Mongolian (монгол) Mongolian is an Altaic language spoken by approximately 5 million people in Mongolia, China, Afghanistan and Russia. There are a number of closely related varieties of Mongolian: Khalkha or Halha, the national language of Mongolia, and Oirat, Chahar and Ordos, which are spoken mainly in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China. Other languages considered part of the Mongolian language family, but separate from Mongolian, include Buryat and Kalmyk, spoken in Russia and Moghul or Mogul, spoken in Afghanistan.

In 1208 Chinggis Khan defeated the Naiman, and captured their Uyghur scribe Tatar-Tonga, who apparently adapted the Old Uyghur alphabet to write Mongolian. The alphabet created by Tatar-Tonga is now known as the Uighur/Uyghur Script, the Classical Mongol Script, the Old Script, or Mongol Bichig in Mongolian.

Between the 13th and 15th Centuries, Mongolian was also written with Chinese characters, the Arabic alphabet and a script derived from Tibetan called Phags-pa.

As a result of pressure from the Soviet Union, Mongolia adopted the Latin alphabet in 1931 and the Cyrillic alphabet in 1937. In 1941 the Mongolian government passed a law to abolish the Classical Mongol script, but since 1994 they have been trying to bring it back. It is now taught to some extent in schools, though is mainly used for decorative purposes by artists, designers, calligraphers and poets. The average person in Mongolia knows little or nothing about the Classical Mongol script, though there is high literacy in Cyrillic. In Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China the Classical Mongol script is still used.

Classical Mongol script

Notable features

• Type of writing system: phonemic alphabet with separate letters for consonants and vowels.
• Direction of writing: left to right in vertical columns running from top to bottom.
• The letters have a number of different shapes, the choice of which depends on the position of a letter in a word and which letter follows it.

Vowels

Consonants

Consonant/vowel combinations

Numerals

The first set of numbers (tegen, nigen, etc.) are Classical Mongolian, the others are modern Mongolian.

Punctuation

Sample of Mongolian written in the traditional alphabet

Cyrillic alphabet for Mongolian (Khalkha)

Sample Mongolian text in the Cyrillic alphabet

Transliteration

Khün bür törzh mendlekhdd erkh ëolööteĭ, adilkhan ner törteĭ, izhil erkhteĭ baĭdag. Oyuun ukhaan, nandin ëanar zayaasan khün gegë öör khoorondoo akhan düügiĭn üzel sanaagaar khar'tsakh uëirtaĭ.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.