Mongolian script

• Traditional: n, q/k, γ/g, b, p, s, š, t, d, l, m, č...[19][20]^: 7
• Modern: n, b, p, q/k, γ/g, m, l, s, š, t, d, č...[19][20]^: 7
• Other modern orderings that apply to specific dictionaries also exist.[21]

Mongolian vowel harmony separates the vowels of words into three groups – two mutually exclusive and one neutral:

• The back, male, masculine,[22] hard, or yang[23] vowels a, o, and u.
• The front, female, feminine,[22] soft, or yin[23] vowels e, ö, and ü.
• The neutral vowel i, able to appear in all words.

Any Mongolian word can contain the neutral vowel i, but only vowels from either of the other two groups. The vowel qualities of visually separated vowels and suffixes must likewise harmonize with those of the preceding word stem. Such suffixes are written with front or neutral vowels when preceded by a word stem containing only neutral vowels. Any of these rules might not apply for foreign words however.[3]^{: 11, 35, 39}[24]^: 10[25]^: 4[21]

Two examples of the two kinds of letter separation: with the suffix ‑un ( ) and the final vowel ‑a ( )

A separated final form of vowels a or e is common, and can appear at the end of a word stem, or suffix. This form requires a final-shaped preceding letter, and an inter-word gap in between. This gap can be transliterated with a hyphen.[note 8][3]^: 30, 77[26]^: 42[1]^: 38–39[25]^: 27[27]^{: 534–535}

The presence or lack of a separated a or e can also indicate differences in meaning between different words (compare ᠬᠠᠷ᠎ᠠ^⟨?⟩ qar‑a 'black' with ᠬᠠᠷᠠ qara 'to look').[28]^: 3[27]^: 535

Its form could be confused with that of the identically shaped traditional dative-locative suffix ‑a/‑e exemplified further down. That form however, is more commonly found in older texts, and more commonly takes the forms of ⟨ᠲ᠋ᠤᠷ⟩ tur/tür or ⟨ᠳ᠋ᠤᠷ⟩ dur/dür instead.[24]^: 15[29][1]^: 46

1925 logo of Buryat–Mongolian newspaper ᠪᠤᠷᠢᠶᠠᠳ ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠤᠨ ᠦᠨᠡᠨ᠃ Buriyad Mongγol‑un ünen 'Buryat-Mongol truth' with the suffix  ᠤᠨ^⟨?⟩ ‑un.

All case suffixes, as well as any plural suffixes consisting of one or two syllables, are likewise separated by a preceding and hyphen-transliterated gap.[note 9] A maximum of two case suffixes can be added to a stem.[3]^: 30, 73[24]^: 12[29][30][25]^: 28[27]^: 534

Such single-letter vowel suffixes appear with the final-shaped forms of a/e, i, or u/ü,[3]^: 30 as in ᠭᠠᠵᠠᠷ ᠠ^⟨?⟩ γaǰar‑a 'to the country' and ᠡᠳᠦᠷ ᠡ^⟨?⟩ edür‑e 'on the day',[3]^: 39 or ᠤᠯᠤᠰ ᠢ^⟨?⟩ ulus‑i 'the state' etc.[3]^: 23 Multi-letter suffixes most often start with an initial- (consonants), medial- (vowels), or variant-shaped form. Medial-shaped u in the two-letter suffix  ᠤᠨ^⟨?⟩ ‑un/‑ün is exemplified in the adjacent newspaper logo.[3]^: 30[27]^: 27

Two medial consonants are the most that can come together in original Mongolian words. There are however, a few loanwords that can begin or end with two or more.[note 10]

In the modern language, proper names (but not words) usually forms graphic compounds (such as those of ᠬᠠᠰᠡᠷᠳᠡᠨᠢ Qas'erdeni 'Jasper-jewel' or ᠬᠥᠬᠡᠬᠣᠲᠠ Kökeqota – the city of Hohhot). These also allow components of different harmonic classes to be joined together, and where the vowels of an added suffix will harmonize with those of the latter part of the compound. Orthographic peculiarities are most often retained, as with the short and long teeth of an initial-shaped ö in ᠮᠤᠤ‍‍ᠥ᠌‍‍ᠬᠢᠨ Muu'ökin 'Bad Girl' (protective name). Medial t and d, in contrast, are not affected in this way.[3]^: 30[32]^: 92[1]^: 44[15]^: 88

Isolate citation forms for syllables containing o, u, ö, and ü may in dictionaries appear without a final tail as in ⟨ᠪᠣ⟩ bo/bu or ⟨ᠮᠣ᠋⟩ mo/mu, and with a vertical tail as in ⟨ᠪᠥ᠋⟩ bö/bü or ⟨ᠮᠥ᠋⟩ mö/mü (as well as in transcriptions of Chinese syllables).[21][1]^: 39

In 1587, the translator and scholar Ayuush Güüsh (Аюуш гүүш) created the Galik alphabet (Али-гали Ali-gali), inspired by the third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso. It primarily added extra characters for transcribing Tibetan and Sanskrit terms when translating religious texts, and later also from Chinese. Some of those characters are still in use today for writing foreign names (as listed below).[36]

