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Making Sense of the Traditional Mongolian Script

(This page is an introduction to the traditional Mongolian script based on my experience of being taught by Inner Mongolian teachers. I pass it on here in the hope that it may be of help to those wanting to learn this script. Any errors, omissions, or mistakes are my own, not those of my teachers. It was last updated on 26 Sept 2020.)

1. Introduction 2. Table of open syllables 3. Table of closing consonants and vowels 4. Syllabification in action
5. How to distinguish vowels 6. Examples of vowel harmony in spelling 7. Other ambiguities 8. Citation forms of syllables
9. More examples (exercises)

 

1. INTRODUCTION

The old Mongolian script is not easy to come to grips with. This due to three main causes:

1. The shape of the letters themselves can be very confusing. The same letter will take different shapes depending on whether it comes at the start of a word (initial position), in the middle of a word (medial position), or at the end of a word (final position), sometimes with multiple forms at each position. A number of letters are composed of little more than 'teeth', often resulting in a bewildering sequence of teeth that is hard to make sense of, e.g., gahai, the word for 'pig'.

2. The alphabet itself is defective as it lacks sufficient letters to represent all the sounds of Mongolian. This means that some letters must do double duty to represent the sounds of the language. For example, while modern standardised Mongolian recognises seven vowels, the alphabet has only five letters to represent them, which is reduced to three in medial or final position.

3. Mongolian spelling is mostly archaic, being based on the pronunciation of the language many centuries ago. While there are many patterns that allow the reader to relate the spelling to the modern pronunciation (which has been standardised in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia but may vary greatly according to spoken dialects), there are also many irregularities and idiosyncratic spellings that simply need to be memorised.

Because of these three characteristics, learning the alphabet requires a disciplined approach. Simply plunging in and learning it letter by letter is certain to result in frustration and failure.

The two basic principles that must be followed are:

1. Learn the script on its own terms. An easygoing approach based on the idea that the Mongolian script is just a funny way of writing modern Mongolian will not yield optimum results. To learn it, you should develop the habit of spelling out words out exactly as they are written. In Inner Mongolian primary schools, children are required to read the letters exactly as written for two years. Once they have developed this habit they are they allowed to start reading words in the modern pronunciation from the third year. There is less emphasis on this in Mongolia (the country), which is partly why many Mongolians find it hard to remember the spelling of the old script and thus how to write it.

To take one example, the modern word for 'magpie' is bisyllabic: ʃa:ʤ-gai, pronounced in Mongolia (Khalkha standard) as ʃa:ʣ-gai (шаазгай). In the traditional script this is four syllables: ša-ɣa-ǰa-ɣai: shagajagai. The learner should develop the habit of perceiving this word on its own terms as 'sha ga ja gai' rather than a confusing way of writing 'shaaj gai' or 'shaaz gai'. This will make it easier both to read the script and to remember the spelling, avoiding the trap of vague impressionism, which can only lead to failure.

2. Learn the script as a syllabary, like Japanese hiragana and katakana: Don't try to learn the consonants and vowels in their isolated forms; they must be learnt in combination. Children are traditionally taught the alphabet this way in both Inner Mongolia and Mongolia. However, specifics vary. In Inner Mongolia, a highly rigorous approach is adopted that greatly facilitates learning the alphabet. To some extent the Inner Mongolian approach is an innovation on traditional approaches, but the overall result is to make the alphabet easier to learn.

In modern Inner Mongolia, the syllabic approach involves first learning a large table of open syllables based on combining 16 consonants and seven vowels. Each syllable is shown in initial, medial, and final form.

After learning these open syllables, the student learns a small set of non-syllabic letters that are used to close or lengthen syllables. By learning these, the student can easily identify both long open syllables and closed syllables in reading the script. (The practice of listing syllable-closing letters in a separate table appears to be special to modern Inner Mongolia. Other systems incorporate them in the main table of syllables.)

The above approach to teaching the script has several advantages.

The tables given below present 1) the basic set of open syllables and 2) the set of letters that can be used to complete syllables, either by closing them or by adding vowels.

