Mongolian vertical script
Escritura mongola vertical
- Date
- 1204 (tradición) · confidence low
- Place
- Court of Genghis Khan, central Mongolian steppe, Mongolia
- Credited to
- Tatar-Tonga, a Naiman scribe serving Genghis Khan
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An adaptation of the Uyghur script, itself derived from Sogdian, to write Mongolian, which Genghis Khan imposed in his chancery after defeating the Naimans. It is written in vertical columns from left to right and is still used in Inner Mongolia.
The 1204 date comes from Mongol tradition (Secret History of the Mongols and Chinese sources); the first surviving text is the Stone of Genghis Khan (c. 1224-1225). The script was called «Uyghur-Mongol» until the reform of 1941.
What it led to
- the chancery and documents of the Mongol Empire
- derived classical scripts: Manchu and Oirat (Todo Bichig)
- alternative alphabets for Mongolian: 'Phags-pa (1269), Soyombo (1686) and the Cyrillic adopted in 1941