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| Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet Монгол Кирилл үсэг | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Period | 1940s – present |
| Languages | Mongolian |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian hieroglyphs[1]
|
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Cyrl(220), Cyrillic |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Cyrillic |
| subset ofCyrillic (U+0400...U+04FF) | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
TheMongolian Cyrillic alphabet (Mongolian:Монгол Кирилл үсэг,Mongol Kirill üseg orКирилл цагаан толгой,Kirill tsagaan tolgoi) is the writing system used for thestandard dialect of theMongolian language in the modern state ofMongolia. It has a largelyphonemic orthography, meaning that there is a fair degree of consistency in the representation of individual sounds.Cyrillic has not been adopted as the writing system in theInner Mongolia region ofChina, which continues to use thetraditional Mongolian script.
Mongolian Cyrillic is the most recent of the manywriting systems that have been used for Mongolian. It uses the same characters as theRussian alphabet except for the two additional charactersӨө⟨ö⟩ andҮү⟨ü⟩.
It wasintroduced in the 1940s in theMongolian People's Republic under theRussian-ledstrong Soviet influence onthat country,[2] after two months in 1941 whereLatin was used as the official script, whileLatinisation in the Soviet Union was in vogue. On 1 January 1946, the Mongolian language officially adopted the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic script had many advantages over the traditional Mongolian script known as Hudum Mongol Bichig. In the traditional Mongolian script, certain letters such as "t" and "d," "o" and "u" were frequently confused, and there were inconsistencies in letter formation at the beginning, middle, and end of words. The low legibility between letters and the need to memorize the shapes of all the syllables in the language individually increased the learning burden of traditional Mongolian script. Additionally, the structural characteristics of the traditional Mongolian script resulted in wider line spacing, occupying more space and increasing paper usage. Moreover, vertical alignment of text was not well-suited to the needs of modern society. Therefore, following the script reform, the movement to replace the old Mongolian script continued for over 10 years. It took 21 years for Mongolia to achieve nationwide literacy, with the literacy rate increasing from around 2% to over 97%. This greatly facilitated the development of modern Mongolian culture.[3]
After theMongolian democratic revolution in 1990, the traditionalMongolian script was briefly considered to replace Cyrillic, but the plan was canceled in the end. However, the Mongolian script has become a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schooling and is slowly gaining in popularity.[4] The Mongolian script is a highly uncommon vertical script, and unlike other historically vertical-only scripts such as the Chinese script it cannot easily be adapted for horizontal use, which puts it at a disadvantage compared to Cyrillic for many modern purposes. Thus, the Cyrillic script continues to be used in everyday life.[citation needed]
In March 2020, the Mongolian government announced plans to use both Cyrillic and the traditional Mongolian script in official documents by 2025.[5][6][7]
In China, the Cyrillic alphabet is also used by Chinese for learning the modern Mongolian language, as well as by some Mongols in Inner Mongolia to demonstrate their ethnic identity.[8][9]
The Cyrillic alphabet used for Mongolian is as follows (with borrowed sounds in parentheses):
| Pos. | Cyrillic | Braille | Name | IPA[10] | ISO 9 | Standard romanization (MNS 5217:2012)[11][12] | Library of Congress | BGN/PCGN[13] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Аа | ⠁ | а | a | а | |||