The Mongolian script also has a set of rarer consonants mostly found in loanwords from foreign languages. These are omitted here but must also be learnt in order to read the language properly.

* The script is shown below in its handwritten form, which is somewhat different from the printed form. (See here for conversion between handwritten and printed forms).

* The tables below are presented in two phonetic representations. One uses international phonetic alphabet (IPA) and follows modern Inner Mongolian pronunciation. The other is Cyrillic, the alphabet used in Mongolia. The representation of the traditional script in Roman or Latin letters is somewhat chaotic, with several different systems in use. Unfortunately, there is some conflict between the different systems, which is most noticeable at several of the vowels.


Many systems attempt to represent the pronunciation of the language at an earlier stage -- i.e., as though the alphabet represented Classical Mongolian as it is supposed to have been pronounced. The system here presents a pronunciation that makes sense to modern Inner Mongolians. Differences in representing the traditional alphabet tend to be concentrated on the vowels and a small group of consonants. The following table covers the main differences:
Classical Classical * Classical (IM1) Classical (IM2) Modern IM Cyrillic
a a a a a а
e e e e ə э
i i i i i и
o o o o ɔ о
u u u u ʊ у
ö ö ɵ ö o ө
ü ü ʉ ü u ү
q kh h x x х
k
g g g g g г
G g ɣ
ng ŋ ng ng ŋ нг
š sh š š ʃ ш
č ch c č ʧ ч
ǰ zh z ǰ ʤ ж

* Used by current author elsewhere.

Note that some systems distinguish between G/ɣ before feminine vowels and g before masculine vowels, and q before feminine vowels and k before masculine vowels.


Note that the traditional Mongolia script is written from top to bottom in columns going from left to right, unlike the (traditional) Chinese and Japanese order of columns going from right to left.

2. THE TABLE OF OPEN SYLLABLES

The inventory of common open syllables is set out in a matrix showing how each consonant combines with the seven vowels of Mongolian.

The order of consonants is:

Plain vowels (no consonant), n, b, p, x, g, m, l, s, ʃ, t, d, ʧ, ʤ, j, and r.

In Cyrillic, the order is: plain vowels, н, б, п, х, г, м, л, с, ш, т, д, ч/ц, ж/з, я/ю/ё, and р. Owing to phonetic change in Khalkha Mongolian, the old phonemes ʧ and ʤ have split into two phonemes: ʧ and ʦ (ч and ц) and ʤ and ʣ (ж and з) respectively.

The order of vowels is:

a, ə, i, ɔ, ʊ, o, u (or in Cyrillic, а, э, и, о, у, ө, ү). Since the traditional alphabet is insufficient to fully distinguish among all seven vowels, in Inner Mongolia the vowels are customarily identified using the numbers 1 to 7.

The order shown above is used in dictionaries in Inner Mongolia (with some minor variation) and is worth memorising.

Looking at the tables, you will notice that, despite the fact that the matrix is supposed to cover seven distinct vowels, the actual number of vowels used in the traditional script is usually three and at best five. This will be discussed below. The pronunciation of each syllable is shown down the left-hand side in both phonetic alphabet and Cyrillic letters.

The tables have actually been made into a song, which can be seen here (Youtube) or here (if you're in China), sung by Halin and friend. The order, which isn't so easily read directly from the tables, is shown here.

The Tables

Plain vowels and syllables starting in 'n'

Plain vowels: In initial position only, there is a distinction between vowels 1 and 2 (a and e, Cyrillic а and э).

The special form efor vowel 2 (e or э) is found only in foreign words.

The na and ne syllables in final position offer a choice between a) a normal consonant-vowel sequence and b) a syllable-final n followed by a as a separate letter. This is not a free choice; it is determined by the spelling of the word in question.

