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Soyombo script 𑪁𑩖𑩻𑩖𑪌𑩰𑩖 𑩰𑩑𑩢𑩑𑪊‎
Script type	Abugida
Creator	Zanabazar, 1686
Time period	1686–18th century
Languages	Mongolian, Tibetan, Sanskrit
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brāhmī Gupta Siddhaṃ Nepalese Ranjana (or Devanagari) Soyombo script
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Soyo (329), ​Soyombo
Unicode
Unicode alias	Soyombo
Unicode range	U+11A50–U+11AAF Soyombo

The Soyombo script is an abugida developed by the monk and scholar Zanabazar in 1686 to write Mongolian. It can also be used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit.

A special character of the script, the Soyombo symbol, became a national symbol of Mongolia and has appeared on the national flag and emblem of Mongolia since 1911, as well as money, stamps, etc.

Creation

The script was designed in 1686 by Zanabazar, the first spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia, who also designed the Horizontal square script. The Soyombo script was created as the fourth Mongolian script, only 38 years after the invention of the Clear script. The name of the script alludes to this story. It is derived from the Sanskrit word Svayambhu 'self-created'.

The syllabic system in fact appears to be based on Devanagari, while the base shape of the letters is derived from the Ranjana alphabet. Details of individual characters resemble traditional Mongolian alphabets and the Old Turkic alphabet.

Use

"Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar" properly rendered in Soyombo Script

The eastern Mongols used the script primarily as a ceremonial and decorative script. Zanabazar had created it for the translation of Buddhist texts from Sanskrit or Tibetan, and both he and his students used it extensively for that purpose.

As it was much too complicated to be adopted as an everyday script, its use is practically nonexistent today. Aside from historical texts, it can usually be found in temple inscriptions. It also has some relevance to linguistic research, because it reflects certain developments in the Mongolian language, such as that of long vowels.

Form

The Soyombo script was the first Mongolian script to be written horizontally from left to right, in contrast to earlier scripts that had been written vertically. As in the Tibetan and Devanagari scripts, the signs are suspended below a horizontal line, giving each line of text a visible "backbone".

The two variations of the Soyombo symbol are used as special characters to mark the start and end of a text. Two of its elements (the upper triangle and the right vertical bar) form the angular base frame for the other characters.

Within this frame, the syllables are composed of one to three elements. The first consonant is placed high within the angle. The vowel is given by a mark above the frame, except for u and ü which are marked in the low center. A second consonant is specified by a small mark, appended to the inside of the vertical bar, pushing any u or ü mark to the left side. A short oblique hook at the bottom of the vertical bar marks a long vowel. There is also a curved or jagged mark to the right of the vertical bar for the two diphthongs.

Alphabet

The first character of the alphabet represents a syllable starting with a short a. Syllables starting with other vowels are constructed by adding a vowel mark to the same base character. All remaining base characters represent syllables starting with a consonant. A starting consonant without a vowel mark implies a following a.

In theory, 20 consonants and 14 vowels would result in almost 4,000 combinations, but not all of those actually occur in Mongolian. There are additional base characters and marks for writing Tibetan or Sanskrit, and some of the symbols used in these two languages will also not be used in Mongolian.

Mongolian

Syllable structure for Mongolian

A syllable in Mongolian can contain the following elements: consonant or vocal carrier (C_b), vowel (V), length marker (L), diphthong marker (V_d) and a final consonant C_f).

Vowels

Mongolian uses seven vowels, all of which have a short and a long form. The long form is indicated with the length mark:

𑩐 a	𑩐𑩑 i	𑩐𑩔 e	𑩐𑩒 ü	𑩐𑩓 u	𑩐𑩕 o	𑩐𑩖 ö
𑩐𑩛 ā	𑩐𑩑𑩛 ī	𑩐𑩔𑩛 ē	𑩐𑩛𑩒 ǖ	𑩐𑩛𑩓 ū	𑩐𑩕𑩛 ō	𑩐𑩖𑩛 ȫ

Diphthong markers are used with other vowel signs to represent diphthongs in Mongolian:

𑩐𑩗 -i

𑩐𑩘 -u

Consonants

𑩜 ɡa/ɢa	𑩝 ka/qa	𑩞 ŋa	𑩣 ja	𑩢 ca	𑩥 ña	𑩫 da	𑩬 ta	𑩯 na	𑩰 ba
𑩱 pa	𑩴 ma	𑩻 ya	𑩼 ra	𑩾 va	𑩽 la	𑩿 sha	𑪁 sa	𑪂 ha	𑪃 ksa

A final consonant is written with a simplified variant of the basic letter in the bottom of the frame. In cases where it would conflict with the vowels u or ü the vowel is written to the left.

