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Mongolian script

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Mongolian script
Type Alphabet
Spoken languages Mongolian language
Evenki language
Time period ca.1204 – today
Parent systems Proto-Canaanite alphabet
 → Phoenician alphabet
  → Aramaic alphabet
   → Syriac alphabet
    → Sogdian alphabet
     → Old Uyghur alphabet
      → Mongolian script
Child systems Manchu script
Clear script
Vaghintara script
Unicode range U+1800 – U+18AF
ISO 15924 Mong
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Mongolian script (Mongolian: Mongγol bičig, cyrillic: Монгол бичиг, Mongol bichig) was the first of many writing systems created for the Mongolian language and the most successful until the introduction of Cyrillic to Mongolia in 1946. With minor modification, the classic vertical script is used in Inner Mongolia in China to this day to write both Mongolian and the Evenki language.

Contents

[edit] History

The Mongol vertical script is essentially the Uyghur script used to write Mongol. It was introduced by the Uyghur scribe Tatar-Tonga, who had been captured by the Mongols during a war against the Naimans around 1204. There were no substantive changes to the Uyghur form for the first few centuries, so that, for example, initial yodh stood for both [dʒ] and [j], while medial tsadi stood for both [dʒ] and [tʃ], and there was no letter for [d] in initial position. Eventually, minor concessions were made to the differences between the Uyghur and Mongol languages: In the 17th and 18th centuries, smoother and more angular versions of tsadi became associated with [dʒ] and [tʃ] respectively, and in the 19th century, the Manchu hooked yodh was adopted for initial [j]. Zain was dropped as it was redundant for [s]. Various schools of orthography, some using diacritics, were developed to avoid ambiguity.

In 1587, Ayuush Güüsh (Аюуш гүүш) devised a number of extra characters to transcribe the sounds of foreign languages like Tibetan, Chinese, and Sanskrit. This extension is known under the name Ali-Gali (Али-гали).

Mongolian is written vertically. The Uyghur script and its descendants—Mongolian, Oirat Clear, Manchu, and Buryat—are the only vertical scripts written from left to right. This developed because the Uyghurs rotated their Sogdian-derived script, originally written right to left, 90 degrees counterclockwise to emulate Chinese writing, but without changing the relative orientation of the letters.[1]

[edit] The characters

The word Monggol in the classic script
A KFC in Hohhot. All street signs must be bilingual in Mongol and Chinese.

Characters take different shapes depending on their initial, medial, or final position within a word. In some cases, there are additional graphic variations which are selected for better visual harmony with the subsequent character.

The alphabet fails to make several vowel (o/u, ö/ü, final a/e) and consonant (t/d, k/g, sometimes ž/y) distinctions of Mongolian that were not required for Uyghur.[1] The result is somewhat comparable to the situation of English, which must represent ten or more vowels with only five letters and uses the digraph th for two distinct sounds. Sometimes, ambiguity is avoided, because the requirements of vowel harmony and syllable sequence usually determine the right choice. Moreover, as there are few words with an exactly identical spelling, actual ambiguities are rare for a reader who knows the orthography.

Characters Transliteration Notes
initial medial final Latin Cyrillic
Image:Mg_a_initial.png‎ Image:2mg_ae_medial.png Image:3mg_ae_final.pngImage:3mg_ae2_final.png a А Distinction usually by vowel harmony (see also q/γ and k/g below)
Image:Mg_e_initial.png‎ e Э
Image:Mg_i_initial.png‎ Image:2mg_i_medial.png[2]

Image:Mongol i middle2.jpg[3]

 Image:3mg_iy_final.png i, yi И,Й, Ы, Ь At end of word today often absorbed into preceding syllable
Image:Mg_ou_initial.png‎ Image:2mg_ou_medial.png Image:3mg_ouöü_final.png o, u О, У Distinction depending on context.
Image:Mg_öü_initial.png‎ Image:2mg_öü1_medial.pngImage:2mg_öü2_medial.png Image:3mg_ouöü_final.pngImage:Mongol oe tail.jpg ö, ü Ө, Ү Distinction depending on context.
Image:Mg_n_initial.png‎ Image:2mg_n1_medial.png[4]

Image:2mg_n2_medial.png[5]

 Image:3mg_ae_final.pngImage:3mg_n2_final.png n Н Distinction from medial and final a/e by position in syllable sequence.
Image:2mg_ng_medial.png Image:3mg_ng_final.png ng Н, НГ Only at end of word (medial for composites).

Transcribes Tibetan ང; Sanskrit ङ.
Image:Mg_b_initial.png‎ Image:2mg_b_medial.png‎ Image:3mg_b1_final.pngImage:3mg_b2_final.png b Б, В
Image:Mg_p_initial.png Image:2mg_p_medial.png Image:3mg_p_final.png p П Only at the beginning of Mongolian words.

Transcribes Tibetan པ;
Image:Mg_q_initial.png Image:2mg_q_medial.png Image:3mg_q_final.png q Х Only with back vowels
Image:Mg_gh_initial.png Image:2mg_gh1_medial.pngImage:2mg_gh2_medial.png Image:3mg_gh1_final.png Image:3mg_gh2_final.png γ Г Only with back vowels.