Plain vowels n / н
  Initial Medial Final   Initial Medial Final
1
a
а
a a a
a
1
na
на
na na na
na
2
ə
э
e e
e
e
e
e
2

нэ
ne ne ne
ne
3
i
и
i i
i
i 3
ni
ни
ni ni ni
4
ɔ
o
o o o
o
4

но
no no no
5
ʊ
y
u u u
u
5

нy
nu nu nu
6
o
ө
ö o
o
o
o
ö
6
no
нө
nö nö nö
7
u
ү
ü ü
o
ü
ü
ü
7
nu
нү
nü nü nü

Syllables starting in 'b' and 'p'

The following letters are noticeable for the way they are joined to the following vowel in a ligature, which can be confusing for learners. Words beginning with p tend to be foreign words.

b / б p / п
  Initial Medial Final   Initial Medial Final
1
ba
ба
ba ba ba 1
pa
па
pa pa pa
2

бэ
be be be 2

пэ
pe pe pe
3
bi
би
bi bi bi 3
pi
пи
pi pi pi
4

бo
bɔ bɔ bɔ 4

по
pɔ pɔ pɔ
5

бy
bʊ bʊ bʊ 5

пy
pʊ pʊ pʊ
6
bo
бө
bo bo bo 6
po
пө
po po po
7
bu
бү
bu bu bu 7
pu
пү
pu pu pu

Syllables starting in 'kh' and 'g'

The following columns are essential in indicating vowel harmony since almost alone in the Mongolian alphabet, they clearly differentiate between masculine and feminine vowels. However, what the system gives with one hand it takes away with the other: the sounds x and g (х and г) are not distinguished with feminine and neutral vowels. (They are, however, distinguished with masculine vowels.)

Like the previous columns, the forms indicating feminine vowels use a ligature.

The Inner Mongolian system differs from other treatments in uniting 'kh'/'g' in a single column. Traditionally, the two are split between two incomplete columns.

The g sound is usually presented as a single phoneme in most non-specialist treatments of Mongolian, although the sound used before masculine/yang vowels is actually ɣ, while that used before feminine/yin vowels is g. While the pronunciation differs, in the modern language it is only in final position that this pronunciation difference actually serves to distinguish words.

x / х g / ɣ / г
  Initial Medial Final   Initial Medial Final
1
xa
ха
xa xa xa 1
ɣa
га
ga ga na
2

хэ
xe xe xe 2

гэ
ge ge ge
3
xi
хи
xi xi xi 3
gi
ги
gi gi gi
4

хo
xɔ xɔ xɔ 4
ɣɔ
го
gɔ gɔ gɔ
5

хy
xʊ xʊ xʊ 5
ɣʊ
гy
gʊ gʊ gʊ
6
xo
хө
xo xo xo 6
go
гө
go go go
7
xu
хү
xu xu xu 7
gu
гү
gu gu gu

Syllables starting in 'm' and 'l'

Final ma / me and la / le offer a choice between a) a normal consonant-vowel combination and b) a terminating m or l followed by the letter a written separately. The choice is determined by the spelling of the word in question.

m / м l / л
  Initial Medial Final   Initial Medial Final
1
ma
ма
ma ma ma
ma
1
la
ла
la la la
la
2

мэ
me me me
me
2

лэ
le le le
le
3
mi
ми
mi mi mi 3
li
ли
li ni ni
4

мo
mɔ mɔ mɔ 4

ло
lɔ lɔ lɔ
5

мy
mʊ mʊ mʊ 5

лy
lʊ lʊ lʊ
6
mo
мө
mo mo mo 6
lo
лө
lo lo lo
7
mu
мү
mu mu mu 7
lu
лү
lu lu lu

Syllables starting in 's' and 'sh'

s and ʃ: The combinations si and ʃi are both pronounced /ʃi/.

s / с ʃ / ш
  Initial Medial Final   Initial Medial Final
1
sa
са
sa sa sa 1
ʃa
ша
ʃa ʃa ʃa
2

сэ
se se se 2
ʃə
шэ
ʃe ʃe ʃe
3
si
си
si si si 3
ʃi
ши
ʃi ʃi ʃi
4

сo
sɔ sɔ sɔ 4
ʃɔ
шо
ʃɔ ʃɔ ʃɔ
5

сy
sʊ sʊ sʊ 5
ʃʊ
шy
ʃʊ ʃʊ ʃʊ
6
so
сө
so so so 6
ʃo
шө
ʃo ʃo ʃo
7
su
сү
su su su 7
ʃu
шү
ʃu ʃu ʃu

