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Mongolian Alphabet

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Mongolian Alphabet Cyrillic min

Mongolian official script (Mongolian alphabet) used a Classic Mongolian script for hundreds of years. After the Mongolian people’s revolution with the assistance of the Soviet Union, New Mongolia started to develop in all sectors. In1930-1931, Mongolians used to create literacy by using the Latin alphabet for their official language and teach to the people in the whole country.

After a year, these initiations were not successful because of their nationality, pre-preparations, and fewer people who were literates. Therefore they resumed the old Mongolian script.

Between 1934-1940, Mongolian literacy was run successfully, and people who have learned old Mongolian script reached from 320000 to 720000. In 1941, Mongolian scientists were created a new script adopting from the Russian Cyrillic and added 2 letters (Ө, Ү) to the Russian Cyrillic.

From the academic year 1941-1942,  primary school students started to learn New Mongolian Cyrillic Alphabet. Consequently, in 1946, the Mongolian Cyrillic has been the official script in republic Mongolia.
The Mongolian alphabet has 35 letters. It consists of 20 consonants, 13 vowels, and 2 sign letters.

Mongolian Cyrillic Alphabet

Between 1934-1940, Mongolian literacy was run successfully, and people who have learned old Mongolian script reached from 320000 to 720000. In 1941, Mongolian scientists were created a new script adopting from the Russian Cyrillic and added 2 letters (Ө, Ү) to the Russian Cyrillic.

From the academic year 1941-1942,  primary school students started to learn New Mongolian Cyrillic Alphabet. Consequently, in 1946, the Mongolian Cyrillic has been the official script in republic Mongolia.
The Mongolian alphabet has 35 letters. It consists of 20 consonants, 13 vowels, and 2 sign letters.

Vowel harmony

 

Short  vowels

Long vowels

Diphthongs

Masculine 

Back

а

аа

ай

о

оо

ой

у

уу

уй

я

 

 

ы

 

 

ю (у)

 

 

Feminine

Front

э

ээ

эй

ө

өө

 

ү

үү

үй

е

 

 

ю (ү)

 

 

Neutral

и

ий

 

Masculine and feminine vowels are not contained both in a word. For example,

будаа (rice), утас(phone), олуулаа(many of)

хүлээх(to wait), гэрэл(light), өгүүлбэр(sentence), цөөхүүлээ (few of)

But Neutral vowel can be used either masculine or feminine. For example,

Ажил(work), ширээ(table)

Rules of vowel harmony do not apply to loan or foreign words.

Consonants

Classification /Rules

Consonants

Example

Vocalized consonants

Are needed vowels before or after

м, н, г, л, б, в, р

хавар

барилга

Non-vocalized consonants

Are can be used without a vowel

ц, ж, з, с, д, т, ш, ч, х

өөрчлөлт

цонх

 

Special consonants

к, п, ф, щ

Парк

фото

Signs

There are 2 sign letters in Cyrillic which are like: ь (soft sign), ъ (hard sign).

ь (soft sign) is used in two ways. First, it separates е from feminine verbs stem ending with a consonant. Example, хэлье (let`s say), өгье(let`s give).

Second, it softens hard consonants. Example, морь(horse), хууль(law), хорь (twenty)

ъ (hard sign) only used to separate я and ё from masculine verb stem ending with a consonant. Example,

явъя(let`s go), уулзъя(let`s meet), бодъё(let`s think)

Watch Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet pronunciation video 

Mongolian Cyrillic Alphabet Pronunciation in Written

LETTER           PRONUNCIATION          SOUNDS AS IN ENGLISH (bold)
А а                                                aah                         as in us
Б б                                      beh                          as in ball
В в                             weh                    as in west, vest, wet, owe, vain
Г г                             geh                            as in get, gum, dog
Д д                           deh                          as in and, hard, dad
Е е                             yeh                  as in yet
Ё ё                            yoh                           as in yo yo
Ж ж                          jeh                       as in Jet
З з                             zeh                            as in zero
И и                       i                              as in it, if
Й й                            i (used with another vowels)                    as in ink
К к                      kah                         as in walk, work
Л л                       il                       as in silk
М м                       im                        as in milk
Н н                       in            as in mint
О о                           ooh                 as in ball, all, doll
Ө ө                         öh                               as in her, term, earn
П п                         peh                    as in gap
Р р                           err                          as in cheers, hear
С с                         iss                    as in sister, risk, miss, mist
Т т                          teh                          as in list, test, state, hut, step, hot
У у                         uuh                     as in  bull
Ү ү                       üüh                        as in who
Ф ф                     feh                             as in cafe
Х х                        heh                              as in hey
Ц ц                      tseh                           as in  tsunami
Ч ч                       cheh                         as in  lunch, check, rich
Ш ш                    sh                               as in  finish, push, wish
Щ щ                    sh (used in Russian words)               as in Shanghai
Ъ ъ                  no sound                        sign letter
Ы ы                    eeh                         as in mean, weak, seal
Ь ь                 no sound                               sign letter
Э э               eh                              as in egg, edit, set
Ю ю                 yuh                                  as in use, huge, cute
Я я                    yah                                as in soya

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Admin

6 Responses

    1. Hi Peter, on most if not all computers, you can do this without downloading anything. All you have to do is add the Mongolian language to your computers languages. On my computer, this involved going to Settings -> Personalization -> Keyboard -> Language & region, but on your computer it may be different. Google translate has a keyboard for Mongolian as well and you can use that to familiarize yourself with which letters are on which keys (I found drawing myself a guide to the letter placement on the keyboard helped).

  1. Are there resources on this site to learn the traditional Mongolian alphabet (not Cyrillic)? I have read that Mongolia is planning to restore the traditional alphabet by 2025, replacing the Cyrillic one. While learning the Cyrillic alphabet would be more useful, as it is way more widely used, I feel that learning the old script would also be fun, and if I were to undertake learning this language, I would learn it more completely that way.

    1. I have one website that I can send you, about traditional Mongolian language, contact me!
      honggeer2017@gmail.com

      (by the way my name is Hongor and I’m Mongolian from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, so feel free to reach out, I will send you this website plus additional information and we can discuss about the language! good luck and thank you for being interested in my language!

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