Traditional Mongolian alphabet

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This article is about the traditional alphabet used specifically to write Mongolian. For the family of Mongolian-derived alphabets, see Mongolian script. For other alphabets used to write Mongolian, see Mongolian alphabets.
Mongolian alphabet
ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ᠌
Type Alphabet
Languages Mongolian
Time period ca. 1204 – present
Parent systems
Sister systems Manchu alphabet
Oirat alphabet (Clear script)
Vagindra alphabet
Galik alphabet
Evenki alphabet
Xibe alphabet
ISO 15924 Mong, 145
Direction Top-to-bottom
Unicode alias Mongolian
Unicode range U+1800 – U+18AF

The traditional or classical Mongolian alphabet, sometimes called Hudum 'traditional' in Oirat in contrast to the Clear script (Todo 'exact'), is the original form of the Mongolian script used to write the Mongolian language. It fails to distinguish several vowels (o/u, ö/ü, final a/e) and consonants (t/d, k/g, sometimes ž/y) that were not required for Uyghur, which was the source of the Mongol (or Uyghur-Mongol) script.[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. Ambiguity is sometimes prevented by context, as the requirements of vowel harmony and 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.

Mongolian tibetan scripts primer

Letters

Characters Transliteration Notes
alone initial medial final Latin Cyrillic
ᠠ a А Distinction usually by vowel harmony (see also q/γ and k/g below)
ᠡ e Э
ᠢ [note 1]

[note 2]

 i, yi И,Й, Ы, Ь At end of word today often absorbed into preceding syllable
ᠣ o, u О, У Distinction depending on context.
ᠥ ö, ü Ө, Ү Distinction depending on context.
ᠨ [note 3]

[note 4]

 n Н Distinction from medial and final a/e by position in syllable sequence.
ᠩ ng Н, НГ Only at end of word (medial for composites).

Transcribes Tibetan ང; Sanskrit ङ.

ᠪ b Б, В In classical Mongolian v is used only for transcribing foreign words, so most "В (V)" in Cyrillic Mongolian correspond to "Б (B)" in Classical Mongolian.
ᠫ p П Only at the beginning of Mongolian words.

Transcribes Tibetan པ;

ᠬ q Х Only with back vowels
ᠭ γ Г Only with back vowels.

Between vowels pronounced as a long vowel in oral Mongolian.[note 5] The "final" version only appears when followed by an a written detached from the word.

ᠺ 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.[note 6]

g Г
ᠮ m М
ᠯ l Л
ᠰ s С
ᠱ š Ш
ᠲ
ᠳ		 t, d Т, Д Distinction depending on context.
ᠴ č Ч, Ц Distinction between /tʃ'/ and /ts'/ in Khalkha Mongolian.
ᠵ j Ж, З Distinction by context in Khalkha Mongolian.
ᠶ y -Й, Е*, Ё*, Ю*, Я*
ᠷ r Р Not normally at the beginning of words.[note 7]
ᠸ v В Used to transcribe foreign words (Originally used to transcribe Sanskrit व)
ᠹ f Ф Used to transcribe foreign words
ᠻ ḳ К Used to transcribe foreign words
ᠼ (c) (ц) Used to transcribe foreign words (Originally used to transcribe Tibetan /ts'/ ཚ; Sanskrit छ)
ᠽ (z) (з) Used to transcribe foreign words (Originally used to transcribe Tibetan /dz/ ཛ; Sanskrit ज)
ᠾ (h) (г, х) Used to transcribe foreign words (Originally used to transcribe Tibetan /h/ ཧ, ྷ; Sanskrit ह)
ᡁ (zh) (-,-) Transcribes Chinese 'zhi' - used in Inner Mongolia
ᠿ (ř) (-,-) Transcribes Chinese 'ri' - used in Inner Mongolia
ᡂ (chi) (-,-) Transcribes Chinese 'chi' - used in Inner Mongolia

Notes:

  1. ↑ Following a consonant, Latin transliteration is i.
  2. ↑ Following a vowel, Latin transliteration is yi, with rare exceptions like naim ("eight") or Naiman.
  3. ↑ Character for front of syllable (n-<vowel>).
  4. ↑ Character for back of syllable (<vowel>-n).
  5. ↑ Examples: qa-γ-an (khan) is shortened to qaan unless reading classical literary Mongolian. Some exceptions like tsa-g-aan ("white") exist.
  6. ↑ Example: de-g-er is shortened to deer. Some exceptions like ügüi ("no") exist.
  7. ↑ Transcribed foreign words usually get a vowel prepended. Example: Transcribing Русь (Russia) results in Oros.

Examples

Genghis Khan in Mongolian script
Mongolian script written in an angular hand
Mongolian Wikipedia preview. A representation of what mn.wiki would look like if Mongolian script support was properly implemented. Mn.wiki already exists, but support has not been implemented. Not all text is "real mongolian" -- only the actual text of the article, and the name of.
Mongolian People's Republic
Manuscript Type Transliteration
(first word)
 
v
　 i
k
i
p
e
d
i
y
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.

References

  1. ↑ György Kara, "Aramaic Scripts for Altaic Languages", in Daniels & Bright The World's Writing Systems, 1994.

External links

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