Syllables starting in 't' and 'd'

't' and 'd' are not distinguished in the writing system. The 'd' column gives two forms for initial position. However, the lower form, which is distinct from 't', is mostly observed only in writing foreign words, including some commonly used Chinese borrowings. In the vast majority of cases 't' and 'd' are indistinguishable.

t / т d / д
  Initial Medial Final   Initial Medial Final
1
ta
та
ta ta ta 1
da
да
da
da
da da
2

тэ
te te te 2

дэ
de
de
de de
3
ti
ти
ti ti ti 3
di
ди
di
di
di di
4

тo
tɔ tɔ tɔ 4

до
dɔ
dɔ
dɔ dɔ
5

тy
tʊ tʊ tʊ 5

дy
dʊ
dʊ
dʊ dʊ
6
to
тө
to to to 6
do
дө
do
do
do do
7
tu
тү
tu tu tu 7
du
дү
du
du
du du

Syllables starting in 'ch' and 'j'

In the Mongolian of Mongolia and also in dialects of Inner Mongolia, in a large number of words ʧ has become ts and ʤ has become dz (in Cyrillic terms, ч has become ц and ж has become з).

ʧ / ч ʤ / ж
  Initial Medial Final   Initial Medial Final
1
ʧa
ча
ʧa ʧa ʧa 1
ʤa
жа
dʒa dʒa dʒa
2
ʧə
чэ
ʧe ʧe ʧe 2
ʤə
жэ
dʒe dʒe dʒe
3
ʧi
чи
ʧi ʧi ʧi 3
ʤi
жи
dʒi dʒi dʒi
4
ʧɔ
чo
ʧɔ ʧɔ ʧɔ 4
ʤɔ
жо
dʒɔ dʒɔ dʒɔ
5
ʧʊ
чy
ʧʊ ʧʊ ʧʊ 5
ʤʊ
жy
dʒʊ dʒʊ dʒʊ
6
ʧo
чө
ʧo ʧo ʧo 6
ʤo
жө
dʒo dʒo dʒo
7
ʧu
чү
ʧu ʧu ʧu 7
ʤu
жү
dʒu dʒu dʒu

Syllables starting in 'y' and 'r'

Both ja/je and ra/re have alternative spellings in the final position: either a standard consonant + vowel combination, or a terminal consonant followed by a separately written a. The form used depends on the word in question.

Cyrillic does very poorly at rendering the vowels of the j row.

j / й r / р
  Initial Medial Final   Initial Medial Final
1
ja
я
ja ja ja
ja
1
ra
ра
ra ra ra
ra
2

е
je je je
je
2

рэ
re re re
re
3
ji
и
ji ji ji 3
ri
ри
ri ri ri
4

ё
jɔ jɔ jɔ 4

ро
rɔ rɔ rɔ
5

юу
jʊ jʊ jʊ 5

рy
rʊ rʊ rʊ
6
jo
ю
jo jo jo 6
ro
рө
ro ro ro
7
ju
юү
ju ju ju 7
ru
рү
ru ru ru

As I mentioned above, there are several other consonants that are found only in foreign words. If you are interested in seeing these letters, see this site, which also includes sound files.

3. TABLE OF CLOSING CONSONANTS AND VOWELS

Besides the short open syllables shown in the tables above, Mongolian also has syllables finishing in a consonant (a CVC structure or indeed a CVCC structure). In other cases, the vowel may be lengthened or converted into a diphthong.

The non-syllabic consonants or vowels used to complete syllables are known in Chinese as 半音节 or 伴音节, both pronounced bàn yīnjié but meaning 'half syllable' and 'syllable accompaniment' respectively. They are divided into three groups: hard (strong), soft (weak), and vocalic. The classification is relevant to the attachment of suffixes, which we will not cover here.

The elements are as follows:

Classification Consonant or vowel Medial (syllable end) Final (word end)
Hard b / б b b
ɣ / г (after masculine/yang vowels) g g
g / г (after feminine/yin vowels) g g
r / р r r
s / с s s
d / д d d
Soft n / н n n
m / м m m
l / л l l
ŋ / н ŋ ŋ
Vocalic i / й i i
ʊ or u / у or ү ʊ or u ʊ or u

4. SYLLABIFICATION IN ACTION

The following are a few very simple examples of syllabification in action.

