Phags-pa script
From Mongol Studies Online Reference
| Phags-pa script | ||
|---|---|---|
| Type | Abugida | |
| Spoken languages | Mongolian Chinese | |
| Created by | Blo-gros rGyal-mtshan (Lodoi ǰaltsan in Mongolian), also known as the Phags-pa Lama | |
| Time period | 1260-c.1360 | |
| Parent systems | Proto-Canaanite alphabet → Phoenician alphabet → Aramaic alphabet → Brāhmi → Gupta → Siddham → Tibetan → Phags-pa script |
|
| Child systems | Lepcha | |
| Sister systems | Hangul (partial) | |
| Unicode range | U+A840–U+A87F | |
| ISO 15924 | phag | |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Phags-pa script is also known as 蒙古新字 (měnggǔ xīnzì), 八思巴字 (bāsībā zì), dörbelǰin üsüg, square script, and sometimes as Mongolian Quadratic script. It was created by a Tibetan Lama named Blo-gros rGyal-mtshan བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (lodoi ǰaltsan ᠯᠣᠳᠣᠢ ᠵᠠᠯᠼᠠᠨ in Mongolian), who is also known by his title that is the namesake for the script, Phags-pa Lama འཕགས་པ་བླ་མ. It was commissioned by Kublai Khan in 1260 as a replacement for the original Mongolian script created by Tatar Tonga. It was intended to more accurately represent the spoken Mongolian language, however it was not popular with many Yuan Dynasty officials despite prohibitions against using other writing systems. When the Yuan Dynasty collapsed the Chinese and Mongolians reverted to their respective original scripts.[1]
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[edit] Description
Phags-pa is syllabic alphabet, meaning that each consonant includes a vowel sound, that is composed of forty-one characters (though different sources claim both more and less characters). It is based on Tibetan script and is written from top to bottom and from left to right. There are three different styles for writing Phags-pa script, including a standard, seal, and decorative script used for book titles and temples.[2]
[edit] Script sources
An important source for modern understanding of the Phags-pa script comes from the Mĕnggŭ Zìyùn 蒙古字韻, a rhyming dictionary for over 9,000 Chinese characters with their Phags-pa equivalents.
Other sources include a variety of Mongolian, Chinese, and to a lesser extent Tibetan, edicts written in the script. A particularly interesting source are Yuan Dynasty era Nestorian Christian tombstones in the city of Quanzhou 泉州.[3]
[edit] Links
Entry on Mongolian paiza, or passports, that has an example of Phags-pa script.
Yang Xiaochun 楊曉春, 二十年来中国大陆景教研究综述(1982—2002). 作者提供，原刊于《中国史研究动态》2004年第6期 阅读 1430 次
Example of a Phags-pa script seal.
Mongolian characters after Kubli-Khan 摘自<<蒙古字韻>>上五頁(見參考1)
"hPhags-pa" Ancientscripts.com: A Compendium of World-wide Writing Systems From Prehistory to Today.
"’Phagspa script" Wikipedia.com
[edit] References
- ↑ West, Andrew. "Phags-pa Script Overview." Babelstone.co.uk. Accessed June 18 2008.
- ↑ Ager, Simon. "Phags-pa Alphabet." Omniglot.com. 2008. Accessed June 18 2008.
- ↑ "The Stones of Zayton Speak." China Heritage Newsletter. China Heritage Project, The Australian National University. No.5, 2006. Accessed 19 June 2008.
