸ

U+188x

ᢀ

ᢁ

ᢂ

ᢃ

ᢄ

ᢅ

ᢆ

ᢇ

ᢈ

ᢉ

ᢊ

ᢋ

ᢌ

ᢍ

ᢎ

ᢏ

U+189x

ᢐ

ᢑ

ᢒ

ᢓ

ᢔ

ᢕ

ᢖ

ᢗ

ᢘ

ᢙ

ᢚ

ᢛ

ᢜ

ᢝ

ᢞ

ᢟ

U+18Ax

ᢠ

ᢡ

ᢢ

ᢣ

ᢤ

ᢥ

ᢦ

ᢧ

ᢨ

ᢩ

ᢪ

Notes 1.^As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The Mongolian Supplement block (U+11660–U+1167F) was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2016 with the release of version 9.0:

Mongolian Supplement[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart(PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+1166x

𑙠

𑙡

𑙢

𑙣

𑙤

𑙥

𑙦

𑙧

𑙨

𑙩

𑙪

𑙫

𑙬

U+1167x

Notes 1.^As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Keyboard layout

The Windows Mongolian traditional scriptkeyboard layoutfor personal computers is as follows:

Unshifted layout

FVS3

1 ᠑

2 ᠒

3 ᠓

4 ᠔

5 ᠕

6 ᠖

7 ᠗

8 ᠘

9 ᠙

0 ᠐

NNBSP

=

Backspace

Tab

Q ᠴč

W ᠣo

E ᠡe

R ᠷr

T ᠲt

Y ᠶy

U ᠦü

I ᠢi

O ᠥö

P ᠫp

(...) 〔

(...) 〕

(...) ᠁

Caps

A ᠠa

S ᠰs

D ᠳd

F ᠹf

G ᠭɣ/g

H ᠬq/k

J ᠵǰ

K ᠺg

L ᠯl

; ︔

FVS1

Enter

Shift

\

Z ᠽz

X ᠱš

C ᠼc

V ᠤu

B ᠪb

N ᠨn

M ᠮm

, ᠂

. ᠃

.

Shift

Ctrl

Alt

Alt

Ctrl

Shifted layout

~

1 !

2 ⁈

3 ⁉

4 —

5 %

6 ZWNJ

7 ᠊

8 ZWJ

9 (

0 )

MVS

+

Backspace

Tab

W ᠸw

E ᠧē

R ᠿž

(...) 〈

(...) 〉

(...) |

Caps

H ᠾh

K ᠻkh

L ᡀlh

: ᠄

FVS2

Enter

Shift

Z ᡁzh

C ᡂch

N ᠩng

, 《

. 》

?

Shift

Ctrl

Alt

Alt

Ctrl

See also

• Mongolian writing systems
  • Mongolian script
    • Mongolian script multigraphs
    • Galik Alpha bet
    • Todo Alpha bet
  • ʼPhags-pa script
    • Horizontal square script
  • Soyombo script
  • Mongolian Latin Alpha bet
    • SASM/GNC romanization § Mongolian
  • Mongolian Cyrillic Alpha bet
  • Mongolian transliteration of Chinese characters
    • Sino–Mongolian Transliterations
  • Mongolian Braille
• Mongolian Sign Language
• Mongolian name

External links

Keyboards Mongolian script layout online

• Lexilogos
• Typingbaba
• Branah

Summaries

• University of Vienna: Grammar of Written Mongolian by Nicholas POPPE Index
• CJVlang: Making Sense of the Traditional Mongolian Script
• StudyMongolian: Written forms with audio pronunciation
• The Silver Horde: Mongol Scripts
• Lingua Mongolia: Uighur-script Mongolian ResourcesArchived2022-03-19 at theWayback Machine
• Omniglot: Mongolian Alphabet(note: contains several table inaccuracies regarding glyphs and transliterations)

Studies

• (fr) Rémusat, AbelRécherches sur les langues tartares,Paris, 1820

Grammars

• (ru) Schmidt, Isaak Jakob,Грамматика монгольскaго языка (Grammatika mongolʹskago i︠a︡zyka),Saint-Petersburg, 1832
• (ru) Bobrovnikov, Aleksieĭ AleksandrovichГрамматика монгольско-калмыцкого языка (Grammatika mongolʹsko-kalmyt͡skago i͡azyka),Kazan, 1849
• (de) Schmidt, Isaak Jakob,Grammatik der mongolischen Sprache,St. Petersburg, 1831
• (fr) Soulié, Charles Georges,Éléments de grammaire mongole (dialecte ordoss),Paris, 1903
• (it) Puini, Carlo,Elementi della grammatica mongolica,Firenze, 1878

Dictionaries

• (fr, ru) Kovalevskiĭ, Osip Mikhaĭlovich,Dictionnaire Mongol-Russe-Franca̧is,Volumes 1–3, Kazan 1844-46-49
• Bolor Dictionary
• Mongol toli dictionary: state dictionary of Mongolia

Transliteration

• University of Virginia: Transliteration Schemes For Mongolian Vertical Script
• Online tool for Mongolian script transliteration
• Automatic converter for Traditional Mongolian and Cyrillic Mongolian by the Computer College of Inner Mongolia University

Manuscripts

• Mongolian Manuscripts from Olon Süme – Yokohama Museum of EurAsian Cultures
• Digitised Mongolian manuscripts – The Royal Library,National Library of Denmark
• Mongolian texts – Digitales Turfan-Archiv,the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
• Preservation of unique and historic newspapers printed in traditional Mongolian script between 1936–1945 – Endangered Archives Programme, British Library

Other

• Official Mongolian script version of thePeople's Daily Online
• Office of the President of Mongoliawebsite in Mongolian script
• Tang, Didi (20 March 2020)."Mongolia abandons Soviet past by restoring Alpha bet".The Times.Retrieved21 March2020.