Word Division into syllables Notes Modern form Meaning
hele
xələ
he-le
xə-lə
Two open syllables: xe and le le. xəl
Cyrillic: хэл
'language, tongue'
muur
mʊʊr
muur
mʊʊr
The open syllable mʊ plus the additional vowel ʊʊ and consonant rr, but still one syllable. mʊʊr
Cyrillic: муур
'cat'
bars
bars
bars
bars
The open syllable ba ba plus additional consonants rr and ss, but still one syllable. bar
Cyrillic: бар
'tiger'
honh
xɔŋxʊ
hon-h
xɔŋ-xʊ
First syllable is xɔŋ, xɔ plus ŋŋ. The second syllable is open xʊ. Note the ligature between the letters for ŋ and x. xɔŋx
Cyrillic: хонх
'bell'
gahai
ɣaxai
ga-hai
ɣa-xai
First syllable is open gaɣa, second syllable consists of xaxa plus the vowel ii. ɣaxai
Cyrillic: гахай
'pig'
gurvel
gurbel
gur-vel
gur-bəl
First syllable is gugu plusrr; second syllable is be be plus ll. gurbəl
Cyrillic: гүрвэл
'lizard'
tinghim
tiŋxim
ting-him
tiŋ-xim
First syllable is titi plus ŋŋ; the second syllable is xixi closing with the letter mm. tiŋxim
Cyrillic: тинхим, usually танхим in Mongolia.
'living room'

This approach provides the student with a solid framework for learning to read and decipher the Mongolian script.

5. HOW TO DISTINGUISH VOWELS

Although Mongolian has seven vowels, in a majority of positions the script essentially distinguishes only three vowels: a, i, and o, representing a/ə, i, and ɔ/ʊ/o/u respectively (in Cyrillic, а/э, и and о/у/ө/ү). This is one of the script's most confusing points.

However, a considerable amount of uncertainty is removed by a linguistic feature of Mongolian known as vowel harmony. Vowels in Mongolian fall into three categories:

Incidentally, the preferred terminology for the two main classes of vowel in Inner Mongolia is yang and yin, but I will largely use 'masculine' and 'feminine' below.

Under vowel harmony, native Mongolian words are normally harmonised to contain 1) only masculine (yang) and neutral vowels, or 2) only feminine (yin) and neutral vowels. No mixtures are allowed. A word containing neutral vowels only is treated as feminine/yin.

In most cases, the script provides vital clues as to whether a word is masculine (yang) or feminine (yin) under vowel harmony. The most important clues are:

1) The distinction between the vowels o ɔ/ʊ (masculine) and oeo/u (feminine) in initial syllables only, serving as an indication that the word as a whole is masculine (yang) or feminine (yin).

2) The distinction between plain vowels 1 and 2 (a and e) in initial syllables only, which distinguishes masculine a (Cyrillic а) and feminine ə (Cyrillic э). However, there is no distinction if the initial syllable starts with a consonant. In such cases the reader must look for other signs.

3) Clear vowel harmony distinctions are drawn in the x and g (ɣ) columns (Cyrillic х and г), with different letters used in front of masculine/yang vowels, and feminine/yin or neutral vowels respectively.

4) Vowel harmony is also shown by the letter used for syllable-final g / ɣ (Cyrillic г), which differs according to the vowel harmony category of the word (see above).

