Mongolian Latin script

The Mongolian Latin script was officially adopted in Mongolia on February 1, 1941. Only two months later, on March 25 the decision was reversed again. According to later official claims the system chosen had turned out not to have been thought out well. It was said not to cover all the sounds of the Mongolian language, and to be difficult to use. However, those seem to have been pretexts rather than the true reasons. The adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet a short time later, almost simultaneously with most Soviet republics, rather suggests political reasons.

Characters

Using "y" as feminine "u", with additional feminine "o" ("ө") and with additional consonants "ç" for "ch", "ş" for "sh" and "ƶ" for "zh", it successfully served in printing books and newspapers. Many of the Latin letters (f, h, p, v) were even rarely used while q, w and x were excluded at all.

List of characters

A B C Ç D E F G H I J K L M N O Ө P R S Ş T U V Y Z Ƶ

Sample text

:Manai ulasiin niislel koto Ulaanbaatar bol 80.000 şakam kyntei, ulasiin olon niitiin, aƶi akuin tөb gazaruud oroşison jikeeken oron bolno.:Tus ulasiin dotoroos garka tyykii zuiliig bolbosruulka aƶi yildberiin gazaruudiig baiguulka ni çukala.

Orthography

The orthography of the Mongolian Latin is based on the orthography of the Classical Mongolian script. It preserves short final vowels. It does not drop unstressed vowels in the closing syllables when the word is conjugated. The suffixes and inflections without long or i-coupled vowels are made open syllables ending with a vowel, which is harmonised with the stressed vowel. The rule for the vowel harmony for unstressed vowels is similar to that of the Mongolian Cyrillic. It does not use consonant combinations to denote new consonant sounds. Letter "c" is used for the sound "ts" and "k" is used for the sound "h". Letter "b" is used both in the beginning and in the middle of the word. Because it phonetically assimilates into sound "v", no ambiguity is caused. "j" is used for vowel combinations of the "ya" type.

Seel also

* Mongolian writing systems