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VariousMongolian writing systems have been devised for theMongolian language over the centuries, and from a variety of scripts. The oldest and native script, called simply theMongolian script, has been the predominant script during most of Mongolian history, and is still in active use today in theInner Mongolia region ofChina and hasde facto use inMongolia.
It has in turn spawned several alphabets, either as attempts to fix its perceived shortcomings, or to allow the notation of other languages, such asChinese,Sanskrit andTibetan. In the 20th century,Mongolia briefly switched to theLatin script, but then almost immediately replaced it with the modifiedCyrillic alphabet because of its smaller discrepancy between written and spoken form, contributing to the success of the literacy campaign, which increased the literacy rate from 17.3% to 73.5% between 1941 and 1950[1] Nevertheless, Mongols living inInner Mongolia as well as other parts ofChina continued to use alphabets based on the traditional Mongolian script.
In March 2020, theGovernment of Mongolia announced plans to use the traditional Mongolian script alongside the Cyrillic script in official documents (e.g.identity documents,academic certificates,birth certificates,marriage certificates, among others) as well as theState Great Khural by 2025, although the Cyrillic script could be used alone on an optional basis for less official writing.[2][3][4]
TheXianbei spoke a proto-Mongolic language and wrote down several pieces of literature in their language. They are believed to have usedChinese characters to phonetically represent Xianbei, like the Japanese system ofMan'yōgana with Chinese, but all works written in Xianbei are now lost.
In 2019, with the emergence of new evidence through the analysis of theBrāhmī Bugut andKhüis Tolgoi,Rouran language was deciphered, and Rouran was spelled inBrahmi script.[5]
TheKhitan spokeanother proto-Mongolic language and developed two scripts for writing it:Khitan large script andKhitan small script, logographic scripts derived from Chinese characters.
At the very beginning of theMongol Empire, around 1204,Genghis Khan defeated theNaimans and captured aUyghur scribe calledTata-tonga, who then adapted theUyghur alphabet—a descendant of theSyriac alphabet, viaSogdian—to write Mongol. With only minor modifications, it is used inInner Mongolia to this day. Its most salient feature is its vertical direction; it is the onlyvertical script still in use that is written from left to right. (All other vertical writing systems are written right to left.) This is because the Uyghurs rotated their script 90 degrees anticlockwise to emulate the Chinese writing system.[6][7]: 36
As a variant of the traditional script there exists avertical square script (Босоо дөрвөлжин), also calledfolded script, used e.g. on theMongolian banknotes.
In 1587, the translator and scholarAyuush Güüsh created the Galik alphabet, inspired bySonam Gyatso, the thirdDalai Lama. It primarily added extra letters to transcribeTibetan andSanskrit terms in religious texts, and later also fromChinese andRussian. Later some of these letters were officially merged into traditional alphabet as a group named "Galig usug" to transcribe foreign words in modern use.
In 1648, theOiratBuddhist monkZaya Pandita created this variation with the goal of bringing the written language closer to the actualOirat pronunciation, and to make it easier to transcribe Tibetan andSanskrit. The script was used by Kalmyks ofRussia until 1924, when it was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet. InXinjiang, China, the Oirats still use it.
The traditional Mongolian alphabet is not a perfect fit for the Mongolian language, and it would be impractical to extend it to a language with a very different phonology like Chinese. Therefore, during theYuan dynasty (c. 1269),Kublai Khan asked a Tibetan monk,Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, to design a new script for use by the whole empire. Phagpa extended his nativeTibetan script to encompass Mongolian and Chinese; the result was known by several descriptive names, such as theMongolian new script, but today is known as the 'Phags-pa script. The script 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 phoneticgloss for Mongols learning Chinese characters. However, scholars such asGari Ledyard believe that in the meantime it was the source of some of the basic letters of the Koreanhangul alphabet.
The Soyombo script is anabugida created by the Mongolian monk and scholarBogdo Zanabazar in the late 17th century, that can also be used to write Tibetan andSanskrit. A special glyph in the script, theSoyombo symbol, became a national symbol ofMongolia, and has appeared on thenational flag since 1921, and on thenational coat of arms since 1992, as well as money, stamps, etc.
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. 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.
At around the same time, Zanabazar also developed thehorizontal square script (Хэвтээ дөрвөлжин), which was only rediscovered in 1801. The script's applications during the period of its use are not known. It was also largely based on the Tibetan alphabet, read left to right, and employed vowel diacritics above and below the consonant letters.[8] Additionally, a dot was used below consonants to show that they were syllable-final.
Horizontal square script is included in theUnicode Standard under the name "Zanabazar Square". TheZanabazar Square block, comprising 72 characters, was added as part of Unicode version 10.0 in June 2017.[9]
Before the 13th century, foreign scripts such as the Uighur and the Tibetan scripts were used to write the Mongolian language.[10] Even during the reign of the Mongol Empire, people in the conquered areas often wrote it in their local systems. In some cases it was transcribed phonetically usingChinese characters,[11] as is the case with the only surviving copies ofThe Secret History of the Mongols. Subjects from theMiddle East hired into administrative functions would also often usePerso-Arabic script to write their Mongolian language documents.
On 1 February 1930, Mongolia officially adopted a Latin alphabet. On 25 March 1941, the decision was reversed. According to later official claims, the alphabet had turned out to have not been thought out well. It was said not to distinguish all the sounds of the Mongolian language, and was difficult to use. Using "y" as feminine "u"/u/, with additional feminine "o" ("ө")/ɵ/ and with additional consonants "ç" for "ch"/tʃ/, "ş" for "sh"/ʃ/ and ƶ for "zh"/dʒ/, it successfully served in printing books and newspapers. Many of the Latin letters (f, h, p, v) were even rarely used while q, w and x were completely excluded. The adoption of the Cyrillic script a short time later, almost simultaneously with most Soviet republics, suggests political reasons. In the advent of the Internet, people who use social networking services prefer typing in the Latin script for the ease of typing compared to the Cyrillic script, using the orthography introduced in 1939.[12]
The most recent Mongolian alphabet is based on theCyrillic script, more specifically theRussian alphabet plus the letters, ӨөÖö and ҮүÜü. It wasintroduced in the 1940s and has been in use as the official writing system ofMongolia ever since.
In March 2020, the Government of Mongolia announced plans to use the traditional Mongolian script alongside Cyrillic in official documents starting from 2025.[2][3][4]
Use of cyrillic is to be terminated and only Mongolian script to be used. There is no provision in the law that states the termination of use of cyrillic. It clearly states that Mongolian script is to be added to the current use of cyrillic. Mongolian script will be introduced in stages and state and local government is to conduct their correspondence in both cyrillic and Mongolian script. This provision is to be effective starting January 1st of 2025. ID, birth certificate, marriage certificate and education certificates are to be both in Mongolian cyrillic and Mongolian script and currently Mongolian script is being used in official letters of President, Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament.
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