'Phags-pa script

The 'Phags-pa script^[1] was an alphabet designed by the Tibetan Lama 'Gro-mgon Chos-rgyal 'Phags-pa (Drogön Chögyal Phagpa) for Yuan emperor Kublai Khan, as a unified script for the literary languages of the Yuan Dynasty.

Widespread use was limited to about a hundred years during the Yuan Dynasty, and it fell out of use with the advent of the Ming Dynasty. The documentation of its use provides linguists clues about the changes in Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, and neighboring languages during the Yuan era.

History

The Uyghur-based Mongolian alphabet is not a perfect fit for Middle Mongolian, and it would be impractical to extend it to a language with a very different phonology like Chinese. Therefore, during the Yuan Dynasty (ca. 1269), Kublai Khan asked ´Phags-pa to design a new alphabet for use by the whole empire. ´Phags-pa extended his native Tibetan script (an Indic script) to encompass Mongol and Chinese, evidently Central Plains standard.^[2] The resulting 38 letters have been known by several descriptive names, such as "square script" based on their shape, but today are primarily known as the 'Phags-pa alphabet.

Despite its origin, the script was written vertically (top to bottom) like the previous Mongolian scripts. It 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 Mongolians learning Chinese characters. It was also used as one of the scripts on Tibetan currency in the twentieth century, as script for Tibetan seal inscriptions from the Middle Ages up to the 20th century and for inscriptions on the entrance doors of Tibetan monasteries.

Forms

Unlike the ancestral Tibetan script, all 'Phags-pa letters are written in temporal order (that is, /CV/ is written in the order C–V for all vowels) and in-line (that is, the vowels are not diacritics). However, vowel letters retain distinct initial forms, and short /a/ is not written except initially, making 'Phags-pa transitional between an abugida and a full alphabet. The letters of a 'Phags-pa syllable are linked together so that they form syllabic blocks.

'Phags-pa was written in a variety of graphic forms. The standard form (top, at right) was blocky, but a "Tibetan" form (bottom) was even more so, consisting almost entirely of straight orthogonal lines and right angles. A "seal script" form (Chinese 蒙古篆字 měnggǔ zhuānzì "Mongolian Seal Script"), used for imperial seals and the like, was more elaborate, with squared sinusoidal lines and spirals.

Korean records that state that hangul was based on an "Old Seal Script", 古篆字, which Gary Ledyard believes to be 'Phags-pa and a reference to its Chinese name 蒙古篆字 měnggǔ zhuānzì. (See origin of hangul.) However, it is the simpler standard form of the alphabet that is the closer graphic match.

Letters

Following are the initials of the 'Phags-pa script as presented in the Menggu Ziyun. They are ordered according to the Chinese philological tradition of the 36 initials.

See also

• Brahmic family
• Mongolian writing systems
• Origin of Hangul
• Mongol elements in Western medieval art
• Menggu Ziyun (Yuan dynasty 'Phags-pa - Chinese rhyming dictionary)
• Stephen Wootton Bushell

References

• Coblin, W. South (2006). A Handbook of 'Phags-pa Chinese. ABC Dictionary Series. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-3000-7. 
• Everding, Karl-Heinz (2006). Herrscherurkunden aus der Zeit des mongolischen Großreiches für tibetische Adelshäuser, Geistliche und Klöster. Teil 1: Diplomata Mongolica. Mittelmongolische Urkunden in ´Phags-pa-Schrift. Eidtion, Übersetzung, Analyse. Halle: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies. ISBN 978-3-88280-074-6. 
• Poppe, Nicholas (1957). The Mongolian Monuments in hP´ags-pa Script (Second ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. 
• Schuh, Dieter (1981). Grundlagen tibetischer Siegelkunde. Eine Untersuchung über tibetische Siegelaufschriften in ´Phags-pa-Schrift. Sankt Augustin: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag. ISBN 978-3-88280-011-1. 
• Sampson, Geoffrey (1985). Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction. Great Britain: Anchor Brenton Ltd. ISBN 978-0-09-156980-8. 

Unicode

'Phags-pa script was added to the Unicode Standard in July, 2006 with the release of version 5.0.

The Unicode block for 'Phags-pa is U+A840–U+A877. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points:

References

External links

• Andrew West, BabelStone: Phags-pa Script (with free fonts)
• Omniglot: Phags-pa script
• Ancientscripts: hPhags-pa
• Mongolian characters after Kublai Khan