| 2 | Бб | ⠃ | бэ | p,pʲ | b | |||
| 3 | Вв | ⠺ | вэ | w̜,w̜ʲ | v | |||
| 4 | Гг | ⠛ | гэ | ɡ,ɡʲ,ɢ | g | |||
| 5 | Дд | ⠙ | дэ | t,tʲ | d | |||
| 6 | Ее | ⠑ | е | ji~jɵ | e | ye | e | yö |
| 7 | Ёё | ⠡ | ё | jɔ | ë | yo | ë | yo |
| 8 | Жж | ⠚ | жэ | tʃ | ž | j | zh | j |
| 9 | Зз | ⠵ | зэ | ts | z | dz | ||
| 10 | Ии | ⠊ | и | i | i | |||
| 11 | Йй | ⠯ | хагас и | i | j | i | ĭ | y |
| 12 | Кк | ⠅ | ка | kʰ,kʲʰ,x,xʲ | k | |||
| 13 | Лл | ⠇ | эл | ɮ,ɮʲ | l | |||
| 14 | Мм | ⠍ | эм | m,mʲ | m | |||
| 15 | Нн | ⠝ | эн | n,nʲ,ŋ | n | |||
| 16 | Оо | ⠕ | о | ɔ | o | |||
| 17 | Өө | ⠧ | ө | ɵ~o | ô | ö | ||
| 18 | Пп | ⠏ | пэ | pʰ,pʰʲ | p | |||
| 19 | Рр | ⠗ | эр | r,rʲ | r | |||
| 20 | Сс | ⠎ | эс | s | s | |||
| 21 | Тт | ⠞ | тэ | tʰ,tʰʲ | t | |||
| 22 | Уу | ⠥ | у | ʊ | u | |||
| 23 | Үү | ⠹ | ү | u | ü | |||
| 24 | Фф | ⠋ | фэ, фа, эф | f,pʰ | f | |||
| 25 | Хх | ⠓ | хэ, ха | x,xʲ | h | kh | h | |
| 26 | Цц | ⠉ | цэ | tsʰ | c | ts | ||
| 27 | Чч | ⠟ | чэ | tʃʰ | č | ch | ||
| 28 | Шш | ⠱ | ша, эш | ʃ | š | sh | ||
| 29 | Щщ | ⠭ | ща, эщэ | (ʃ) | ŝ | sh | shch | |
| 30 | Ъъ | ⠷ | хатуугийн тэмдэг | none | ʺ | i | ı | ' |
| 31 | Ыы | ⠮ | эр үгийн ы | i | y | ï | ||
| 32 | Ьь | ⠾ | зөөлний тэмдэг | ʲ | ʹ | i | ĭ | |
| 33 | Ээ | ⠪ | э | e~i | è | e | ê | e |
| 34 | Юю | ⠳ | ю | jʊ,ju | û | yu | iu | yu/yü |
| 35 | Яя | ⠫ | я | ja | â | ya | ia | ya |
Үү and Өө are sometimes also written as theUkrainian lettersЇї (or Vv) andЄє respectively,[14] when using Russian software or keyboards that do not support them.
Initial long vowels and non-initial full vowels are written with double vowel letters, while initial short vowels and non-initial epenthetic vowels are written with single vowel letters. Conversely, every vowel letter except у and ү can also represent schwa and zero in non-first syllables. Palatalisation is indicated by и (i), thesoft sign ь (') or е (ye), ё (yo), я (ya) and ю (yu) after the palatalised consonant. These latter letters are pronounced without [j] in that position. Щ is never used in Mongolian and only used in Russian words containing the letter.[15] It is pronounced identically to Ш, and is often omitted when teaching the Cyrillic alphabet. Sometimes, Russian loanwords with Щ will be spelled with Ш instead: борш, Хрушев. The difference between [e~i] might be dialectal,[16] while the difference between ɵ~o is positional.[17]
/ɡ/ and/ɢ/ are both indicated by the letter г⟨g⟩, but the phonetic value of that letter is mostly predictable. In words with "front" (+ATR) vowels (seeMongolian phonology for details), it always means/ɡ/, because only/ɡ/ occurs in such words. In words with "back" (−ATR) vowels, it always means/ɢ/, except syllable-finally, where it means/ɡ/; to acquire the value of/ɢ/, it is written followed by a single mute syllable-final vowel letter. Similarly, a mute vowel is added to final н⟨n⟩ to make it denote/n/ and not/ŋ/. ф (f) and к (k) are loan consonants and will often be adapted into the Mongolian sound system as[pʰ] and[x].[15]
The original plan as at 10 October 1945 was to use э only at the beginning of words and in long vowel combinations (as is done in other languages written using Russian-based Cyrillic), дз for modern з, дж for modern ж, ии for modern ий and йө for modern е (to represent the "yö" sound at the beginning of words), but the alphabet was changed to its final form on 13 November.[18] This usually affects when transcribing places and foreign names into Mongolian Cyrillic, such asSteve Jobs is spelled as Стив Жобс (rather than Стив Джобс) andJoe Biden is spelled as Жо Байден (rather than Джо Байден).
The standard Mongolian Cyrillickeyboard layout for personal computers is as follows:
Italics indicate that the language no longer uses Cyrillic | |||||||||||||||||
| Cyrillic alphabets |
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