| Vagindra script вагиндрын үзэглэл Buryat script | |
|---|---|
.svg) "Mongol" in Vagindra | |
| Script type | |
| Creator | Agvan Dorzhiev |
| Created | about 1905 |
Period | in the status of national writing 1905—1910 |
| Languages | Buryat, Russian |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
|
Sister systems | Clear script,Manchu script |
| 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. | |
TheVagindra script (also spelledVaghintara,Buryat:вагиндрын үзэглэл,romanized: vagindryn üzeglel) is analphabetic script for theBuryat language developed byAgvan Dorzhiev in the first decade of the 20th century. It was used only briefly.
Agvan Dorzhiev, or Agvaandorj, a KhoryBuryat, developed the script in 1905 with the assistance ofTseveen Jamsrano[1] as a means to cultural unification of the Buryats, naming it "Vagindra" for theSanskrit version of his name.[2][3] He based it primarily on theClassical Mongol and Todo script,[4] expressing the hope that it would also help Buryats to read materials in the old script.[5] Approximately ten books and pamphlets were published in the script until 1910, using a hybrid dialect primarily based on stern Buryat, but it was not used after that; there was discussion in 1917 of reviving it for use in native schools, but Classical Mongol was thought more likely to foster Mongol unity.[6] Dorzhiev himself apparently lost interest in the project, and neither mentions it nor uses it in his autobiography.[7][8] It was opposed byMikhail Bogdanov, who advocated rapid assimilation through Russian,[7] and it has been suggested that the hybrid language used presented problems for readers,[8] although evidence suggests otherwise.[7] Probably most importantly, the Tsarist government perceived Mongolian unification, and hence the Vagindra script, as a political threat and exiled some of its proponents.[2][7]
The script is derived primarily fromClassical Mongol on the analogy of theClear script,[9] and like it is written vertically. The version published by Nicolai Amagaev and "Alamzhi-Mergen" (Rinchingiin Elbegdorj) in 1910 consists of 7 vowels and 21 consonants.[5][10]Diacritics are used to indicate long vowels (a vertical line), palatization (a circle), and letters for use in rendering Russian (a dot),[11] including a letter representing the historical Russian double consonant /ʃt͡ʃ/ (corresponding toCyrillicЩ).[3][12][13] He also added a special letter to mark, Х (h) sound of the Buryat dialect. The alphabet can therefore also be represented as having 36 letters including 8 vowels.[9] Unlike Classical Mongol, the letter forms are invariant regardless of position in the word,[9] being based on the medial forms in Classical Mongol, with the exception ofa, which is based on theUighur script and has a reduced form in medial and final position.[5][11]