Between vowels pronounced as a long vowel.[6] The "final" version only appears when followed by an a written detached from the word.
Image:Mg_g_initial.png Image:2mg_g_medial.png k Х Only with front vowels, but 'ki/gi' can occur in both front and back vowel words
Word-finally only g, not k.

g between vowels pronounced as long vowel.[7]
Image:3mg_g_final.png g Г
Image:Mg_m_initial.png Image:2mg_m_medial.png Image:3mg_m_final.png m М
Image:Mg_l_initial.png Image:2mg_l_medial.png Image:3mg_l_final.png l Л
Image:Mg_s_initial.png Image:2mg_s_medial.png Image:3mg_s_final.png s С
Image:Mg_sh_initial.png Image:2mg_sh_medial.png Image:3mg_sh_final.png š Ш
Image:Mg_td_initial.png Image:2mg_td2_medial.pngImage:2mg_td1_medial.png Image:3mg_td_final.png t, d Т, Д Distinction depending on context.
Image:Mg_c_initial.png Image:2mg_c_medial.png č Ч, Ц Distinction between /tʃ'/ and /ts'/ in Khalkha Mongolian.
Image:Mg_j_initial.png Image:2mg_j_medial.png j Ж, З Distinction by context in Khalkha Mongolian.
Image:Mg_y_initial.png Image:2mg_y_medial.png Image:3mg_iy_final.png y -Й, Е*, Ё*, Ю*, Я*
Image:Mg_r_initial.png Image:2mg_r_medial.png Image:3mg_r_final.png r Р Not normally at the beginning of words.[8]
Image:Mg_w_initial.png Image:2mg_w_medial.png v В Used to transcribe foreign words (Originally used to transcribe Sanskrit व)
Image:Mg_f_initial.png Image:2mg_f_medial.png Image:3mg_f_final.png f Ф Uesd to transcribe foreign words
Image:Mg_k_initial.png Image:2mg_k_medial.png Image:3mg_k_final.png ḳ К Used to transcribe foreign words
Image:Mg_ts_initial.png Image:2mg_ts_medial.png (c) (ц) Used to transcribe foreign words (Originally used to transcribe Tibetan /ts'/ ཚ; Sanskrit छ)
Image:Mg_z_initial.png Image:2mg_z_medial.png (z) (з) Used to transcribe foreign words (Originally used to transcribe Tibetan /dz/ ཛ; Sanskrit ज)
Image:Mg_h_initial.png Image:2mg_h_medial.png (h) (г, х) Used to transcribe foreign words (Originally used to transcribe Tibetan /h/ ཧ, ྷ; Sanskrit ह)
Image:Mg_zh_initial.png (zh) (-,-) Transcribes Chinese 'zhi' - used in Inner Mongolia
Image:Mg_ri_initial.png (ř) (-,-) Transcribes Chinese 'ri' - used in Inner Mongolia
Image:Mg_ch_initial.png (chi) (-,-) Transcribes Chinese 'chi' - used in Inner Mongolia

[edit] Examples

Historical shapes Modern print type Transliterating first word:
Image:Mclassical mimic.jpg Image:Wikiclassicalmongol.jpg
 
Image:Mongol w head.jpg v
Image:Mongol i middle1.jpg　 i
Image:Mongol k middle.jpg k
Image:Mongol i middle1.jpg i
Image:Mongol p middle.jpg p
Image:Mongol a middle 2.jpg e
Image:Mongol t middle.jpg d
Image:Mongol i middle1.jpg i
Image:Mongol y1 middle.jpg y
Image:Mongol a tail 1.jpg a
  • transliteration: Vikipediya čilügetü nebterkei toli bičig bolai.
  • Cyrillic: Википедиа Чөлөөт Нэвтэрхий Толь Бичиг Болой.
  • Transcription: Vikipedia chölööt nevterkhii toli bichig boloi.
  • Gloss: Wikipedia free omni-profound mirror scripture is.
  • Translation: Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia.

[edit] Derivate scripts

[edit] Clear script

Main article: Clear script

In 1648, the Oirat Buddhist monk Zaya-pandita Namkhaijamco created this variation with the goals of bringing the written language closer to the actual pronunciation and making 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 a Buryat monk named Agvan Dorjiev (1854–1938). It was also meant to 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. After a few years, Agvan-Dorjiev ran out of funds to promote his invention further, so that fewer than a dozen books were printed using it.

[edit] Mongolian in Unicode

The Unicode Mongolian block is U+1800 – U+18AF.[9] It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks for Mongolian, Todo script, Xibe, and Manchu, as well as extensions for transcribing Sanskrit and Tibetan.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b György Kara, "Aramaic Scripts for Altaic Languages", in Daniels & Bright The World's Writing Systems, 1994.
  2. ^ Following a consonant, Latin transliteration is i.
  3. ^ Following a vowel, Latin transliteration is yi, with rare exceptions like naim ("eight") or Naiman.
  4. ^ Character for front of syllable (n-<vowel>).
  5. ^ Character for back of syllable (<vowel>-n).
  6. ^ Examples: qa-γ-an (khan) is shortened to qaan. Some exceptions like tsa-g-aan ("white") exist.
  7. ^ Example: de-g-er is shortened to deer. Some exceptions like ügüi ("no") exist.
  8. ^ Transcribed foreign words usually get a vowel prepended. Example: Transcribing Русь (Russia) results in Oros.
  9. ^ Unicode block U+1800 – U+18AF; Mongolian.

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Classic Mongol script
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_script"
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