Soyombo script 𑪁𑩖𑩻𑩖𑪌𑩰𑩖 𑩰𑩑𑩢𑩑𑪊‎
Script type	Abugida
Creator	Zanabazar, 1686
Time period	1686[1]–18th century
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	Mongolian,Tibetan,Sanskrit
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brāhmī Gupta Siddhaṃ Nepalese Ranjana Soyombo script
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Soyo(329), ​Soyombo
Unicode
Unicode alias	Soyombo
Unicode range	U+11A50–U+11AAFSoyombo

TheSoyombo script (Mongolian:Соёмбо бичиг,𑪁𑩖𑩻𑩖𑪌𑩰𑩖 𑩰𑩑𑩢𑩑𑪊‎,romanized: self-created holy letters) is anabugida developed by the monk and scholarZanabazar in 1686 to write Mongolian. It can also be used to writeTibetan andSanskrit.

A special character of the script, theSoyombo symbol, became a national symbol ofMongolia and has appeared on thenational flag andemblem of Mongolia since 1911, as well as in money and postage stamps.

The script was designed in 1686 byZanabazar, the first spiritual leader ofTibetan Buddhism inMongolia, who also designed theHorizontal square script.^[2] The Soyombo script was created as the fourth Mongolian script, only 38 years after the invention of theClear script. The name of the script alludes to this story. It is derived from theSanskrit wordsvayambhu'self-created'.

The syllabic system in fact appears to be based onDevanagari, while the base shape of the letters is derived from theRanjana alphabet. Details of individual characters resemble traditionalMongolian alphabets and theOld Turkic alphabet.

The eastern Mongols used the script primarily as a ceremonial and decorative script. Zanabazar had created it for the translation of Buddhist texts from Sanskrit or Tibetan, and both he and his students used it extensively for that purpose.

As it was much too complicated to be adopted as an everyday script, its use is practically nonexistent today. Aside from historical texts, it can usually be found in templeinscriptions. It also has some relevance to linguistic research, because it reflects certain developments in the Mongolian language, such as that of long vowels.

The Soyombo script was the first Mongolian script to be written horizontally from left to right, in contrast to earlier scripts that had been written vertically. As in the Tibetan and Devanagari scripts, the signs are suspended below a horizontal line, giving each line of text a visible "backbone".

The two variations of theSoyombo symbol are used as special characters to mark the start and end of a text. Two of its elements (the upper triangle and the right vertical bar) form the angular base frame for the other characters.

Within this frame, the syllables are composed of one to three elements. The firstconsonant is placed high within the angle.Thevowel is given by a mark above the frame, except for u and ü which are marked in the low center.A second consonant is specified by a small mark, appended to the inside of the vertical bar, pushing any u or ü mark to the left side.A short oblique hook at the bottom of the vertical bar marks a long vowel.There is also a curved or jagged mark to the right of the vertical bar for the twodiphthongs.

A syllable in Mongolian must contain a consonant or the null-consonant⟨𑩐‎⟩, and may contain any of a vowel marker, a vowel length marker, a diphthong marker, and a final consonant.^[3]

A syllable in Tibetan must contain a consonant or the null-consonant⟨𑩐‎⟩, and may contain any of a prefixed consonant, medial consonants, a vowel marker, a vowel length marker, and a syllable-endingtsheg.^[3]

A syllable in Sanskrit must contain a consonant or the null-consonant⟨𑩐‎⟩, and may contain any of prefixed consonant, medial consonants, a vowel marker, a vowel length marker, a diphthong marker, and one of the diacritics,anusvara orvisarga.

Soyombo contains the full set of letters to reproduce Mongolian as well as additional letters (Mongolian:гали,romanized: galig) used in transcribing Sanskrit and Tibetan.^[3] Some letters represent different sounds in Mongolian, Sanskrit, and Tibetan. The primary difference between the three occurs in Mongolian, where letters for Sanskrit voiceless sounds are used for voicedstops, while the letters for voicelessaspirated sounds are used for voiceless stops.^[3]

Mongolian employs a subset of Soyombo consonants, with Mongolian-specific pronunciations.

In Mongolian, a final consonant is written with a simplified variant of the basic letter in the bottom of the frame. In cases where it would conflict with the vowels u or ü the vowel is written to the left.

In Sanskrit and Tibetan, consonant clusters are usually written by stacking up to three consonants vertically within the same frame.

In consonant clusters beginning with⟨𑩼‎⟩ra,⟨𑩽‎⟩la,⟨𑩿‎⟩śa or⟨𑪁‎⟩sa, the first consonant can be reduced to a small prefix written to the left of the next letter's main triangle. For example, the syllable⟨𑩼𑪙𑩜‎⟩rka can also be written⟨𑪆𑩜‎⟩.

As in other Brahmic scripts, a consonant in the Soyombo script carries an inherent vowel,a, so, for example, the letter⟨𑩜‎⟩ is pronouncedka. Syllables with other vowel sounds are constructed by adding a vowel mark to the base character. So, for example, the syllable⟨𑩜𑩑‎⟩ki is formed by adding the diacritic⟨𑩑‎⟩ to a⟨𑩜‎⟩. The first character of the alphabet⟨𑩐‎⟩ acts as a null consonant or vowel carrier, allowing formation of syllables beginning with a vowel sound. On its own, it represents a shorta. Syllables starting with other vowels are constructed by adding a vowel mark to⟨𑩐‎⟩.

Mongolian uses seven vowels, all of which have a short and a long form. The long form is indicated with the length mark. Diphthongs are represented by adding one of the diphthong markers to a syllable.

Sanskrit also includes thesyllabic consonants ṛ and ḷ, which are treated as vowels and may be short or long. Sanskrit transcription also requires two additional diacritics, theanusvara⟨◌𑪖‎⟩, which indicates that a vowel is nasalised, and thevisarga⟨◌𑪗‎⟩, which indicates post-vocalic aspiration.^[4]

Apart from theSoyombo symbol, the only punctuation mark is a full stop, represented by a vertical bar. In inscriptions, words are often separated by a dot at the height of the upper triangle (tsheg).

Soyombo script has been included in theUnicode Standard since the release of Unicode version 10.0 in June 2017. TheSoyombo block currently comprises 83 characters.^[5] The proposal to encode Soyombo was submitted by Anshuman Pandey.^[3] TheUnicode proposal was revised in December 2015.

The Unicode block for Soyombo is U+11A50–U+11AAF:

TheMenksoft IMEs provide alternative input methods.^[6]

• Mongolian writing systems

• Soyombo script –Omniglot
• Soyombo fonts (TeX/Metafont)
• Soyombo fonts (TTF)

• Соёмбын нууц ба синергетик. Эмхэтгэсэн Б. Болдсайхан, Б. Батсанаа, Ц. Оюунцэцэг. Улаанбаатар, 2005. [Secrets and Synergies of Soyombo. Compiled by B. Boldsaikhan, B. Batsanaa, C. Oyunceceg. Ulaanbaatar, 2005.]

• Mongolian writing systems
• Brahmic scripts
• Obsolete writing systems
• 1680s introductions
• 1686 beginnings

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Scripts with ISO 15924 four-letter codes
• Articles containing Mongolian-language text