6. EXAMPLES OF VOWEL HARMONY IN SPELLING

Word Division into syllables Notes Modern form Meaning
shoru
ʃɔrʊ
sho-ru
ʃɔ-rʊ
Masculine word.
Category made clear by vowel ɔ ɔ in the first syllable. The second syllable is , not .
ʃɔr
Cyrillic: шор
'pointed'
shuru
ʃoru
shu ru
ʃo-ru
Feminine word.
Category made clear by vowel ɔ o in the first syllable.
ʃоr
Cyrillic: шөр (more usually шөрөг in Mongolia)
'fence'
boljomor
bɔlʤɔmɔr
bol jo mor
bɔl-ʤɔ-mɔr
Masculine word.
Category made clear by vowel ɔ ɔ in the first syllable.
bɔlʤmɔr
Cyrillic: болжмор
'sparrow, lark'
tomusu
tomusu
to mu su
to-mu-su
Feminine word.
Category made clear by vowel o o in the first syllable.
toms
Cyrillic: төмс
'potato'
aav
abʊ
a bu
a-bʊ
Masculine word.
Category made clear by initial vowel a a.
aab
Cyrillic аав
'father'
eej
əʤi
e ji
ə-ʤi
Feminine word.
Category made clear by the initial vowel a e, which is a feminine vowel.
ə:ʤ
Cyrillic: ээж
'mother'
malagai
malaɣai
ma la gai
ma-la-ɣai
Masculine word.
Category made clear by use of ga ga (masculine) in medial position.
malɣai
Cyrillic: малгай
'hat'
melehei
mələxəi
me le hei
mə-lə-xəi
Feminine word.
Category made clear by use of ga xe in medial position.
məlxi:
Cyrillic: мэлхий
'frog'
bogu
bʊɣʊ
bo gu
bʊ-ɣʊ
Masculine word.
Category made clear by vowel ɔ ʊ in the first syllable and go ɣʊ (masculine) in the final syllable.
bʊg
Cyrillic: буга
'deer'
mogu
mogu
mo gu
mo-gu
Feminine word.
Category made clear by vowel ɔ o in the first syllable and the form gu gu (feminine) in the final syllable. (The final syllable is usually understood as gu, although some dictionaries give it as go.)
moog
Cyrillic: мөөг
'mushroom'
imaga
imaɣa
i ma ga
i-ma-ɣa
Masculine word.
Category made clear by the occurence of word-final ga ɣa form.
jama:
Cyrillic: ямаа
'goat'
tsag
ʧag
tsag
ʧag
Masculine word.
Category made clear by the occurrence of the syllable-closing g g form, which follows masculine vowels.
ʧag
Cyrillic: цаг
'clock, time'
tsetseg
ʧəʧəg
tse tseg
ʧə-ʧəg
Feminine word.
Category made clear by the occurrence of the syllable-closing g g form, which follows feminine vowels.
ʧəʧəg
Cyrillic: цэцэг
'flower'
khaan
xaɣan
xa gan
xa-ɣan
Masculine word (from initial letter and medial letter). Interesting for demonstrating the common phemonenon whereby aɣa (and also ege, etc.) are pronounced as long vowels in current Mongolian. xaan
Cyrillic: хаан
'khan, emperor'
toos
tɔɣɔsʊ
tɔ ɣɔ sʊ
tɔ-ɣɔ-sʊ
Masculine word.
Category made clear by medial consonant ɣ ɣ. Like 'khan' above, the g (г) serves to lengthen the vowel.
tɔɔs
Cyrillic: тоос
'dust'
togos
tɔɣɔs
tɔ ɣɔs
tɔ-ɣɔs
Masculine word.
Category made clear by medial consonant ɣ ɣ. This is identical to the previous word except for the omission of a final ʊ. But this changes the pronunciation completely. The spelling of every word must be learnt individually.
tɔɣɔs
Cyrillic: тогос
'peacock'

While vowel harmony does a lot to disambiguate vowels, there are many forms containing vowels 1 and 2 (a and e, Cyrillic а and э) that fall between the cracks, with actual or potential multiple readings. A couple of examples are:

Word Division into syllables Notes Modern form Meaning
sam
sam
ba na na
sam
No indication of vowel harmony class. Can also be read sem, meaning 'quietly'. sam
Cyrillic: сам
'comb'
nere
nərə
ne-re
nə-rə
No indication of vowel harmony category. Could conceivably be read as nara. The word nara exists, meaning 'sun', but is distinguished by being written nara nara. nər
Cyrillic: нэр
'name'
seleme
sələmə
se le me
sə-lə-mə
No indication of vowel harmony. Could theoretically be read salama; however, this word does not exist. sələm
Cyrillic: сэлэм
'sword'

A more serious problem is the fact that the script draws no distinction between vowels 4 and 5 (ɔ and ʊ, Cyrillic о and y), and between vowels 6 and 7 (o and u, Cyrillic ө and ү). Arriving at the correct pronunciation of these sounds is a matter of identifying the word and knowing how it is pronounced.

