Editing Mongolian writing systems (section)

== Classic Mongolian scripts ==
[[File:Monggol in Monggol bicig.jpg|thumb|147x147px|"Mongol" in Traditional Mongolian script.]]
[[File:Monggol.svg|thumb|147x147px]]

===Traditional alphabet===
{{Main|Mongolian script}}
At the very beginning of the [[Mongol Empire]], around 1204, [[Genghis Khan]] defeated the [[Naimans]] and captured a [[Kingdom of Qocho|Uyghur]] scribe called [[Tata-tonga]], who then adapted the [[Old Uyghur alphabet|Uyghur alphabet]]—a descendant of the [[Syriac alphabet]], via [[Sogdian alphabet|Sogdian]]—to write Mongol. With only minor modifications, it is used in [[Inner Mongolia]] to this day. Its most salient feature is its vertical direction; it is the only [[Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts|vertical script]] still in use that is written from left to right. (All other vertical writing systems are written right to left.) This is because the Uyghurs rotated their script 90 degrees anticlockwise to emulate the Chinese writing system.<ref>György Kara, "Aramaic Scripts for Altaic Languages", in Daniels & Bright ''[[The World's Writing Systems]],'' 1994.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DuCRAgAAQBAJ|title=The Mongolic Languages|last=Janhunen|first=Juha|date=2006-01-27|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-79690-7|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|36}}

As a variant of the traditional script there exists a ''vertical square script'' (Босоо дөрвөлжин), also called ''folded script'', used e.g. on the [[Mongolian tögrög|Mongolian banknotes]].

=== Galik alphabet ===
{{Main|Galik alphabet}}
In 1587, the translator and scholar [[Ayuush Güüsh]] created the Galik alphabet, inspired by [[3rd Dalai Lama|Sonam Gyatso]], the third [[Dalai Lama]]. It primarily added extra letters to transcribe [[Classical Tibetan|Tibetan]] and [[Sanskrit]] terms in religious texts, and later also from [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Russian language|Russian]]. Later some of these letters were officially merged into traditional alphabet as a group named "Galig usug" to transcribe foreign words in modern use.
[[File:Monggol in Todo bicig.jpg|thumb|173x173px|"Mongol" in Todo script.]]

=== Todo alphabet ===
{{Main|Clear script}}
In 1648, the [[Oirats|Oirat]] [[Lama|Buddhist monk]] [[Zaya Pandita]] created this variation with the goal of bringing the written language closer to the actual [[Oirats|Oirat]] pronunciation, and to make it easier to transcribe Tibetan and [[Sanskrit]]. The script was used by Kalmyks of [[Russia]] until 1924, when it was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet. In [[Xinjiang]], China, the Oirats still use it.