Why Is Mongolia Changing Its Alphabet?

[@historywithhilbert146]

Thanks for watching everyone, hope yous enjoyed the video! Be sure to check out my other videos on the Mongols and their history if you found it interesting and give me a thumbs up or considering subscribbling if you're new!

[@TywysogCraig]

Great content, as always!

[@flamebird2218]

I've already been subscribed for a while, but your channel has excellent content! Your videos teach me a lot of new information and help me refresh my memory in these turbulent times. I can't thank you enough for being so informative.

[@Sk0lzky]

Being a meeb (like a weaboo but mongolian? XD) the last thing I expected was learning about this news from your channel of all places lol I mean sure, I've heard some people wanted MB to come back, even polish mongolists are rooting for them (ya know - writing new learning resources is like free real estate) but I also know how hard both alphabets are to learn and how well they correspond with the modern spoken language (let's just say I read fluently in 5 languages using cyrillic despite growing up in the latin world and, after a year of learning mongolian script, I still don't knoe exactly how it works... Also resources for foreigners teaching mongolian in mongol bichig are... Well, scarce would be generous). Tl;dr great content, more asia plz. PS planning anything on the kazakhstan situation? Or maybe an in-depth analysis of uyghur? The latter is on my bucket list of things to learn xD

[@REX-kb5cg]

"Give Flanders Back" in Cyrilic in a Communist flag there. Lmfao right now. You haven't failed us, even in this video which doesn't have anything to do with the Netherlands.

[@MrLhxD]

Thank you as a Mongolian i can say your videos are amazing and infomal. Keep up the good work

[@ennb8695]

Hi, I enjoyed your video, it was very informative. As a Mongolian, I do want to clarify that this is not a sudden shift. We have been learning via K-12/secondary education to write and read in both Cyrillic and traditional Mongolian for a long time now since the rise of democracy in the 1990s. Traditional Mongolian was primarily used in official and government documents. For example, my high school diploma has two versions, one written in Cyrillic and one written in Traditional Mongolian. So this is definitely not sudden or surprising. But I do think we will keep using Cyrillic for a long time, because we have so many books and resources written in Cyrillic and especially many old people don't know traditional Mongolian, given that they were born and raised in Socialist era. My parents for example don't know traditional Mongolian, because they graduated school in the 80s. Hope this was helpful.

[@slomo4672]

Helpful indeed. It's interesting that younger generation can read Mongolian script while the older one can't.

[@entertainmentbuzz944]

I know right, our parents aren't so good with traditional mongolian

[@entertainmentbuzz944]

also great job explaining that this change isn't sudden, to foreigners

[@sunglsses3367]

yeah traditional mongolian was the one subject where I couldn't ask for help from my parents lol

[@SteveWray]

My wife is Mongolian, born 1985 so her education would cover the period you are referring to. She knows practically nothing of this script, say it was never taught in school and no Mongolians I know have any knowledge of any official government scheme to replace cyrillic with the Mongolian script... Could we get some references to the official government position on this? Links in Mongolian would be fine :)

[@Chris-tt5cc]

Kazakhstan is also looking to change its alphabet from Cyrillic. I think these changes are politically driven.

[@historywithhilbert146]

I didn't know about that before starting my research but I'll look into that now!

[@ivanbagaurin7711]

Politically driven? So Mongolian government wants to appease some other government? but which one?

[@Chris-tt5cc]

Ivan Bagaurin I only know about Kazakhstan. They are considering changing to Latin script which means distancing themselves from Russia and post-Soviet countries, and moving closer to the West.

[@dr.vikyll7466]

@@ivanbagaurin7711 No I think they just want to distance themselves from Russia

[@drstrangecoin6050]

Oh boy more UTF-8 L10N Locales to worry about.

[@historyrhymes1701]

Hilbert: When we hear Cyrillic we think of Russia. Me a Bulgarian: *REEEEEEE*

[@stojankovacic1524]

Cyrillic was made by Greeks who lived with Slavs. Well, Glagollic was, Cyrillic was made by Bulgarians. It was made primarily with South Slavs in mind. Westerners mostly associate it with Russia because to them everything east of Germany = weird Russians.

[@lukastefanovic5732]

Me, a serb: ооф

[@adamclark1972uk]

Do you use Russian letters in Bulgaria, too?

[@stupidperson9250]

@Klaidi Rubiku poles and Czech laughing in the background

[@historyrhymes1701]

@@GeoHdReal greetings to Macedonia from Bulgaria

[@Riinkun]

Mongolia: "We're changing our official script!" Kids who just finished learning how to read: >:C

[@timurlane4004]

Yup that's so relatable hahaha

[@jigvvr]

It actually happen to me 😒

[@tulgatariunbat4200]

Yeah I know it sucks

[@eimearc]

@@jigvvr how so?

[@jigvvr]

@@eimearc 1995 when i was in 3rd grade government decided to change alphabet.

[@IKNFLY666]

Traditional Mongolian script, which was inspired by Uyghur script, which was inspired by Sogdian script, which was inspired by Assyrian script, which was inspired by Egyptian script, which was inspired by Phoenician script, which was amazing how the evolution of language can lead to.

[@susantadeb7666]

Mongolian, Uighur, Sogdian, Assyrian belong to completely different language groups. Language and Script are different thing. What you said is true for scripts.

[@E_se_Endrick_fosse_assim]

Egyptian became first than Phoenician. Egyptian -> Proto-Sinaitic -> Phoenician

[@susantadeb7666]

@@E_se_Endrick_fosse_assim you are correct. Pictographs for Alpha was Bull, Beta was a House.

[@Salv2137]

@@E_se_Endrick_fosse_assim i think he meant Coptic script not hieroglyphs not sure how correct he was

[@timothylu1]

@@Salv2137 didn't the Copts come after the Assyrians?

[@rachard]

*Agressive Mongolian throat singing*

[@hmwat1623]

*O O O O H H H*

[@mikabeki9625]

It's not aggressive.

[@CLK944]

HRMMMMM

[@rori4555]

@Mystic Clover HROOOOOOOOOM

[@diesel1052]

@@mikabeki9625 HROOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM

[@oohforf6375]

I remember reading about this script as a kid and wishing that Mongolia would revert back to it since it looked so cool lol

[@BossGokaiGreen]

HI FRIENDSHIP ❤️🐷🇯🇵

[@zeccy337]

@pioco56 ? The mongolians in inner mongolia do use the traditional script. It's put on signs and everything else

[@Geo-st4jv]

@pioco56 Chinese characters are a great system because instead of long words like German or random words like English all words are made of root characters and it's the most compact modern language

[@speedwagon_69]

I'm Mongolian and believe me it's way harder than it looks like. We learn it in sixth grade but lot harder than the current alphabet we're using. The spelling is way different than the writing of traditional Mongolian...

[@2557carla]

@@speedwagon_69 China kind of simplified the Mongolian Script for example "Ulaanbaatar" they write it like that literally but in Mongolia they write it as "Ulaganbagatar".

[@vortex_design]

Genghis Khan script looks like arabic or persian written vertically

[@ua2813]

Yeah it looks a lot like the Arabic script

[@historywithhilbert146]

The Uyghur Script that the Mongol Script is based on is ultimately derived from a Syriac script which is related to Arabic and Persian as well.

[@karmakanic]

@@historywithhilbert146 does that mean it functions as an abjiad?

[@weonanegesiscipelibba2973]

@@karmakanic not necessarilly. persian is an alphabet i think and its based on arabic

[@xhoques]

As I can recall, the reason why Uyghur script runs vertically from right to left is because it's basically a vertically written variety of Arabic/Persian system.

[@erozionzeall6371]

I'm a Mongolian high school senior and they are actively trying bring back it. From my experience Mongolian script is difficult to learn compared to the Cyrillic we use.

[@fabulous_finn7810]

The few Kazakhs and Mongolians I know have similar feelings that it is either difficult or unnecessary to change from Cyrillic. I feel like all the western language geeks hate to hear it, but the change back is quite a hassle for native speakers to adjust to, and for what? Is the script only difficult for you to learn because they had just started teaching it to you, or is it because writing and reading is easier for you with an alphabet of single characters?

[@ClydeDatastruct]

According to another video from a language-themed channel, children in inner Mongolia learn the traditional script by syllables, hence why "Ulaanbaatar" for example is written in the traditional script as if it were written as "u-la-gan-ba-ga-tar". If I recall correctly. For the city of Hoh-hot (pardon me if I misspelled it in Latin alphabet), they write it in the traditional script as if written as "ho-he-ho-ta"

[@mine7172]

You're in high school teaching a 1st grader is easier

[@Ruiseal]

How that learning going so far? Mastered it yet?

[@erozionzeall6371]

@@Ruiseal hell no

[@CostantinoVercetti]

"Beware the Kara Khitai, they are without honour."

[@ateium2409]

AoE ???

[@siratshi455]

We say that in Kazakhstan

[@tengrisyesugei7995]

Kushluk is our guest it would be rude to turn him away

[@ToutCQJM]

The memories

[@ewwmorons]

Nostalgic

[@ise1441]

7:12 The word you are looking for is "Sinicized"

[@mickeycz]

"Give Flanders Back"? LOL ... actually, the page of Hangul that you showed, is partly Hangul WITH the majority being Chinese script (Hanja): the reason was, that Korean is not the same language group as Chinese, and Buddhist monks imported the Chinese alphabet - however, Korean unlike Chinese does conjugate and has a system of pre- and suffixes and so the Chinese alphabet was not fully suitable to be used for Korean -thus the Hangul was used to add the Korean endings - or prefixes to the Chinese nouns - just like the case in Japan with Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana

[@REX-kb5cg]

He hasn't failed us. Again, even in this video there is some Dutch nationalistic shit. This is fucking hilarious

[@nehcooahnait7827]

‘Chinese alphabet’ 🌚

[@nehcooahnait7827]

“Buddhist monks” 🌚 not Korean Confucianists?

[@nehcooahnait7827]

In both Korean and Japanese, the loan sinitic words are almost exclusively nouns, and sometimes functions as verbal nouns and adjective nouns. Many Sino-Japanese verbal nouns still conjugate as it should be while still using Kanji. S Korea abandoning Hanja was largely a nationalist project under former presidents aka a military dictator in the 1970s. It was motivated by a specific kind of language ideology rather a necessary pragmatic approach.

[@davidjacobs8558]

8:17 on the left 3 columns, every other characters are Korean. It's one Chinese character followed by a Korean character that shows the sound of that preceding Chinese character. on the right 7 columns only 10% of characters are Chinese.

[@fnizarm]

They are literally writing things "down"

[@tukal8682]

That’s right this is how to properly right it down. Olden time they could write down while riding a horse.

[@Cudeus]

Write that shit down.

[@MrSinthan]

Thank you for your service.

[@adamclark1972uk]

The English spelling of Genghis Khan comes from Italian after Marco Polo, and there's a reason why there's an "h" after the second "g", but not after the first. In Turkish it's written "Cengis." It's good that you are pronouncing his name correctly, akin to Jenga.

[@nehcooahnait7827]

In mandarin it is Chengjisi Han, or technically Chengjisi Kehan... Mandarin is a rather new variety but using historical linguistic u can in fact interpret its old Mongolian pronunciation

[@nehcooahnait7827]

Which would probably be something like Tsenjis Kaghan(?)

[@dorjjodvo1992]

@@nehcooahnait7827 in the old way yes, "Khaan" would be "kaghan" or "khagan"

[@saulgoodmanKAZAKH]

Chingis Han is probably the most used one

[@HOPEfullBoi01]

In modern Turkish it's spelled Cengiz, not Cengis.

[@TywysogCraig]

They are getting ready for a new King!

[@beefyblom]

I think you mean "Khan"

[@TywysogCraig]

As long as they pay their taxes, they Khan call me what they want!

[@historywithhilbert146]

Is it you by any chance ;)?

[@lukahutinski9075]

Xis is all getting too cheezy for Ming

[@TywysogCraig]

@@historywithhilbert146 as an Avid Genghis Khan fan it would make sense. However, they have some pretty serious neighbours and I don't know if we would be ready for that.

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

Writing Mongolian downwards will make the comment section too long to scroll

[@berrybear2465]

Read more

[@user-vv7mz6ps4k]

@Маша Паракина Just like Chinese, Korean...

[@instantinople3796]

You again

[@velazquezarmouries]

each comment can just be as long as the longest word in mongol

[@Alternatives_Universum]

You will have to scoll sideways of course in that case.

[@ThePhoenix109]

Looks like arabic but upside down. Probably because they were influenced by Turkic tribes, who in turn were influenced by Iranian people in Central Asia. The Iranian tribes of central asia(sogdians,bactrians) in turn used a script that derived from Aramaic. Later they switched to Arabic. That wasnt a big change because Arabic and Aramaic are related to eachother.

[@Sk0lzky]

Yep, the most likely version I know is some Iranian dudes->uyghurs-> swap to vertical->old Mongol->some tibetan dudes noticed it's fucking abysmal->reform->mongol script to this day. It's still shite because all mongolian dialects have changed a lot and it was made to the needs of xvi or xvii century oirat... Seriously, even cirillic, despite its poor adoption under commie rule, is better for modern mongolian than this shit.

[@zekun4741]

turkic tribes used runes

[@Sk0lzky]

@@zekun4741 first of all you don't say when, then you don't say which tribes. And thirdly script found on those stones created under the gokturk rule isn't called runes, it's just called orkhon (orxon really) script. Edit: Oh, and it in turn probably originated as an imitation of some of neighbouring scripts too, imo it would make the most sense that it at least in part was some kind of evolution of tamga since they share some symbols

[@zekun4741]

@@Sk0lzky the khazars used runic scripts, we know because the hungarians adopted their runes from them which still survive today. This around 9th century. Obviously Turks converting to Islam adopted Arabic

[@duwang8499]

@@zekun4741 Calling then runes can be a bit confusing for people who don't really know about this stuff. Because "runes" are more used for the Germanic Futhark and Futhorc writing systems. Both having the Phoenician script as their ancient ancestors. Also the Old Turkic runes was written from right-to-left.

[@tinypenguinhk]

I always feel glad when I see news of countries restoring parts of their traditional culture. It totally helps the people once again pick up the heritage that they had dropped earlier in history. I hope that one day my country could restore our traditional writing and culture as well.

[@anachis1663]

What culture are you from?

[@edmundpoon02]

Correction: at 6:08 you mentioned that Mongolian is the only script written vertically from left to right but that isn’t the case. The Manchu script, which is largely derived from the traditional Mongolian script is also written in the same way. But thanks a lot for this video! It really helps raise awareness of preserving traditions.

[@scarybird977]

It would seem that Hilbert wants us to give Flanders back to the Dutch

[@jessebosch6732]

We must

[@historywithhilbert146]

*Rightful southern clay*

[@hammerboy7980]

*Flemish and Wallonian independence*

[@SneedPatch]

and Duinkerken

[@thephilosopherofculture4559]

That would be a very good idea and help Flanders, Wallonia and The Netherlands a great deal. Unfortunately, the Belgians are fun, crazy, intensely corrupt and extremely lackadaisical in their attitude towards life, all features that don't fit the Dutch culture like hand in glove. E.g. the need to hide the corruption may act as the principal factor of resistance to this unification idea.

[@adhdlama2403]

I have absolutely no stake in this whatsoever. But I smile at the thought of a language being as uniquely... "itself" as possible! To have such a unique script lost would have been a tragedy. The world should be filled with diversity like this! I really really hope they make it work.

[@David_Winney]

You might find it interesting to know that English once had its own script, called futhorc, which is based on the runic writing system the early Germanic tribes used.

[@nikipnl]

Mongol cyrillic:Шяньбэй Mongol traditional:ᠰᠢᠨ᠎ᠡ ᠰᠣᠷᠭᠣᠭᠱᠤᠤᠭᠢᠶᠠᠨ᠃

[@12abirato]

This is really awesome- I’ve been so fascinated by the traditional Mongolian script ever since I was given some Mongolian money as a child from my cousin who was working there. It looks so beautiful and unique! Good luck to Mongolia, hope the transition isn’t too tough on everyone.

[@michaelzheng5250]

We congratulate our friends up in the North for bringing their cultural script back! With respect from China!

[@adrianatgaming8640]

respect!

[@michaelzheng5250]

Александр that’s the point, I am congratulating the Outer Mongolians for bringing their cultural script back into official use, something Inner Mongolia in China has kept all along

[@michaelzheng5250]

BenziX well that is not what I meant. It is a genuine congratulation to our Mongolic friends up north for restoring a part of their rich history!

[@papercrease7308]

@Huslen Batsuuri It is not that bad like media like to exaggerate. Many progress have been made but many more are needed. Rome was not build in one day China is no different. What we want is let us Chinese to figure that ourselves without intervention. A broken China in chaos like some extremist wanted is no good for anybody. No hate taken

[@entertainmentbuzz944]

Thanks from Mongolia! Best of wishes to you and to your country's progress as well

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Mongolia is such an interesting country, I really want to stay in a yurt. And throat singing is awesome

[@skatingfreak1670]

Hey, its you.... Avery the Cuan-America. You seem to be everywhere im pretty sure ive also seen you on Donuts vids/channel

[@timflatus]

The thing I'm most fascinated about is how yurts (+ uis & gers) are so similar to roundhouses in so many ways.

[@appleslover]

Is this a smart bot that can reply to all youtube videos based off their contents? You are literally every fucking where.

[@paragang2114]

@@timflatus Gers are diffrent from yurts, uis. They are easier to travel with but Gers have additional wool and wood is thicker than the two. They are really similar but i prefer the roundhouses. The Ger is really small and I grew up living in them with 5 siblings. Not an ideal way to live but hey im doing just fine :D

[@ThisAlias]

Yurt is basically your home. 🤔

[@archeofutura_4606]

Lmao 13:25 “give flanders back”. Also Hangul is one of the most interesting and efficient scripts that have been invented. It’s also very easy to learn. I learned it in a week for fun a few years ago. Anyway I’m surprised to see the visual similarities between the script that Kublai Khan commissioned and Hangul, but I’m not sure if it has the same building block structure.

[@Sheerspeechcraft]

geevay flandayrs batsk

[@laughingdaffodils5450]

They do share the same building block structure in the sense they're both based on a few common brush strokes. But conceptually they are very different. Hangul is unique in that it is based on a representation of the mouth making a specific sound, rather than originating in representations of concepts like the other systems. So for instance all the bilabials are based on a box shape representing two lips, while the velars are all based on a sort of 'L' shape representing the tongue reaching up to the velar ridge.

[@historywithhilbert146]

Very interesting, a few people have said it's actually very easy to learn so who knows I might have to give it a go!

[@archeofutura_4606]

Laughing Daffodils i was talking about how each of the 40-something smaller symbols (based off of the representation of the mouth) are put together like building blocks to make CV or CVC syllables

[@laughingdaffodils5450]

​@@archeofutura_4606 Ah I see what you mean. And best I know the answer is "sort of." In phags-pa syllables are written together like cursive words, but still in a straight line, while Hangul stacks in more complicated ways.

[@fubuki908]

Cyrillic: associated with Russian me, Bulgarian: NO NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@gomez3432]

LMFAOOO

[@DarsPF]

Mongolia: Vertical script! Unicode developers: ( ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ)

[@adamender9092]

Ogham (the traditional Irish script) is vertical too (read from bottom to top) ᚛ᚑᚌᚐᚋ᚜ Both scripts can be read from left to right too tho

[@tochka832]

unicode is all about encoding the individual characters tho, they do not deal with rendering the script and so on but because of japanese web there's a support for vertical writings everywhere

[@Bruno_Haible]

@@tochka832 There is the Unicode character set and the Unicode standard. The Unicode standard describes the rendering of the scripts in detail. And then there's also the Unicode standard annexes, which describe how certain text editor operations (such as line breaking) are supposed to work with complex scripts.

[@HistoricalWeapons]

If you want to check out Mongolian horse archers I make Vids

[@fclp67]

USA: starts a race riot Hilbert: hey guys look blessed news from Mongolia Thanks Hilly Billy

[@historywithhilbert146]

More than welcome ;)

[@walkwithme2109]

usa : we bomb, we steal your oil, we fan riots. MAGA

[@eyeballpapercut4400]

@Oskar Dirlewanger and?

[@dorjjodvo1992]

I know right, blessed be Hilbert

[@djdjukic]

Their old script (one of many) is cool and unique, but impractical compared to Cyrillic, not to mention the cost of change itself. Which is why they're not actually switching, just bringing it into wider use. It satisfies a nationalistic and geopolitical goal while not compromising on the people's actual ability to read.

[@mcom6859]

That is right. I have a relative from Kazakhstan and she says that Kazakhstan switched to cyrillic because the government had to increase literacy and cyryllic is alot easier to write than old Kazakh so cyrillic started to be taight at schools. I believe the situation in Mongolia is the same sonce the script seems quite difficult.

[@maalikserebryakov]

@@mcom6859 everyone should speak Ancient Arabic instead, as it is a very easy language to learn and the best candidate for a global language.

[@aymantheold6185]

​@@maalikserebryakov even arabs don't understand Ancient Arabic dude.

[@dotdotdotdotdotdotdottod]

i dissagree. complex langues need complex systems to accuretly send the fundementals of the the spoken word to paper. in trying to "simplify" a complex languages on paper comes with many complications when learning and using a writting system for everyday use

[@mcom6859]

@@dotdotdotdotdotdotdottod I disagree with that too. I have read old cyrillic and simplification of it in the 1920s was of great use.

[@DJTechYT]

It’s nice seeing Mongolia switching back to their own unique script, bringing back their centuries long tradition. I do wonder how they’ll solve the practicality problem with their vertical script though because almost all websites and computer interfaces are only suited for horizontal scripts (like Latin and Cyrillic)

[@jeromefitzroy]

Not a problem, many software can make it vertical like Word, which is used for mandarin

[@JobeeTabs]

Also in the Philippines, our politicians passed a law that would revive our old alphabet "Baybayin". However, the western colonizers destroyed most of the written records of it.

[@ayanagarwal7116]

Same with the konkani script. Unfortunately none of it's remains survive so they have to use devnagari(a cousin)

[@pascallaw5909]

Ah... The Spanish! If the government and the people are willing to do it, I think it is quite easy to revive the alphabet, since there's still a one-to-one (or close to that) mapping from Latin script to Baybayin script. Same for Malaysia and Indonesia, but to a much less extent, Vietnam.

[@aronjancortel1649]

Every ethnolinguistic group had own versions of Baybayin. The Spaniards preserved the script and printed Doctrina Cristiana with Baybayin and Latin script but the natives themselves abandoned it in favor of the Latin script. It makes no sense to bring it back to mainstream use.

[@anthonymanderson7671]

I see why I don't like colonialism

[@sasmalprasanjit2764]

@@ayanagarwal7116 lol, You are wrong from beginning.. Coz Sanskrit was older and gave birth to Konkani then Marathi to later by 1000 years.. So Not Cousin but Great Great Grandmother's

[@himssendol6512]

The vertical mongol script is so pretty. A bit unpractical in this internet era but… very pretty.

[@LordBackuro]

Usually it’s written Sideways left to right on digital platforms On Huawais for example they have a option to change the keyboard to the Mongolian script

[@Patsuannn]

@@LordBackuro Yea but in order to read it u have to rotate ur device:3

[@herkles1]

the word you were looking for when you mentioned Kublai Khan is sinicized

[@Seagull780]

I've been hoping for this for a while. I found some form of mongolian wikipedia a while back and it looked amazing. I couldn't understand anything, but it looked really cool.

[@siloquant]

My high school teacher used to tell me that Mongolian traditional script is very fast for taking notes and he doesn't use Cyrillic script when he needed. To me, It would be a user interface nightmare in modern software. But I'm excited to try some changes.

[@tt-ew7rx]

Not necessarily. It is in Unicode, in the same block as the Manchu and Sibe languages. Typing on a latin keyboard would not be a problem. Even Chinese with its 60k+ characters is far from being a nightmare.

[@godowskygodowsky1155]

​@@tt-ew7rx Even if it's in Unicode, there are still display issues that can arise. Arabic is in Unicode, but so many websites, games, etc. have trouble handling RTL text. Imagine what could happen if you introduced vertical scripts into that mix. It's a UI nightmare. I don't know if the current online standard is to display the script vertically or use the folded version. That would affect how easy it will be to handle.

[@thephilosopherofculture4559]

Traditional Mongol script is beautiful. Very aesthetic. I love it.

[@Jtiger987]

A lot of the people here seem to misunderstand what's going on. Mongolia is not abandoning Cyrillic, it's giving the Mongolian alphabet an equal status. Both will be used side by side starting in 2025.

[@comradebanana129]

Literally nobody: Mongolia: We write upside down

[@Waldemarvonanhalt]

IMO they should've just stuck with the Cyrllic. It really makes it easier for a lot of people who already know much more common east Slavic languages to navigate the country and read signage etc. As well as making it a more realistic option to visit for tourists who might have learned Russian etc.

[@meltedicecreamsandwich]

No they should use the script from their own culture

[@tulip811]

@@meltedicecreamsandwich they will abandon it anyway, no one suffers from it

[@heian17]

​@@tulip811suffer?

[@YY-pu4md]

The structure of Chinese(and Hangul hiragana katakana ) don't need to worry whether write horizontally or vertically and the direction thing. Although traditionally we write vertically, but actually we write in these two ways at the same time nowadays. Like 你 猜 猜 我 寫 的 啥 is the same as 你猜猜我写的啥😂

[@John_1-1_in_Japanese]

14:59 >the bank notes are written horizontally But it's a piece of paper? You can't just turn it in your hand?

[@boptillyouflop]

Afaik the Mongolian Cyrillic script is quite a good writing system. Cyrillic is well suited for most Eurasian languages - all languages that are non-tonal, have 5 or more vowels, have multiple sibilants and have a fortis/lenis split in consonants. (it has similar strengths and limitations as Latin alphabet)

[@TehEpicAsian715]

fyi for future references: Xianbei is pronounced more like SHE-an-bei (slur the "SHE" and "an" together in one syllable)

[@achernarchang883]

That's only how it's pronounced in modern Mandarin. It doesn't really reflect the pronunciation at the time of their existence. The true pronunciation is lost, but linguists infer that the pronunciation is close to Sär-pi or Ser-bi.

[@haocheng480]

@@achernarchang883 It's still good to pronounce it according to its pinyin though, because otherwise it might confuse people in the future who read Xian and say, "Gee-an."

[@achernarchang883]

@@haocheng480 I beg to differ. Xi'an is a Chinese city that exists in the modern day, so there is no issue pronouncing it with Pinyin rules. Xianbei, on the other hand, is a misrepresented transliteration that does not reflect how the name of an ancient ethnicity was pronounced at the time of their existence. Therefore pronouncing it with Pinyin is inappropriate, unless you are willing to claim Xianbei people are no different from the modern Han Chinese.

[@achernarchang883]

@Huslen Batsuuri Thank you. It is quite interesting to know how it is pronounced with modern Mongolian. I am interested to know how it reflects the ancient pronunciation among the nomadic people of their time.

[@haocheng480]

@@achernarchang883 It is not a matter of "who is pronouncing it correctly", but rather "in what standardized way should we pronounce it". Obviously modern "xianbei" is wrong, but if everyone is pronouncing it their own way then we're impeding our own communication. It's no different from Caesar really, which is pronounced like Kaesar in the Roman times but nowadays people pronounce them like Seezer, or Kaiser if you are German. Like I say, just a matter of standardization and not accuracy.

[@PedanticAntics]

Obligatory "umm, actually" So here it is: In Tibetan, the "ph" never makes the "f" sound. It makes what can be described as a slightly breathy "p" sound. Also, when dealing with written or transliterated Tibetan, one ought to just ask a Tibetan for guidance because (much as with English), the way something is written in Tibetan and the way it is pronounced will not be at all obvious to a native English speaker, as seen in this otherwise very well-made video.

[@robert_wigh]

Yes! I also thought about that. Thank you!

[@jared_bowden]

I've heard that, all things held equal, Tibetan spelling is even more crazy than English. Is this True?

[@pia_mater]

Tibetan spelling is messy, but it's also very regular. For example, written "db" is always pronounced as "w", written "rn" is always pronounced as "n", written "gs" js always pronounced as "s" and so on. Once you know the rules, you can pronounce pretty much any word correctly (although there are a few exceptions)

[@thomasanthony2970]

Using back their original script are easy for them to study their own history. That's the reason why Japanese still stick to kanji for the same purpose. In China even the mainstream is Chinese but the minorities are required to learn their own scripts and languages to preserve their culture and heritage.

[@TauGeneration]

i think you mean taiwan since it still uses the traditional Chinese script while the mainland Chinese use a simplified version which is different

[@gordon_zhao6183]

@@TauGeneration that's was nonsens,people in China still can read tradition Chinese ,it is a different concept between tradional mogolian and modern mongolian.Simplyfied Chinese is just simply some complex characters ,not all.

[@Mark.A.Maggard]

I really need to resist watching just another of your videos. Your videos do scratch that history itch quite well.

[@magnoliaswt1755]

As an Mongolian i can confirm that it is very accurate presentation of our history of alphabet and I'm really impressed. Also i don't really think that we can completely change the cyrillic alphabet usage that easily but we'll see what will happen in the future.

[@ruler_of_everything]

e: Yes! I did it! I learned Mongolian! Mongolia: Well yes, but actually no.

[@sukecchizu]

e

[@StarterX4]

Web browsers and Wikipedia already added support for vertical text, not just Mongolian, but Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic too. As i see, Traditional Mongolian Script on the internet is usually written horizontally (left->right, top->bottom, just like Latin or Cyrillic) even on Wikipedia. Traditional Mongolian Script is based off Old Uyghur Alphabet, which is based off Syriac Script (just like Arabic). The difference between OUA and Mongolian is that the OUA is still an Abjad (script with function that allows to write the vowels above or under the consonants instead of writing them as typical letters), but the Mongolian is not - the vowels are just normal letters like in Latin. TMS works the same as most of the Handwritten script styles - the letters are connected together one-by-one.

[@cemreomerayna463]

Hey! An interesting content for sure, but due to the title, I would expect you to explain a bit about what is the reason for this change. In this way, the video seems a bit misleading. And about the content, I would like to hear more about Central Asian history from you. You are making great content in your research area.

[@arkanon8661]

they did, they said it was related to how they no longer had relations with the soviets who originally made them change to cyrillic

[@albork1]

Thank you for the video. I have some remarks. 1) The letters ө for ö and ү for ü are also used in some Cyrillic alphabets for non-Slavic languages in the former USSR, i.e. for the Yakut language in Siberia. 2) Since most books were printed in the socialist period after 1940, one has to hope that the children will continue to learn the Cyrillic script, alongside the Mongolian vertical script and the Latin alphabet, to prevent an educational and cultural break. 3) Insignificant here, but modern "Cyrillic" is the Russian "civil script", a modification of the 18th century of the "Cyrillic" alphabet, which was developed for the Old Church Slavonic language (not quite correctly "old Bulgarian"). Church Slavonic, written in the "original" Cyrillic script, is still used as a (not the only one) liturgical language in Slavic Orthodox Churches.

[@duke927]

Writing whatever script left to right is more natural (I know this because I’m left handed) as most persons are right handed and as you write you won’t smear the ink (when real ink was a thing) and you can see more easily what you are writing (if you’ve ever wondered why left handed writer’s have their wrists hooked over the page). As writing long hand has receded as the technology advanced left to right or right to left merely becomes a matter of convention.

[@alexanderjabl3128]

this motivates me much more to study Mongolian!

[@wingwaabuddha]

If China wasn't expanding as rapidly as it is, and its influence on Mongolia, you wouldn't see this sudden interest is reviving the more "traditional script", this is how it always works in history.

[@yerri5567]

Culture and Geography Man What does this got to do with China?

[@MegalopsykhiaLIN]

More like the declining influence of Russia.

[@yerri5567]

@Александр Sorry I dont quite understand what you meant there

[@장전-q7q]

@Huslen Batsuuri what? sheeps or horses?

[@장전-q7q]

@Huslen Batsuuri and cows?

[@unm0vedm0ver]

HERESY! The Runes were given to us after Odin sacrificed his Eye and hung upside down on Yggdrasil for 9 days while staring into the abyss of eternity.

[@YavorArseniev]

Most fascinating video! And props for including Batzorig Vaanchig from Khusugtun at 5:00 Absolutely adore their music.

[@ccityplanner1217]

I am delighted to see the vertical script come back. I can't help but think it would be useful on bus destinations: the display can be on the nearside, & when the bus is stuck behind another bus the angle from which the text would be visible from the pavement without being blocked by another bus would be greater. I think the main barrier to this is technological compatibility. Just 2 years ago my browser couldn't render Mongolian characters.

[@mishapurser7542]

Cyrillic and Mongolian script are both beautiful and a great pleasure to read but I'm really happy to see Mongolia return to their traditional script.

[@tzufbb]

did you know that there are alot of Manchus in China that are also changing their script from Chinese characters?

[@reddhong6665]

there are 10 million Manchu in China now, but most of them cannot apply the manchu language, this has happened since the Qing Dynasty... probably like some Turks in Persia can only use Persian.. manchu script is also derived from Uygur script like the Mongolian. on the contrary, the Uygur people now use the Arabic alphabet

[@singharpan9859]

@@reddhong6665 everyone has lost their roots

[@nehcooahnait7827]

No. Manchu written in Uyghur scripts is still valued as a highly important academic language. Quite pointless to write it in Chinese characters. “Just why?” Manchus are also culturally assimilated by the Han Chinese like most of the ethnicities that once ruled China. Out of those million Manchu population in China, only less than 50 of them are native speakers. All of them are over 65 years ago and all bilingual (meaning that they do speak Mandarin and probably use mandarin more often because no one speaks it as a first language anymore.) this kinda development has been going on for a few centuries during the middle of Qing dynasty... kinda beyond saving honestly. Even the Sibes speak better Manchu (although a rather distinct variety) than the actual Manchus nowadays. Manchu does enjoy official status in some autonomous prefectures

[@niamtxiv]

Manchu are basically Han today...

[@maxdc988]

No I don't. News to me. Why do they want to do that when their most glorious Emperors in the past used Chinese characters officially.

[@HaraldinChina]

I wasn't aware of this! this is so exciting, because I'm very grateful for the Chinese to have preserved the traditional Mongolian script. But I'm also aware that there's strong cultural pressure from Mandarin which one has to learn in China. To hear Mongolia returns to its old script is wonderful news.

[@Louisianabayou]

Good video but one thing Chinese script is not an alphabet it's a logographic Alphabet- Each sound has a character to represent it Logograph- Each character represents a word or phrase There are quite a few others but the only one that comes to mind... Abjad- Only consonants have symbols and vowels have little marks added on to the top and bottom Great video though

[@madihanaaz5426]

wow. cyrillic alphabet or writing style is awesome

[@omerpasa3328]

By the way uyghurs were most educated turkic group back then...

[@ByrdieFae]

This video was so good for the soul. I've always adored the traditional Mongolian script. So glad it's coming back!

[@rogersmith8386]

The main reason they originally changed to Cyrillic was to actually *increase* literacy so not sure it would be sensible to change back unless they have actually done serious studies which support this objectively.

[@TheYrrah]

11:57 Our capital Ulaanbaatar has almost 80000 people, and multiple state public, economic places are located there. It is very important to build industrial complexes that will manufacture that comes out of raw materials that comes out of the country.

[@AdobadoFantastico]

Awesome, I was always surprised how long they stuck with Cyrillic. Would have expected the switch back in the 90s. Looks beautiful.

[@Zabawne_Gierki]

As a language nerd I've read that traditional Mongolian that is used in Inner Mongolia used some old orthography. I wonder if Mongolia will update it or make it the same as Inner Mongolian?

[@adamender9092]

This is really similar to the situation in Ireland. We didnt really need to write anything down and then the Runic alphabet came (like the Hanzi script) and we made our own alphabet instead, which actually looks quite similar to the Mongolian script ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ🇲🇳 ᚛ᚑᚌᚐᚋ᚜🇮🇪 Mongolians read their script from top to bottom and we read ours from bottom to top. Both of us also read it from left to right. Then we both adopted our neighbours alphabets (Cyrillic and Latin)

[@cobraglatiator]

and let me tell you, as someone from another country that uses latin script, you guys adopting it, was a mistake! i mean just look at those words! the sounds! one thing is very clear, latin script was not made for celtic. (joking. mostly. ...mostly....)

[@kuledesu]

Wonderful to see lots of people are interested in our country's traditional script ^_^

[@wwandmitski]

Yess

[@calumbanrosach8501]

As a Gàidhlig-speaker I thoroughly enjoyed your joke, I had that exact internal reaction before the joke! Thank you again for another great and informative video.

[@Fiction_Beast]

Mongolia script was based of Sogdian script which is more central asian in origin. i read it somewhere or heard it from someone, but i am not certain. Great video!

[@michaelweiske702]

As a fellow nerd, I have taken the time to learn the basics of written Hangul (It is much easier than it seems, I swear), and it is my opinion that the relationship between Hangul and the other script described is likely just a coincidence. They 'look' similar because they both use boxes, circles and straight lines, but the way Hangul is written is what I would call 'constructive', in that each character is constructed from either a C-V-C or just a C-V, while the other appears to be purely linear. Also important to note that the initial consonant can be silent so it starts with a vowel sound; Korean is not a syllabic language and is not closely related to Japanese.

[@zeitgeistx5239]

Soapbox post.

[@ninawth]

I chose Manchu as an elective course in university, but was then told to learn the script on my own in a weekend. If I remember correctly, we weren't allowed to attend the next class, if we hadn't done it. It resulted in me completely panicking and dropping the course. It still makes me feel nauseous, when I see similar scripts :/

[@ilFrancotti]

8:27 those on the left look like a sitting woman and a kneeling man.

[@molo5455]

I am really appreciated that u called my king in a correct way wich is actually Chinggis Khan.

[@rathersane]

I imagine one of the most difficult things about this transition has been to get the word processing software to type vertically, but I’m sure it’s a lot easier to implement nowadays than it would have been in the 1990s

[@MrGuyJacks]

Great that they're changing it to their traditional script, but IMO this is also reflective of the geopolitical changes which are going on

[@entertainmentbuzz944]

it's not really geopolitical, our writing system was traditional Mongolian script for a long time. Cyrillic Mongolian was only introduced in the late 1930s and 40s while the traditional script was used at least since the time of chinghis khan, meaning for at least 700 hundred years. And Cyrillic Mongolian was forcefully introduced by stalinist, soviet policy makers. So after the fall of the soviet union it was logical to take off the false temporary mask of Cyrillic Mongolian

[@orangew3988]

@@entertainmentbuzz944 I feel like saying the reason they are bringing back Mongolian script because of the fall of the soviet Union, is pretty geopolitical.