While this may appear to be a serious drawback, it does have its advantages. The choice of vowel 4 or 5, or vowel 6 or 7, often differs between dialects. For example, the word morən 'river' (Cyrillic мөрөн) is pronounced murən (theoretically Cyrillic мүрэн) in dialects in the east of Inner Mongolia and even in Mongolia itself. Whereas Cyrillic forces a differentiation and recognises only morən, the indeterminacy of the traditional script allows it to accommodate both pronunciations.

7. OTHER AMBIGUITIES

Besides problems distinguishing among vowels, there are several other issues reading the script. These include:

1) The existence of cases where a can be read either a (Cyrillic а) or ən (Cyrillic эн).

2) The failure to distinguish between t and d in the vast majority of cases.

3) The failure to distinguish between g and x before feminine/yin and neutral vowels.

ende
əndə
en de
ən-də
Can also be read:
1) a-da 'demon' (due to the confusion between a and en) -- modern Mongolian ad Cyrillic ад, or
2) a-ta 'gelding over five years old' (due to additional confusion between t and d) -- modern Mongolian at or Cyrillic ат.
ənd
Cyrillic: энд
'here'
gereltene or hereldene
gə-rəl-tu-nə
gereltene
gə-rəl-tu-ne
Can also be read xe-rel-du-ne 'fight', due to failure to distinguish g/x and t/d. gərəltənə
Cyrillic: гэрэлтэнэ
'twinkle'

8. CITATION FORMS (INDEPENDENT SYLLABLES)

There are some occasions when an open syllable stands alone as a single unit, not forming part of a word. This is the case 1) when the syllable is cited as an independent form, for example in the index of dictionaries, or 2) when a word is formed of a single syllable.

Words written with these forms include bi bi (Cyrillic би) meaning 'I, me' and la la (Cyrillic лаа) meaning 'wax'.

(Conversion between handwritten and printed forms is here.)

  Vowels n / н b / б p / п x / х g / ɣ / г m / м l / л s / с ʃ / ш t / т d / д ʧ / ч ʤ / ж j / й r / р
1
a
а
a na ba pe xa ɣa ma la sa ʃa ta da ʧa dʒa ja ra
2
e
э
e na be pa xe ge me le be ʃe te de ʧe dʒe je re
3
i
и
i ni bi pi xi gi mi li si ʃi ti di ʧi dʒi ji ri
4
ɔ
o
ɔ nɔ bɔ pɔ xɔ ɣɔ mɔ lɔ sɔ ʃɔ tɔ dɔ ʧɔ dʒɔ jɔ rɔ
5
ʊ
y
ʊ nʊ bʊ pʊ xʊ ɣʊ mʊ lʊ sʊ ʃʊ tʊ dʊ ʧʊ dʒʊ jʊ rʊ
6
o
ө
o no bo po xo go mo lo so ʃo to do ʧo dʒo jo ro
7
u
ү
u nu bu pu xu gu mu lu su ʃu tu du ʧu dʒu ju ru

9. MORE EXAMPLES FOR READING

This section includes a few tricky examples as lessons in how to make sense of the traditional script. We will start with this word:

tuukh

Where do we start? Well, first we must note the ending khe, either xe or ge, which tells us that this is a feminine word. Now we can start syllabifying.


te? de?

u? o? (Note: in a position like this, it is almost invariably u).

xe? ge?
Breaking it into three syllables seems right, but how is it read? Is there a word that is read te-u-xe (тэүхэ), te-u-ge (тэүгэ), de-u-xe (дэүхэ), or de-u-ge (дэүгэ) in Mongolian? Yes there is. In fact, this is the Mongolian word for 'history', pronounced tuux (түүх). tuux
Cyrillic: түүх
'history'

The takeaway here is that you need to remember this word as te-u-xe (тэ-ү-хэ) when you are writing in Mongolian, and to pronounce it as tuux түүх when you come across it in your reading. Yes, a bit of a pain, but no worse than the torture of English spelling.