𑩐𑪊 aɡ/aɢ	𑩐𑪋 ak/aq	𑩐𑪌 aŋ	𑩐𑪍 ad/at	𑩐𑪎 an	𑩐𑪏 ab/ap
𑩐𑪐 am	𑩐𑪑 ar	𑩐𑪒 al	𑩐𑪓 aš	𑩐𑪔 as	𑩐𑪕 ah

Sanskrit and Tibetan

Syllable structure for Sanskrit

Syllable structure for Tibetan

A syllable in Sanskrit or Tibetan can contain the following elements: Consonant in prefix form (C_p), consonant or vocal carrier (C_b), stack of medial consonants (C₂…C_n), vowel (V) and length marker (L). For Sanskrit, there are two diacritics: anusvara (S_a) and visarga (S_v). In Tibetan, syllables can be separated by tsheg (T), a small triangle-shaped sign comparable to a space.

Vowels

Sanskrit contains additional vowels ṛ, ṝ, ḷ and ḹ.

𑩐 a	𑩐𑩑 i	𑩐𑩔 e	𑩐𑩙 ṛ	𑩐𑩚 ḷ	𑩐𑩖 e	𑩐𑩕 o
𑩐𑩛 ā	𑩐𑩑𑩛 ī	𑩐𑩔𑩛 ē	𑩐𑩛𑩙 ṝ	𑩐𑩛𑩚 ḹ	𑩐𑩗 ai	𑩐𑩘 au

An anusvara diacritic indicates nasalization (transcribed as ṃ). A visarga indicates post-vocalic aspiration (transcribed as ḥ).

𑩐𑪖 aṃ

𑩐𑪗 aḥ

Consonants

Soyombo contains the full set of letters to reproduce Sanskrit and Tibetan. Note that some of the letters represent different sounds in Mongolian, Sanskrit, and Tibetan. The primary difference between the three occurs in Mongolian where letters for Sanskrit voiceless sounds are used for voiced stops, while the letters for voiceless aspirated sounds are used for voiceless stops. In Mongolian, letters used specifically for Tibetan and Sanskrit are called 'гали' galig noting they are characters used for the transcription of foreign sounds.

ka	kha	ga	gha	ṅa	ca	cha	ja	jha	ña
ṭa	ṭha	ḍa	ḍha	ṇa	ta	tha	da	dha	na
pa	pha	ba	bha	ma	tsa	tsha	dza	źa	za
'a	ya	va	ra	la	śa	ṣa	sa	ha	kṣa

Consonant clusters in Sanskrit and Tibetan are usually written by stacking several consonants vertically within the same frame. In existing sources clusters occur with up to three consonants, but in theory they could contain as many as possible. Four consonants, ra, la, śa and sa, can also be written as a special prefix, consisting of a small sign written to the left of the main triangle. They are pronounced before the other consonants.

Punctuation

Apart from the Soyombo symbol, the only punctuation mark is a full stop, represented by a vertical bar. In inscriptions, words are often separated by a dot at the height of the upper triangle (tsheg).

Unicode

Main article: Soyombo (Unicode block)

Soyombo script has been included in the Unicode Standard since the release of Unicode version 10.0 in June 2017. The Soyombo block currently comprises 83 characters. The proposal to encode Soyombo was submitted by Anshuman Pandey. The Unicode proposal was revised in December 2015.

