The Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet (
Mongolian: , or , ) is the writing system used for the
standard dialect of the
Mongolian language
Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia and both the most widely spoken and best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residen ...
in the modern state of
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million ...
. It has a largely
phonemic orthography
A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond to the phonemes (significant spoken sounds) of the language. Natural languages rarely have perfectly phonemic orthographi ...
, meaning that there is a fair degree of consistency in the representation of individual sounds.
Cyrillic
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
has not been adopted as the writing system in the
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
region of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, which continues to use the
traditional Mongolian script.
History
Mongolian Cyrillic is the most recent of the many
writing systems that have been used for Mongolian. It uses the same characters as the
Russian alphabet
The Russian alphabet (russian: ру́сский алфави́т, russkiy alfavit, , label=none, or russian: ру́сская а́збука, russkaya azbuka, label=none, more traditionally) is the script used to write the Russian language. I ...
except for the two additional characters
Өө and
Үү .
It was introduced in the 1940s in the
Mongolian People's Republic
The Mongolian People's Republic ( mn, Бүгд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс, БНМАУ; , ''BNMAU''; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It w ...
under
Soviet influence, after two months in 1941 where
Latin was used as the official script, while
Latinisation in the Soviet Union
In the USSR, latinisation or latinization (russian: латиниза́ция, ') was the name of the campaign during the 1920s–1930s which aimed to replace traditional writing systems for all languages of the Soviet Union with systems that ...
was in vogue. After the
Mongolian democratic revolution in 1990, the traditional
Mongolian script
The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first Mongolian alphabet, writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic script, Cyrillic ...
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. 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.
In March 2020, the Mongolian government announced plans to use both Cyrillic and the traditional Mongolian script in official documents by 2025.
In China, Cyrillic alphabet also used by the Chinese to learn the modern Mongolian language, and by some Mongols in Inner Mongolia to their demonstrate ethnic identity.
Description
The Cyrillic alphabet used for Mongolian is as follows (with borrowed sounds in parentheses):
Үү and Өө are sometimes also written as the
Ukrainian letters Її (or Vv) and
Єє respectively,
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), the
soft sign
The soft sign (Ь, ь, italics ) also known as the front yer, front jer, or er malak (lit. "small er") is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In Old Church Slavonic, it represented a short (or "reduced") front vowel. As with its companion, the b ...
ь (') or е (ye), ё (yo), я (ya) and ю (yu) after the palatalised consonant. These latter letters are pronounced without
in that position. Щ is never used in Mongolian and only used in Russian words containing the letter.
[Svantesson et al. 2005: 30-40.] 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
~imight be dialectal, while the difference between ɵ~o is positional.
and are both indicated by the letter г , but the phonetic value of that letter is mostly predictable. In words with "front" (+ATR) vowels (see
Mongolian phonology for details), it always means , because only occurs in such words. In words with "back" (−ATR) vowels, it always means , except syllable-finally, where it means ; to acquire the value of , it is written as followed by a single mute syllable-final vowel letter. Similarly, a mute vowel is added to final н to make it denote and not . ф (f) and к (k) are loan consonants and will often be adapted into the Mongolian sound system as and .
[
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.Tseveliin Shagdagsüren, ''Mongolchuudyn üseg bichigiin tovchoon'', 2001]
page 190
Keyboard layout
The standard Mongolian Cyrillic
keyboard layout
A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard.
is the actua ...
for personal computers is as follows:
::
See also
*
Mongolian writing systems
Various Mongolian writing systems have been devised for the Mongolian language over the centuries, and from a variety of scripts. The oldest and native script, called simply the Mongolian script, has been the predominant script during most of Mo ...
**
Mongolian script
The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first Mongolian alphabet, writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic script, Cyrillic ...
***
Galik alphabet
The Galik script (, ''Ali-Gali üseg'') is an extension to the traditional Mongolian script. It was created in 1587 by the translator and scholar Ayuush Güüsh (), inspired by the third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso. He added extra characters for ...
***
Todo alphabet
**
ʼPhags-pa script
The Phags-pa script is an alphabet designed by the Tibetan monk and State Preceptor (later Imperial Preceptor) Drogön Chögyal Phagpa for Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty, as a unified script for the written languages within the Yu ...
***
Horizontal square script
Zanabazar's square script is a horizontal Mongolian square script ( mn, Хэвтээ Дөрвөлжин бичиг, ''Khevtee Dörvöljin bichig'' or mn, Хэвтээ Дөрвөлжин Үсэг, ''Khevtee Dörvöljin Üseg''), an abugida develo ...
**
Soyombo script
**
Mongolian Latin alphabet
The Mongolian Latin script (Mongolian Cyrillic: , ; Mongolian Latin: ; Traditional Mongolian script: ; ) was officially adopted in Mongolia in 1931. In 1939, a second version of the Latin alphabet was introduced but not widely used, and was repla ...
***
SASM/GNC romanization § Mongolian
**
Mongolian transliteration of Chinese characters
***
**
Mongolian Braille
Mongolian Braille is the braille alphabet used for the Mongolian language in Mongolia. It is based on Russian Braille
Russian Braille is the braille alphabet of the Russian language. With suitable extensions, it is used for languages of ne ...
*
Mongolian Sign Language
__NOTOC__
Mongolian Sign Language ( mn, Монгол дохионы хэл, Mongol dokhiony khel) is a sign language used in Mongolia. '' Ethnologue'' estimates that there are between 9,000 and 15,000 deaf signers in Mongolia . Mongolian Sign La ...
*
Mongolian name
Mongolian names have undergone a number of changes in the history of Mongolia, both with regard to their meaning and their source languages. In Inner Mongolia, naming customs are now similar to Mongolia but with some differences.
Historical evol ...
References
{{Authority control
Cyrillic alphabets
Mongolian writing systems
mn:Кирилл монгол бичгийн дүрэм