A trickier one:

utga

We can again look to the last syllable to see whether it is masculine or feminine.

kha

So it's masculine, but we need to figure out how to segment the word.

Could we syllabify it like this?

u ɔ (о)? ʊ (у)?
u ɔ (о)? ʊ (у)?
a a (а)? n (н)?
xa xa (ха)?

Is there such a word as ɔɔ-a-xa (оо-а-ха), ɔɔn-xa (оон-ха),
ʊʊ-a-xa (уу-а-ха), or ʊʊn-xa (уун-ха)?
 No, there isn't.

Let's look at that syllabification again.

That crazy combination of vowels can actually be read as a single syllable. Recall the peculiar form of d (д) when it ends a syllable: d So we can read this word in a totally different way:

ud ɔd (од)? ʊd (уд)?
xa xa (ха)?

Now we have a proper reading, either ɔd-xa (од-ха) or ʊd-xa (уд-ха).
In fact, this can only be read ʊd-xa (уд-ха)
because of the a (а) in the second syllable.

So the reading is ʊdxa (удха). But what is this word?

This is a case where the spelling and the modern pronunciation don't quite match. The word is actually utag, written утга in Cyrillic, and the meaning is 'meaning'.

This drives home the point that this word must be learnt as ʊd-xa (уд-ха) when you write it, and has to be given the modern pronunciation utag (утга) when you are reading it.

Finally, a couple of verbs. Noun cases, plurals, and verb endings are actually outside the scope of this page. They are written according to certain rules but you will be relieved to know that those rules are actually easier to remember and more regular than the rules for Cyrillic.

Our first verb is:

yavakh

This one is easy. The ending tells us this is a masculine word. We just have to divide it into three syllables:

ya ja (я)
bo (бу)
khu (ху)

The word is jabax (явах) 'to go'.

Let's try something slightly more ambitious:

yavakh

This is exactly the same as the previous word except for the addition of the syllable gol gʊl (гул). Remembering the example of xaan (хаан) above, g (г) between two vowels often indicates a long vowel. The word is to be read as ja-bʊ-gʊl-xʊ (я-бу-гул-ху) but pronounced as jabʊʊlax явуулах 'to send'.

Our final verb is:

uzekh

This one is also easy. The ending tells us this is a feminine word. We just have to divide it into three syllables:

u o (ө) or u (ү). (In fact, o (ө) can be ruled out as only u (ү) is found with ə (э) in the following syllable.)
je ʤə (жэ, зэ)
khu xu (хү)

The word is uʤəx (Inner Mongolia) or үзэх (Cyrillic) 'to see'.

And by adding the feminine syllable gul gul (гүл), we get:

uzuulekh

This is read u-ʤə-gul-xu (ү-зэ-гүл-хү), which in modern Mongolian is uʤuuləx (Inner Mongolia) or үзүүлэх (Cyrillic) 'to show'.

That ends this brief roundup of the Traditional Mongolian writing system. While the traditional script offers plenty of challenges, hopefully this page has laid down some useful ground rules in mastering it.

Examples and writing on this page are mostly drawn from the book Mongol chagaan tolgai kart (Cyrillic Монгол цагаан толгой карт) published by Inner Mongolian People's Publishing (ISBN 7204089375/G); see here for details and photo.

A very good introduction to the Mongolian traditional script can be found at "Writing Mongol in Uighur Script" by Luigi Kapaj.

Study Mongolian also covers the letters of the Mongolian alphabet.

An introduction to the Traditional Mongolian script written in Mongolian can be found here.

A tool for converting between Mongol Bichig and the Cyrillic script can be found here: Conversion System between Traditional Mongolian and Cyrillic Mongolian.

If you want to find books in the Mongolian traditional script in Hohhot and Ulaanbaatar, try these pages: Hohhot Bookshops and Ulaanbaatar Bookshops.

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