Mongolian Keyboard Layout

Mongolian language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mongolian language ( , Mongγol kele, Cyrillic: Монгол хэл, Mongol khel) is the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. It is the language of most residents of Mongolia and of many of the Mongolian residents of Inner Mongolia, totalling about 5.7 million speakers. Mongolian in Mongolia is usually the Khalkha dialect and written in Cyrillic letters, whereas Inner Mongolia has greater linguistic diversity that is written down in the traditional Mongolian script.
As a language, Mongolian has vowel harmony and a fairly complex syllable structure for Mongolic that allows up to three syllable-final consonants. It is a typical agglutinative language that relies on suffix chains in the verbal and nominal domain. While the basic word order is Subject Object Verb, the phrase order is relatively free, so functional roles are indicated by a system of about eight grammatical cases. The verb can take several voice suffixes and is marked for aspect and some other notions belonging to the domains of tense, modality and evidentiality. In sentence linking, converbs play a special part.
Historically, Mongolian hails from Middle Mongolian, the language spoken in the Mongol Empire. In its diachronic development, it has undergone a major shift in the vowel harmony paradigm, developed long vowels, slightly reformed its case system and re-structured its verbal system.

Mongolian Cyrillic script

The word ‘Mongol’ in Cyrillic script
The most recent Mongolian alphabet is a slightly modified Cyrillic alphabet (the Russian alphabet plus 2 letters, Өө /ö/ and Үү /ü/). It is a phonemic alphabet, meaning that there is a high level of consistency in the representation of individual sounds. It was introduced following the communist revolution in Mongolia and is used in everyday life and on the Internet.

Writing systems

Mongolian has been written in a variety of alphabets over the centuries.
The traditional Mongolian script was adapted from Uyghur script probably at the very beginning of the 13th century and from that time underwent some minor disambiguations and supplementations. Between 1930 and 1932, a short-lived attempt was made to introduce the Latin script in the Mongolian state, and after a preparatory phase, the Cyrillic script was declared as mandatory by government decree. From 1991 to 1994, a short-lived attempt to reintroduce the traditional alphabet was made which failed due to resistance from the general public.[76] In informal contexts of electronic text production, the use of Latin is common as well.
In the People’s Republic of China, Mongolian is a co-official language with Mandarin Chinese in some regions, notably the entire Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The traditional alphabet has always been used there, although Cyrillic was considered briefly before the Sino-Soviet split.[78] There are two types of written Mongolian used in China: the classical script, which is official among Mongols nationwide, and the Clear script, used predominantly among Oirats in Xinjiang.
The modified Cyrillic alphabet used for Mongolian is as follows:
Cyrillic    Name    IPA    Transliteration        Cyrillic    Name    IPA    Transliteration
Аа    а    a    a        Пп    пэ    (pʰ ), (pʰʲ )    (p )
Бб    бэ    p,pʲ, b    b        Рр    эр    r,rʲ    r
Вв    вэ    w,wʲ    v        Сс    эс    s    s
Гг    гэ    ɡ,ɡʲ,ɢ´, k    g        Тт    тэ    tʰ,tʰʲ    t
Дд    дэ    t,tʲ    d        Уу    у    ʊ    u
Ее    е    jε~jɜ, e    je        Үү    ү    u    ü
Ёё    ё    jɔ    jo        Фф    фэ~фа~эф    (f )    (f )
Жж    жэ    tʃ    ž        Хх    хэ~ха    x,xʲ    h
Зз    зэ    ts    z        Цц    цэ    tsʰ    ts
Ии    и    i    i        Чч    чэ    tʃʰ    č
Йй    хагас и    i    j        Шш    ша~эш    ʃ    š
Кк    ка    (k ), (kʲ )    (k )        Щщ    ща~эшчэ    (stʃ )    ( šč )
Лл    эл    ɮ,ɮʲ    l        Ъ ъ    хатуугийн тэмдэг    ”
Мм    эм    m,mʲ    m        Ыы    эр үгийн ы    i    y
Нн    эн    n,nʲ    n        Ьь    зөөлний тэмдэг    ʲ    ‘
Оо    о    ɔ    o        Ээ    э    e    e
Өө    ө    o    ö        Юю    ю    jʊ, ju    ju
Яя    я    ja, j    ja
Үү and Өө are sometimes also written as Її and Єє.[80]