The Unicode block for Soyombo is U+11A50–U+11AAF:

Soyombo[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+11A5x

𑩐‎

𑩑‎

𑩒‎

𑩓‎

𑩔‎

𑩕‎

𑩖‎

𑩗‎

𑩘‎

𑩙‎

𑩚‎

𑩛‎

𑩜‎

𑩝‎

𑩞‎

𑩟‎

U+11A6x

𑩠‎

𑩡‎

𑩢‎

𑩣‎

𑩤‎

𑩥‎

𑩦‎

𑩧‎

𑩨‎

𑩩‎

𑩪‎

𑩫‎

𑩬‎

𑩭‎

𑩮‎

𑩯‎

U+11A7x

𑩰‎

𑩱‎

𑩲‎

𑩳‎

𑩴‎

𑩵‎

𑩶‎

𑩷‎

𑩸‎

𑩹‎

𑩺‎

𑩻‎

𑩼‎

𑩽‎

𑩾‎

𑩿‎

U+11A8x

𑪀‎

𑪁‎

𑪂‎

𑪃‎

𑪄‎

𑪅‎

𑪆‎

𑪇‎

𑪈‎

𑪉‎

𑪊‎

𑪋‎

𑪌‎

𑪍‎

𑪎‎

𑪏‎

U+11A9x

𑪐‎

𑪑‎

𑪒‎

𑪓‎

𑪔‎

𑪕‎

𑪖‎

𑪗‎

𑪘‎

𑪙‎

𑪚‎

𑪛‎

𑪜‎

𑪝‎

𑪞‎

𑪟‎

U+11AAx

𑪠‎

𑪡‎

𑪢‎

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.1 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The Menksoft IMEs provide alternative input methods.

See also

• Mongolian writing systems

External links

• Soyombo script – Omniglot
• Soyombo fonts (TeX/Metafont)
• Soyombo fonts (TTF)

Further reading

• Соёмбын нууц ба синергетик. Эмхэтгэсэн Б. Болдсайхан, Б. Батсанаа, Ц. Оюунцэцэг. Улаанбаатар, 2005. [Secrets and Synergetic of Soyombo. Compiled by B. Boldsaikhan, B. Batsanaa, C. Oyunceceg. Ulaanbaatar, 2005.]

Religion and occupation

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1881

1891

1901

1911

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1931

1941

•   Hinduism
•   Islam
•   Tribal religions
•   Buddhism
•   Sikhism
•   Jainism
•   Christianity
•   Zoroastrianism
•   Judaism
•   Others

Mru Letter	Name	Pronunciation IPA
𖩀	Ta	/t/
𖩁	Ngi	/ŋ/
𖩂	Yo	/ʝ~j/
𖩃	Mim	/m/
𖩄	Ba	/b/
𖩅	Da	/d/
𖩆	A	/a~ɑ/
𖩇	Phi	/pʰ/
𖩈	Khäy	/kʰ/
𖩉	Hau	/h/
𖩊	Dai	/i/
𖩋	Cu	/c~ts~tsʰ/
𖩌	Kä	/k/
𖩍	Ol	/l/
𖩎	Mäm	/m/
𖩏	Nin	/n/
𖩐	Pa	/p/
𖩑	U	/u/
𖩒	ʼO	/ʔ/
𖩓	Ro	/r/
𖩔	Si	/ʃ/
𖩕	Thea	/tʰ/
𖩖	Ea	/ɛ~ə/
𖩘	E	/e/
𖩗	Wa	/ɯ/
𖩙	Ko	/k/
𖩚	Lan	/l/
𖩛	La	/l/
𖩜	Hai	/h/
𖩝	Ri	/ɔ/
𖩞	Tek	/t/

ʼPhags-pa

Babelstone

Consonants

The order reflects the traditional order of the letters of the Tibetan script, to which they correspond. As is the case with Tibetan and other Brahmic scripts, consonants have an inherent [a] vowel sound attached to them in non-final positions when no other vowel sign is present (e.g. the letterka with no attached vowel represents the syllable ka, but with an appended vowel i represents the syllable ki).

There are a few extra consonants used to represent sounds not found in Tibetan. These are either derived from other Tibetan base consonants or formed by combining an base consonant a with the semi-vowel letter WA. For example, ⟨ꡣ⟩ xa is derived from Tibetan ⟨ཁྭ⟩ khwa.