A KFC in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, China, with a trilingual sign in English, Chinese, and Mongolian

From left to right: Phagspa, Lantsa, Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese and Cyrillic

Example of word-breaking the name Oyirad 'Oirat', 1604 manuscript

Abbreviation exemplified with the initial syllable of the Mongolian tögrög (ᠲᠥ‍᠂)

When written between words, punctuation marks use space on both sides of them. They can also appear at the very end of a line, regardless of where the preceding word ends.[32]^: 99 Red (cinnabar) ink is used in many manuscripts, to either symbolize emphasis or respect.[32]^: 241 Modern punctuation incorporates Western marks: parentheses; quotation, question, and exclamation marks; including precomposed ⁈ and ⁉.[27]^{: 535–536}

Mongolian numerals are either written from left to right, or from top to bottom.[3]^: 54[34]^: 9

᠑᠕ ᠣᠨ 15 on 'year of 15' on a 1925 tögrög coin[40]
The number ᠘᠙ 89 written vertically on a hillside (top)

Listed in the table below are letter components (graphemes)[note 19] commonly used across the script. Some of these are used with several letters, and others to contrast between them. As their forms and usage may differ between writing styles, however, examples of these can be found under this section below.

Common components[31][34]^: 4–5[39]^{: 29–30, 205}[42][32]^: 82–83[1]^: 36[20]^: 1[43][44]^: 20[17]^{: 211–212}[45]^: 10–11[46][47][18]

Form	Name(s)	Used with
ᠡ‍	'Crown'[note 20]	all initial vowels (a, e, i, o, u, ö, ü, ē), and some initial consonants (n, m, l, h, etc).
᠊ᠡ‍	'Tooth'[note 21]	a, e, n, ng, q, γ, m, l, d, t, etc historically also k, g, r.
	'Tooth'[note 22]
᠊᠊	'Spine, backbone'[note 23]	the vertical line running through words.
‍᠊ᠠ	'Tail'[note 24]	a, e, n, d, etc. A final connected flourish/swash pointing right.
‍᠊ᠰ᠋	'Short tail'[note 25]	final q, γ, m, and s
᠎ᠠ⟨?⟩ ⟨⟩	[...][note 26]	separated final a/e.
	'Sprinkling, dusting'[note 27]	lower part of final a/e; the lower part of final g.
‍ᡳ᠌	'Hook'[note 28]	lower part of final i and d.
ᠵ‍	'Shin, stick'[note 29]	i; initial ö and ü; the upper part of final g; ǰ and y, etc.
	'Straight shin'[note 30]
	'Long tooth'[note 31]
ᠶ‍	'Shin with upturn'[note 32]	y.
ᠸ‍	Shin with downturn[note 33]	ē and w.
ᠷ‍	Horned shin[note 34]	r historically also the upper part of final g and separated a/e.
ᠳ᠋‍	'Looped shin'[note 35]	t and d.
ᡁ‍	'Hollow shin'[note 36]	h and zh.
‍ᠢ	'Bow'[note 37]	final i, o–ü, and r; ng, b, p, k, g, etc.
‍᠊ᠣ‍	'Belly, stomach,' loop, contour[note 38]	the enclosed part of o–ü, b, p, initial t and d, etc.
ᠲ‍	'Hind-gut'[note 39]	initial t and d.
‍᠊ᠹ‍	Flaglet, tuft[note 40]	the left-side diacritic of f and z.
‍ᠽ‍
ᠬ	[...][note 41]	initial q and γ.
‍᠊ᠮ‍	'Braid, pigtail'[note 42]	m.
	'Horn'[note 43]
‍᠊ᠯ‍	'Horn'[note 44]	l.
	'Braid, pigtail'[note 45]
‍᠊ᠰ‍	'Corner of the mouth'[note 46]	s and š.
‍ᠴ‍	[...][note 47]	č.
	'Fork'[note 48]
‍ᠵ‍	[...][note 49]	ǰ.
	'Tusk, fang'[note 50]

As exemplified in this section, the shapes of glyphs may vary widely between different styles of writing and choice of medium with which to produce them. The development of written Mongolian can be divided into the three periods of pre-classical (beginning – 17th century), classical (16/17th century – 20th century), and modern (20th century onward):[31][3]^{: 2–3, 17, 23, 25–26}[24]^: 58–59[2]^{: 539–540, 545–546}[34]^: 62–63[48]^{: 111, 113–114}[26]^{: 40–42, 100–101, 117}[1]^: 34–37[49]^: 8–11[17]^{: 211–215}

Cursive sample in (pre-classical) Middle Mongol: Uridu maqam‑un qaǰiun medekü

• Rounded letterforms tend to be more prevalent with handwritten styles (compare printed and handwritten arban 'ten').

Block‑printed		Pen-written form	Modern brush‑​written​ form	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s) & 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. form	semi-modern forms
				arban 'ten'

• Final letterforms with a right-pointing tail (such as those of a, e, n, q, γ, m, l, s, š, and d) may have the notch preceding it in printed form, written in a span between two extremes: from as a more or less tapered point, to a fully rounded curve in handwriting.
• The long final tails of a, e, n, and d in the texts of pre-classical Mongolian can become elongated vertically to fill up the remainder of a line. Such tails are used consistently for these letters in the earliest 13th to 15th century Uyghur Mongolian style of texts.

