Soyombo script
Encyclopedia
The Soyombo script is an abugida
developed by the Mongolian monk and scholar Bogdo 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
since 1921, and on the national coat of arms
since 1992, as well as money, stamps, etc.
A legend talks about Zanabazar seeing letter-like signs in the sky one night, which he turned into his new script.
The name of the script alludes to this story. It is derived from the Sanskrit
word Svayambhu, meaning "created out of itself".
The syllabic system in fact appears to be based on Devanagari
script, while the base shape of the letters is derived from the Nepalese Lantsa script
(rajana).
Details of individual characters resemble traditional Mongolian script
and the Orkhon script
. It is unclear whether Zanabazar designed the Soyombo symbol himself, or if it had existed beforehand.
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.
The two variations of the Soyombo 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 diphthong
s.
In theory, 20 consonants and 14 vowels would result in almost 4000 combinations, but not all of those actually occur in Mongolian. There are additional base characters and marks for writing Tibetan or Sanskrit.
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.
6.0, the Soyombo script has not yet been encoded. It is tentatively allocated to the Supplementary Multilingual Plane. A preliminary proposal to encode Soyombo has submitted by Anshuman Pandey to the Unicode Technical Committee.
The Menksoft IMEs provide alternative input methods.
Abugida
An abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
developed by the Mongolian monk and scholar Bogdo Zanabazar
Bogdo Zanabazar
Undur Geghen Zanabazar , born Eshidorji , was the first Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism for the Khalkha in Outer Mongolia. His name 'Zanabazar' is the Mongolian rendition of the Sanskrit 'Jnana-vajra' meaning thunderbolt of wisdom...
in 1686 to write Mongolian
Mongolian language
The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...
.
It can also be used to write Tibetan
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
and Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
.
A special character of the script, the Soyombo symbol
Soyombo symbol
The Soyombo symbol is a special character out of the Mongolian Soyombo script. It serves as a national symbol of Mongolia, to be found on the Flag of Mongolia, the Coat of arms of Mongolia, and on many other official documents....
, became a national symbol of Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
, and has appeared on the national flag
Flag of Mongolia
The current flag of Mongolia was adopted on February 12, 1992. It is similar to the flag of 1949, except for the removal of the socialist star....
since 1921, and on the national coat of arms
Coat of arms of Mongolia
The state emblem of Mongolia is used by the government of Mongolia as its symbol of state. It is officially used for example on documents such as Mongolian passports, and government and embassy placards.- Description :...
since 1992, as well as money, stamps, etc.
Creation
The Soyombo script was created as the fourth Mongolian script, only 38 years after the invention of the Clear script.A legend talks about Zanabazar seeing letter-like signs in the sky one night, which he turned into his new script.
The name of the script alludes to this story. It is derived from the Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
word Svayambhu, meaning "created out of itself".
The syllabic system in fact appears to be based on Devanagari
Devanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
script, while the base shape of the letters is derived from the Nepalese Lantsa script
Ranjana script
The Rañjanā script is an abugida writing system which developed in the 11th century. It is primarily used for writing Nepal Bhasa but is also used in monasteries of India, Tibet, coastline China, Mongolia, and Japan. It is usually written from left to right but the Kutakshar form is written from...
(rajana).
Details of individual characters resemble traditional Mongolian script
Mongolian alphabet
Many alphabets have been devised for the Mongolian language over the centuries, and from a variety of scripts. The oldest, called simply the Mongolian script, has been the predominant script during most of Mongolian history, and is still in active use today in the Inner Mongolia region of China...
and the Orkhon script
Orkhon script
The Old Turkic script is the alphabet used by the Göktürk and other early Turkic Khanates from at least the 7th century to record the Old Turkic language. It was later used by the Uyghur Empire...
. It is unclear whether Zanabazar designed the Soyombo symbol himself, or if it had existed beforehand.
Use
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 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
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
is placed high within the angle.
The vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
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 diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s.
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 4000 combinations, but not all of those actually occur in Mongolian. There are additional base characters and marks for writing Tibetan or Sanskrit.
Apart from the Soyombo symbol
Soyombo symbol
The Soyombo symbol is a special character out of the Mongolian Soyombo script. It serves as a national symbol of Mongolia, to be found on the Flag of Mongolia, the Coat of arms of Mongolia, and on many other official documents....
, 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.
Unicode
As of UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
6.0, the Soyombo script has not yet been encoded. It is tentatively allocated to the Supplementary Multilingual Plane. A preliminary proposal to encode Soyombo has submitted by Anshuman Pandey to the Unicode Technical Committee.
The Menksoft IMEs provide alternative input methods.
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, Ts. Oyuntsetseg. Ulaanbaatar 2005.)