Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet

The word 'Mongolia' ('Mongol') in Cyrillic script

The Mongolian Cyrillic script (Mongolian: Монгол Кирилл үсэг, Mongol kirill üseg or Mongolian: Кирилл цагаан толгой, Kirill tsagaan tolgoi) is the writing system used for the standard dialect of the Mongolian language in the modern state of Mongolia.

Cyrillic has not been adopted as the writing system in the Inner Mongolia region of China, who retain use of the Traditional Mongolian script.

It is largely a phonemic alphabet, meaning that there is a fair degree of consistency in the representation of individual sounds.

History

Mongolian Cyrillic is the most recent of the many writing systems that have been used for Mongolian. It is a Cyrillic alphabet (equivalent to the Russian alphabet , but with two additional characters Өө ⟨ö⟩ and Үү ⟨ü⟩).

It was introduced in the 1940s in the Mongolian People's Republic under Soviet influence, after a brief spell where Latin was used as the official script. After the Mongolian democratic revolution in 1990, the traditional script was briefly considered to replace Cyrillic, but it hasn't come to fruition. Nevertheless, Mongolian script has become a compulsory subject in primary and secondary school and is slowly gaining popularity.

The Cyrillic script is used in everyday life and on the Internet.

Description

The modified Cyrillic script used for Mongolian is as follows:

Pos.	Cyrillic	Name	IPA	ISO 9	Standard romanization (MNS 5217:2012)	Library of Congress
1	Аа	а	a	a	a	a
2	Бб	бэ	p, pʲ, b	b	b	b
3	Вв	вэ	w, wʲ	v	v	v
4	Гг	гэ	ɡ, ɡʲ, k, ɢ	g	g	g
5	Дд	дэ	t, tʲ, d	d	d	d
6	Ее	е	jɛ~jɜ, e	e	ye	e
7	Ёё	ё	jɔ	ë	yo	ë
8	Жж	жэ	tʃ, dʒ	ž	j	zh
9	Зз	зэ	ts, dz	z	z	z
10	Ии	и	i	i	i	i
11	Йй	хагас и	i	j	i	ĭ
12	Кк	ка	(k, kʲ)	k	k	k
13	Лл	эл	ɮ, ɮʲ	l	l	l
14	Мм	эм	m, mʲ	m	m	m
15	Нн	эн	n, nʲ, ŋ	n	n	n
16	Оо	о	ɔ	o	o	o
17	Өө	ө	o	ô	ö	ö
18	Пп	пэ	(pʰ, pʰʲ)	p	p	p
19	Рр	эр	r, rʲ	r	r	r
20	Сс	эс	s	s	s	s
21	Тт	тэ	tʰ, tʰʲ	t	t	t
22	Уу	у	ʊ	u	u	u
23	Үү	ү	u	ü	ü	ü
24	Фф	фэ, фа, эф	(f)	f	f	f
25	Хх	хэ, ха	x, xʲ	h	kh	kh
26	Цц	цэ	tsʰ	c	ts	ts
27	Чч	чэ	tʃʰ	č	ch	ch
28	Шш	ша, эш	ʃ	š	sh	sh
29	Щщ*	ща, эшчэ	(stʃ)	ŝ	sh	shch
30	Ъъ	хатуугийн тэмдэг		ʺ	i	ı
31	Ыы	эр үгийн ы	i	y	y	y
32	Ьь	зөөлний тэмдэг	ʲ	ʹ	i	i
33	Ээ	э	e	è	e	ê
34	Юю	ю	jʊ, ju	û	yu	iu
35	Яя	я	ja, j	â	ya	ia

• Щ is almost never used in Mongolian, it is exclusively used for Russian words containing the letter.

Үү and Өө are sometimes also written as Її (or Vv) and Єє, when using Russian software or keyboards that don't 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. Similarly (but not identically) to Russian, palatalization of consonants is indicated by means of the following vowels or the soft sign. /ɡ/ and /ɢ/ are both indicated by the letter г ⟨g⟩, but the phonetic value of that letter is mostly predictable. In words with "front" (+ATR) vowels (see Mongolian phonology for details), it always means /ɡ/, because only /ɡ/ occurs in such words. In words with "back" (−ATR) vowels, it always means /ɢ/, except syllable-finally, where it means /ɡ/; to acquire the value of /ɢ/, it is written as followed by a single mute syllable-final vowel letter. Similarly, a mute vowel is added to final н ⟨n⟩ to make it denote /n/ and not /ŋ/. A /j/ preceding a vowel is rendered by a combination of a "soft" and "hard" vowel letter, e.g. яа ⟨jaa⟩ stands for /ja/, not */jaː/.