Social:Zanabazar square script

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Short description: Abugida developed by the monk and scholar Zanabazar
Zanabazar's square script
𑨢𑨆𑨏𑨳𑨋𑨆𑨬𑨳
Type
Abugida
LanguagesMongolian, Tibetan, Sanskrit
CreatorZanabazar
Time period
unknown
Parent systems
Egyptian
DirectionLeft-to-right
ISO 15924Zanb, 339
Unicode alias
Zanabazar Square

Template:Brahmic Zanabazar's square script is a horizontal Mongolian square script (Mongolian: Хэвтээ Дөрвөлжин бичиг, romanized: Hevtee Dörvöljin bichig or Хэвтээ Дөрвөлжин Үсэг, Hevtee Dörvöljin Üseg),[1] an abugida developed by the monk and scholar Zanabazar based on the Tibetan alphabet to write Mongolian. It can also be used to write Tibetan language and Sanskrit as a geometric typeface.[2][3]

It was re-discovered in 1801 and the script's applications during its using period are not known. It read left to right, and employed vowel diacritics above and below the consonant letters.[1]

Letters

Vowels

The Zanabazar Square script is an abugida. Each consonant represents a syllable with an inherent vowel /a/. The vowel can be changed by adding a diacritic to the consonant. Only the vowel /a/ is written as an independent letter; other independent vowels, for example those at the start of a word which can't be attached to a consonant, are written by adding the appropriate diacritic to the letter 𑨀. A length mark indicates that the vowel sound is long and a chandrabindu 𑨵 indicates that it is nasalised.[4] The final consonant mark 𑨳 functions as a virama, or "killer stroke" that removes the inherent vowel, leaving an isolated consonant. When transcribing Sanskrit or Tibetan, a different virama, 𑨴 is used. Two additional diacritics are used for Sanskrit transcription, the anusvara 𑨸, which adds nasalisation and the visarga 𑨹, which adds aspiration.

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Vowels, diacritics, and examples
diacritics Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter
independent vowels Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter
consonant 𑨋 + diacritic Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter

Consonants

The Zanabazar script includes twenty basic consonants used for writing Mongolian, and twenty additional consonants that are used for transcribing Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese, and other languages.[4]

Basic consonants for Mongolian
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Additional consonants for other languages
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Tibetan consonant clusters

The following diacritics are used for transcribing Tibetan consonant clusters. Template:Plain row headers

Clusters letters and examples
diacritic Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter
consonant 𑨋+ diacritic Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter Template:Letter

Other characters

Head marks are similar to Tibetan yig mgo, and may be used to mark the beginning of a text, page, or section. They may be decorated with a candra, 𑨷 or 𑨶

Head marks
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Punctuation
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Unicode

"Zanabazar Square" has been included in the Unicode Standard since the release of Unicode version 10.0 in June 2017. The Zanabazar Square block contains 72 characters.[5]

The Unicode block for Zanabazar Square is U+11A00–U+11A4F:

Template:Unicode chart Zanabazar Square

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Pandey, Anshuman (2015-12-03). "L2/15-337: Proposal to Encode the Zanabazar Square Script in ISO/IEC 10646". ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2015/15337-zanabazar-square.pdf. 
  2. Shagdarsürüng, Tseveliin (2001). ""Study of Mongolian Scripts (Graphic Study or Grammatology). Enl."". Bibliotheca Mongolica: Monograph 1. 
  3. Bareja-Starzyńska, Agata; Byambaa Ragchaa (2012). ""Notes on the Pre-existences of the First Khalkha Jetsundampa Zanabazar according to His Biography Written in the Horizontal Square Script."". Rocznik Orientalistyczny 1. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Mongolian Horizontal Square Script". https://www.omniglot.com/writing/mhss.htm. 
  5. "Unicode 10.0.0". Unicode Consortium. June 20, 2017. https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode10.0.0/.