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., , 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: . 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.

• From the point of view of form, it allows all combinations of letters (or glyphs) to be presented in a highly systematic fashion. Since letters have different forms, sometimes more than one form at each position, this is essential to organising the different combinations into a coherent system.
• From the point of view of pronunciation, it provides a disciplined framework for grasping how letters represent multiple sounds, eliminating some of the guesswork and highlighting (rather than multiplying) areas of indeterminacy.
• From the point of view of interpretation, it arms the learner with a solid basis for deciphering the written word. This is particularly important since, as we noted above, many letters have similar shapes, giving rise to potentially confusing sequences.

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.

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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.

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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 for 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				1 na на
2 ə э				2 nə нэ
3 i и				3 ni ни
4 ɔ o				4 nɔ но
5 ʊ y				5 nʊ нy
6 o ө				6 no нө
7 u ү				7 nu нү

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				1 pa па
2 bə бэ				2 pə пэ
3 bi би				3 pi пи
4 bɔ бo				4 pɔ по
5 bʊ бy				5 pʊ пy
6 bo бө				6 po пө
7 bu бү				7 pu пү

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				1 ɣa га
2 xə хэ				2 gə гэ
3 xi хи				3 gi ги
4 xɔ хo				4 ɣɔ го
5 xʊ хy				5 ɣʊ гy
6 xo хө				6 go гө
7 xu хү				7 gu гү

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				1 la ла
2 mə мэ				2 lə лэ
3 mi ми				3 li ли
4 mɔ мo				4 lɔ ло
5 mʊ мy				5 lʊ лy
6 mo мө				6 lo лө
7 mu мү				7 lu лү

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				1 ʃa ша
2 sə сэ				2 ʃə шэ
3 si си				3 ʃi ши
4 sɔ сo				4 ʃɔ шо
5 sʊ сy				5 ʃʊ шy
6 so сө				6 ʃo шө
7 su сү				7 ʃu шү

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				1 da да
2 tə тэ				2 də дэ
3 ti ти				3 di ди
4 tɔ тo				4 dɔ до
5 tʊ тy				5 dʊ дy
6 to тө				6 do дө
7 tu тү				7 du дү

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				1 ʤa жа
2 ʧə чэ				2 ʤə жэ
3 ʧi чи				3 ʤi жи
4 ʧɔ чo				4 ʤɔ жо
5 ʧʊ чy				5 ʤʊ жy
6 ʧo чө				6 ʤo жө
7 ʧu чү				7 ʤu жү

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				1 ra ра
2 jə е				2 rə рэ
3 ji и				3 ri ри
4 jɔ ё				4 rɔ ро
5 jʊ юу				5 rʊ рy
6 jo ю				6 ro рө
7 ju юү				7 ru рү

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
	ɣ / г (after masculine/yang vowels)
	g / г (after feminine/yin vowels)
	r / р
	s / с
	d / д
Soft	n / н
	m / м
	l / л
	ŋ / н
Vocalic	i / й
	ʊ or u / у or ү

4. SYLLABIFICATION IN ACTION

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

Word	Division into syllables	Notes	Modern form	Meaning
xələ	xə-lə	Two open syllables: xə and le.	xəl Cyrillic: хэл	'language, tongue'
mʊʊr	mʊʊr	The open syllable mʊ plus the additional vowel ʊ and consonant r, but still one syllable.	mʊʊr Cyrillic: муур	'cat'
bars	bars	The open syllable ba plus additional consonants r and s, but still one syllable.	bar Cyrillic: бар	'tiger'
xɔŋxʊ	xɔŋ-xʊ	First syllable is xɔŋ, xɔ plus ŋ. The second syllable is open xʊ. Note the ligature between the letters for ŋ and x.	xɔŋx Cyrillic: хонх	'bell'
ɣaxai	ɣa-xai	First syllable is open ɣa, second syllable consists of xa plus the vowel i.	ɣaxai Cyrillic: гахай	'pig'
gurbel	gur-bəl	First syllable is gu plusr; second syllable is be plus l.	gurbəl Cyrillic: гүрвэл	'lizard'
tiŋxim	tiŋ-xim	First syllable is ti plus ŋ; the second syllable is xi closing with the letter m.	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: , , and , 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:

• Strong, masculine or yang vowels: vowels 1, 4, 5 = a, ɔ, ʊ = Cyrillic а о у.
• Weak, feminine or yin vowels: vowels 2, 6, 7 = ə, o, u = э, ө, ү.
• neuter or neutral vowel: vowel 3 = i = й.

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 ɔ/ʊ (masculine) and o/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 ( and ) 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
ʃɔrʊ	ʃɔ-rʊ	Masculine word. Category made clear by vowel ɔ in the first syllable. The second syllable is rʊ, not rɔ.	ʃɔr Cyrillic: шор	'pointed'
ʃoru	ʃo-ru	Feminine word. Category made clear by vowel o in the first syllable.	ʃоr Cyrillic: шөр (more usually шөрөг in Mongolia)	'fence'
bɔlʤɔmɔr	bɔl-ʤɔ-mɔr	Masculine word. Category made clear by vowel ɔ in the first syllable.	bɔlʤmɔr Cyrillic: болжмор	'sparrow, lark'
tomusu	to-mu-su	Feminine word. Category made clear by vowel o in the first syllable.	toms Cyrillic: төмс	'potato'
abʊ	a-bʊ	Masculine word. Category made clear by initial vowel a.	aab Cyrillic аав	'father'
əʤi	ə-ʤi	Feminine word. Category made clear by the initial vowel e, which is a feminine vowel.	ə:ʤ Cyrillic: ээж	'mother'
malaɣai	ma-la-ɣai	Masculine word. Category made clear by use of ga (masculine) in medial position.	malɣai Cyrillic: малгай	'hat'
mələxəi	mə-lə-xəi	Feminine word. Category made clear by use of xe in medial position.	məlxi: Cyrillic: мэлхий	'frog'
bʊɣʊ	bʊ-ɣʊ	Masculine word. Category made clear by vowel ʊ in the first syllable and ɣʊ (masculine) in the final syllable.	bʊg Cyrillic: буга	'deer'
mogu	mo-gu	Feminine word. Category made clear by vowel o in the first syllable and the form 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'
imaɣa	i-ma-ɣa	Masculine word. Category made clear by the occurence of word-final ɣa form.	jama: Cyrillic: ямаа	'goat'
ʧag	ʧag	Masculine word. Category made clear by the occurrence of the syllable-closing g form, which follows masculine vowels.	ʧag Cyrillic: цаг	'clock, time'
ʧəʧəg	ʧə-ʧəg	Feminine word. Category made clear by the occurrence of the syllable-closing g form, which follows feminine vowels.	ʧəʧəg Cyrillic: цэцэг	'flower'
xaɣan	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'
tɔɣɔsʊ	tɔ-ɣɔ-sʊ	Masculine word. Category made clear by medial consonant ɣ. Like 'khan' above, the g (г) serves to lengthen the vowel.	tɔɔs Cyrillic: тоос	'dust'
tɔɣɔs	tɔ-ɣɔs	Masculine word. Category made clear by medial consonant 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	No indication of vowel harmony class. Can also be read sem, meaning 'quietly'.	sam Cyrillic: сам	'comb'
nərə	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.	nər Cyrillic: нэр	'name'
sələmə	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 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.

əndə	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'
gə-rəl-tu-nə	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 (Cyrillic би) meaning 'I, me' and 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

2 e э

3 i и

4 ɔ o

5 ʊ y

6 o ө

7 u ү

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:

Where do we start? Well, first we must note the ending , 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:

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

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

Could we syllabify it like this?

ɔ (о)? ʊ (у)? ɔ (о)? ʊ (у)? a (а)? n (н)? 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: So we can read this word in a totally different way:

ɔd (од)? ʊd (уд)? 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:

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

ja (я) bʊ (бу) xʊ (ху)

The word is jabax (явах) 'to go'.

Let's try something slightly more ambitious:

This is exactly the same as the previous word except for the addition of the syllable 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:

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

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.) ʤə (жэ, зэ) xu (хү)

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

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

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.