Examples of lengthened letterforms d and n in ‑daγan (left), and their regular equivalents (right)

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Modern brush‑​written​ forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s) & 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
				‑ača/​‑eče
				‑un/​‑ün
				‑ud/​‑üd
				ba 'and'

• A hooked form of yodh was borrowed from the Manchu alphabet in the 19th century to distinguish initial y from ǰ. The handwritten form of final-shaped yodh (i, ǰ, y), can be greatly shortened in comparison with its initial and medial forms.

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Modern brush‑​written​ forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s) & 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
				‑i
				‑yi
				‑yin
				sain/sayin 'good'
				yeke 'great'

• The definite status or function of diacritics was not established prior to classical Mongolian. As such, the dotted letters n, γ, and š, can be found sporadically dotted or altogether lacking them. Additionally, both q and γ could be (double-)dotted to identify them regardless of their sound values. Final dotted n is also found in modern Mongolian words. Any diacritical dots of γ and n can be offset downward from their respective letters (as in ᠭᠣᠣᠯ γool and ᠭᠦᠨ ᠢ^⟨?⟩ gün‑i).
• When a bow-shaped consonant is followed by a vowel in Uyghur style text, said bow can be found to notably overlap it (see bi). A final b has, in its final pre-modern form, a bow-less final form as opposed to the common modern one:[1]^: 39

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Modern brush‑​written​ forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s) & 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
				‑u/​‑ü
				bi 'I'
				ab (intensifying particle)

• As in / kü, köke, ǰüg and separated a/e, two teeth can also make up the top-left part of a kaph (k/g) or aleph (a/e) in pre-classical texts. In back-vocalic words of Uyghur Mongolian, qi was used in place of ki, and can therefore be used to identify this stage of the written language. An example of this appears in the suffix ‑taqi/‑daqi.[26]^{: 100, 117}

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Modern brush‑​written​ forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s) & 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
				‑a/​‑e
				‑luγ‑a
				köke 'blue'
				köge 'soot'
				ǰüg 'direction'

• In pre-modern Mongolian, medial ml (‍ᠮᠯ‍) forms a ligature: .
• A pre-modern variant form for final s appears in the shape of a short final n ⟨‍ᠰ᠋⟩, derived from Old Uyghur zayin (𐽴). It tended to be replaced by the mouth-shaped form and is no longer used. An early example of it is found in the name of Gengis Khan on the Stele of Yisüngge: ᠴᠢᠩᠭᠢᠰ᠋ Činggis. A zayin-shaped final can also appear as part of final m and γ.

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s) & 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
			es(‑)e 'not, no', (negation)
			ulus 'nation'
			nom 'book'
			čaγ 'time'

• Initial taw (t/d) can, akin to final mem (m), be found written quite explicitly loopy (as in nom 'book' and toli 'mirror'). The lamedh (t or d) may appear simply as an oval loop or looped shin, or as more angular, with an either closed or open counter (as in ‑daki/‑deki or ‑dur/‑dür). As in metü, a Uyghur style word-medial t can sometimes be written with the pre-consonantal form otherwise used for d. Taw was applied to both initial t and d from the outset of the script's adoption. This was done in imitation of Old Uyghur which, however, had lacked the phoneme d in this position.

Block‑printed		Pen-written forms	Modern brush‑​written​ forms	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s) & 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. forms	semi-modern forms
		[...]		toli 'mirror'
			[...]	‑daki/‑deki
			[...]	‑tur/​‑tür
				‑dur/​‑dür
			[...]	metü 'as'

The word čiγšabd in a Uyghur Mongolian style: exemplifying a dotted syllable-final γ, and a final bd ligature.

• Following the late classical Mongolian orthography of the 17th and 18th centuries, a smooth and angular tsade (‍ᠵ‍ and ᠴ) has come to represent ǰ and č respectively. The tsade before this was used for both these phonemes, regardless of graphical variants, as no ǰ had existed in Old Uyghur:

Block‑printed		Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s) & 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. form	semi-modern form
		čečeg 'flower'

Block-printed semi-modern form	Pen-written form	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s) & 'trans­la­tion'
		qačar/γaǰar 'cheek/place'

• As in sara and ‑dur/‑dür, a resh (of r, and sometimes of l) can appear as two teeth or crossed shins; adjacent, angled, attached to a shin and/or overlapping.

Block‑printed		Pen-written form	Modern brush‑​written​ form	Trans­lit­er­a­tion(s) & 'trans­la­tion'
Uyghur Mong. form	semi-modern forms
				sar(‑)a 'moon/month'

The Unicode block for Mongolian is U+1800–U+18AF. It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks for Hudum Mongolian, Todo Mongolian, Xibe (Manchu), Manchu proper, and Ali Gali, as well as extensions for transcribing Sanskrit and Tibetan.

The Mongolian Supplement block (U+11660–U+1167F) was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2016 with the release of version 9.0: