Let us start our conversation on the variety of the scripts of the Mongolian language with this, seemingly unrelated, "nugget of data": the territory of today's Mongolia is about one half of India or two full Turkeys. Yet, how much do you know about the looks of the Mongolian script compared to your knowledge of those for Indian and Turkish?
Sure, not so many Mongolian movies are out there competing with Turkish melodramas and Bollywood, right? But still, isn't it weird how little we know about the language of that quite big country? Well, even if you do know how the modern Mongolian script looks like —the "Cyrillic look", or basically Russian letters, I mentioned in the previous Episode,— I have news for you: during its long history, the Mongolian language was actually spelled at least in 8 different scripts (that we know of)!
As it seems, the mission of finding a script for the language spoken by the mixed, multi-tribal folk of the growing Empire, that Genghis Khan started, was quite an ordeal. It would end up either in a complicated script or the one that doesn't really reflect the sounds existing in the language. And this, surely, would lead to the eventual abandonment of the script.
Square script ('Phags-pa)
So there was Genghis, as the legend goes, having Tata-tonga whip up some uygur version of a script for the Mongolian language. At the same time, the Khan was at war with China that continued for generations and ended up in a win for his grandson Kublai who founded the Yuan dynasty and assumed the role of Emperor of China. So should we really wonder that at some point in history the Chinese script was used to spell out Mongolian words? And there you go with the politics influencing a language again.
Then so called ʼPhags-pa (or Square) script comes to the linguistic stage. Created by a monk, it was a mix of Chinese and Tibetan characters and was used for about 100 years within the Yuan. Surely, Kublai, who had it made, loved the script, but it seems he was the only one who did. After his death and the Mongols being kicked out of China, the "square-ish" way of writing quickly fell out of use to never return.
Now, how about religion for the influence? Take, for example, the Tibetan script used for Mongolian. That was a logical choice, too, since out of all the religions established in the Central Asia, the strongest and the most broadly spread one was Buddhism. In the XVI-XVII centuries it strengthens its positions and affects the Mongolian culture to a great extent. People are educated in the Buddhist monasteries and are taught Tibetan language even before the Mongolian one. Of course there will be Tibetan-based scripts!
Like Galik script designed in 1587 by a scholar and translator Ayuush Güüsh —extension to the traditional Mongolian script but with extra characters for transcribing Tibetan and Sanskrit terms. Or Soyombo script from a hundred years later, invented by Zanabazar. It isn't used today but a special character of the script, the Soyombo symbol, became Mongolia's national symbol and can be seen on its flag.
The Soyombo symbol
Some other attempts to create the best script for the Mongolian language are taken over the years but the things get interesting in 1648 when another monk, Zaya Pandita, creates the so called Clear Script, or tod bichig. That one is based on the Uygur script and bears the most resemblance with the "Genghis's" one. The goal for the alphabet was to dissolve any ambiguities that might appear when one attempts to write down the Mongolian language. Not only were vowels assigned symbols, but all existing symbols were clarified, hence, Clear Script.
Well, it also did not hurt that the script, actually designed for the Oirat language, united the Oirat kingdom with the Eastern part of Mongolia at the face of Manchu invasion. It is still used by the Oirats and was used by Kalmyks up until 1924.
With such a "boisterous" history of alphabets, one would expect that in the end the tradition won and the vertical Uygur version of the writing prevailed above all others. The truth is that even though that script is still in a relative use in the country (you can see it doubling the names of the shops or restaurants), it isn't as popular as it used to be. In fact, the official script of Mongolian is Cyrillic!
Right, politics strikes again! The choice in favor of the Cyrillic script for Mongolian was clearly made on the grounds of Mongolia becoming a socialist state. Between 1941 and 1950 the alphabet spreads to all the areas of life quickly replacing other scripts and since then exists in Mongolia as the main choice to write in.
Not sure how close you are familiar with the Russian alphabet, but the Mongolian one is its precise copy, plus 2 more letters (for the 2 sounds that do not exist in Russian): ө and ү.
Briefly, probably with a Guinness-level of brief, a Latin alphabet was introduced into Mongolian —it was official for less than 2 months!— but didn't stick, again for the political reasons. Although, while doing the research, I did find resources on the Mongolian language with the words spelled with Latin letters, which is probably done for the Western learners, since reading Cyrillic might be challenging. But it doesn't have an official status in the country or even any distribution, popularity among the people.
And since the reasons to spell Mongolian words in "Russian" letters were purely political, expecting the two languages to work in a similar way or have similar words is irrational. They have different "roots" and nothing in common. Well, technically you could say the sounds are, and yet the pronunciation differs. And of course, without learning each others languages, as diligently as one would learn, say, Hawaiian or other, a Russian and a Mongolian will not understand each other.
So, many alphabets to end up with Cyrillic! Do you think this is it for the chronicle of the Mongolian scripts or the story will continue? Will the Traditional Mongolian script find its way back? I guess, the time will tell.. or spell, in this case! :) For now, maybe enough history and let's have some fun with the language?
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