ཀ ka ꡀ IPA: /ka/	ཁ kha ꡁ IPA: /kʰa/	ག ga ꡂ IPA: /ɡa/	ང nga ꡃ IPA: /ŋa/	ཅ ca ꡄ IPA: /tʃa/	ཆ cha ꡅ IPA: /tʃʰa/	ཇ ja ꡆ IPA: /dʒa/	ཉ nya ꡇ IPA: /ɲa/
ཏ ta ꡈ IPA: /ta/	ཐ tha ꡉ IPA: /tʰa/	ད da ꡊ IPA: /da/	ན na ꡋ IPA: /na/	པ pa ꡌ IPA: /pa/	ཕ pha ꡍ IPA: /pʰa/	བ ba ꡎ IPA: /ba/	མ ma ꡏ IPA: /ma/
ཙ tsa ꡐ IPA: /tsa/	ཚ tsha ꡑ IPA: /tsʰa/	ཛ dza ꡒ IPA: /dza/	ཝ wa ꡓ IPA: /wa/	ཞ zha ꡔ IPA: /ʒa/	ཟ za ꡕ IPA: /z/	འ 'a ꡖ IPA: /'a/
ཡ ya ꡗ IPA: /ja/	ར ra ꡘ IPA: /ra/	ལ la ꡙ IPA: /la/	ཤ sha ꡚ IPA: /ʃa/	ས sa ꡛ IPA: /sa/	ཧ ha ꡜ IPA: /ha/	ཨ ʼa ꡝ IPA: /ha/
ཁ qa ꡢ	ཁྭ xa ꡣ	ཧྭ fa ꡤ	ག gga ꡥ	ཊ tta ꡩ	ཋ ttha ꡪ	ཌ dda ꡫ	ཎ nna ꡬ

◌ྭ wa ◌ꡧ	ྱ ya ◌ꡨ	ྲ ra ◌ꡱ subjoined	ར ra ꡲ◌ superfixed	◌ྃ ꡳ◌ candrabindu
ꡀꡧ kwa	ꡀꡨ kya	ꡀꡱ kra	ꡲꡀ rka	ꡳꡀ ka

Vowels

Initial semi-vowels, diphthongs and digraphs must be attached to the null base consonant. As there is no sign for the vowel a, which is implicit in an initial base consonant with no attached vowel sign, words that start with an a vowel must begin with a null base consonant letter. In Chinese, and rarely Mongolian, another null base consonant, ⟨ꡐ⟩, -a, may be found before initial vowels.

One difference from the Tibetan script, in which a vowel must always be attached to a base consonant, is that in ʼPhags-pa, an initial vowel other than a can appear without a base consonant when it is not the first element in a diphthong or a digraph. ⟨◌ꡦ⟩, ee represents a vowel that does not occur in Tibetan, and may be derived from the Tibetan vowel sign ⟨ ཻ⟩. It is never found in an initial position.

Vowels and example syllables with null consonant ⟨ꡝ⟩ and with ⟨ꡀ⟩, k.

◌ꡞ ི	◌ꡟ ུ	◌ꡠ ེ	◌ꡡ ོ	◌ꡦ ཻ
ꡝꡞ i	ꡝꡟ u	ꡝꡠ e	ꡝꡡ o	ꡝꡦ ee
ꡀꡞ ki	ꡀꡟ ku	ꡀꡠ ke	ꡀꡡ ko	ꡀꡦ kee

Shilin Guangji

During the Yuan dynasty, Chen Yuanjing employed ʼPhagspa as a kind of precursor to modern pinyin, using it to annotate the Chinese text of his encyclopedia, the Shilin Guangji, (simplified Chinese: 事林广记; traditional Chinese: 事林廣記, Phags-pa: ꡎꡗ ꡂꡨ ꡛꡞꡃ). His transcriptions include the Hundred family surnames (Chinese: 百家姓).

Some of the Hundred Family Surnames

cew ꡄꡠꡓ	dzen ꡒꡠꡋ	sun ꡛꡟꡋ	li ꡙꡞ	jiw ꡆꡞꡓ	u ꡟ	cing ꡄꡞꡃ	wang ꡝꡧꡃ	fung ꡤꡟꡃ	cin ꡄꡞꡋ
趙 zhào	錢 qián	孫 sūn	李 lǐ	周 zhōu	吳 wú	鄭 zhèng	王 wáng	馮 féng	陳 chén