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 |
6 Responses
The sound clips on this page do not play. It seems they have been deleted from where they were stored.
where I can find cyrillic mongolian fonts for download
Thank you
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).
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.
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!
I am interested in the traditional Mongolian script as well. Calligraphy is a hobby of mine and I am interested in historical texts.