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

13:24 Belgium: No.

[@clanksshekels]

Just a note: I think there is historical evidence that the runic script actually pre-dates contact with the Latin Romans, and was instead based off of the Phoenician script.

[@Elenrai]

Any idea where? I am curious now!

[@Pablopax4]

Yeh, I caught that too, that was my impression, goes back to the Amber, Copper and Tin maritime trade I believe, however I cannot remember my sources for it, so take it as speculation for now.

[@lesliefranklin1870]

I think you need to look at the Etruscan script as well as they preceded the Romans and had an influence on Latin script as well.

[@clanksshekels]

@@Elenrai I can't remember exactly the source, but the theory was that if you look at Phoenician script and how it developed into Greek, it's far more similar to the runic alphabet than the latin one is, and there are certain runic sources where "Phoenician" is mentioned in regards to some specific runes.

[@iris7867]

Fascinating!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@joalexsg9741]

Your channel is amazing and I do congratulate and thank you for it. Having said that, I would like just to observe that the Uyghur script itself can be traced back to the Orkhon script, which, in turn, can be traced to other previous ones, though the Uyughur used different writing systems too, according to this site, whose excerpts relevant to this subject I post right below: " ... Uighur documents found in Eastern Turkestan were written in various kinds of script, namely: Runic, Manichean, Syrian, Nestorian, Estrangelo, Brahmi Tibetan and actually Uighur. Uighur manuscripts found on territory of today’s Mongolia were written in so-called Orkhon script. The majority of the texts, except those written in Orkhon and Uighur scripts, are the religious texts of Manicheans, Nestorians and Buddhists. Orkhon Runic script was used in writing of Epic works. Uighur script was widely used in day-to-day life for economic and juridical needs. I would like to address to this two kinds of script in more detail. Orkhon AlphabetRunic Ancient Turkic script came into the world before the 7th century AD. It consisted of 37 or 38 graphemes, which were written separately from each other. The script was created on the basis of Sogdian non-cursive alphabet, which, in turn, ascends to Aramaic. Orkhon script was written from the right to the left. Most of consonant graphemes had several variants of spelling depending on vowels next to them. The system of denoting of vowels is based on the opposition of syllables containing forward and back vowels. Each grapheme denotes a syllable or a phoneme. ..." by by Kuddus Issiyev in www.etaa.org.au/who-are-the-uyghurs/uyghur-script/ His bibliographical sources seem utterly reliable and authoritative: BIBLIOGRAPHY: Klyashtorny S.G., Ancient Turkic Manuscripts // Eastern Turkestan in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Moscow, 1992 (In Russian) Tugusheva L.Yu. Uighur Handwritten Book in Early Middle Ages // Handwritten Book in Culture of Oriental Peoples, Moscow, 1988 (In Russian) Vorobyeva-Desyatkovskaya M.I., Handwritten Book in Central Asian in Pre-Muslim Period // Handwritten Book in Culture of Oriental Peoples, Moscow, 1988 (In Russian) Malov S.E., Ancient Turkic Manuscripts, Moscow-Leningrad, 1951 (In Russian) Turghun Almas, The Uighurs, Volume 2, Almaty, 1994 (In Russian)

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

Obviously I support the return of the Traditional Mongolian script's usage. The problem with the traditional script is pretty much solely that browsers and computers aren't very well suited for it yet, this is not a problem with the script, it is a problem with our current technology, and it is something that very much needs to change. Also, they're not "getting rid" of Cyrillic yet, the current plan is to have official government documents in both Cyrillic and Mongolian script by 2025. Also, Mongolian isn't unique for being vertical and left-to-right, every writing system derived from the Old Uyghur script is vertical left-to-right. This includes more languages than just Mongolian, such as Xibe and Manchu, which are both written in the Manchu alphabet, a descendant of the Mongolian alphabet. There is also, as you mentioned, the 'Phags-pa script which was used to transcribe many languages including Sino-Tibetan ones, Mongolic ones and Indo-Ayran ones which was descendant from the Tibetan script that descended from Brahmi, although this one is no longer used. There was also Ogham, which was read bottom-to-top, left-to-right but that one fell out of use over 1000 years ago. In addition, modern vertical writing in Chinese has since moved to being left-to-right. But that's really splitting hairs.

[@ateium2409]

11:32 Soo the Russians tried to do what the Turks did to their script.

[@sgab]

13:11 *give flanders back* lol

[@actua99]

I saw that come by and wondered if it said what it did, or if my reading cyrillic was messing with me. But one cyrillic screen keyboard session later and yes: that is what it says :P

[@MuhammadRizqiNauvalAfif97]

hope all languages move back to their respective historical writing system

[@quelebm125]

ᚾᚩ ᚦᚫᛝᛉ

[@2wugs]

like english with runes

[@PimsleurTurkishLessons]

@@2wugs Online keyboard to write in Old Turkic alphabet and pdf and video links to learn it … Named Video in my channel for more info but shortly i wrote here …… Turkish used also runes. But it s different runes, for example "arrow" shape shows "K" letter because Turkish word "Ok" means "arrow". There was also "D" shaped letter means shows "Y" letter because it looks like "yay=arch". first remained written text in Turkish with Runic alphabet belongs to 716 year. there are also older Turkish texts with Runic Turkic alphabet (but few different forms, it seems it got changed in time even within Turkish) but they did not write date on stones so they can not say exact time.

[@capncake8837]

Manchu script was adapted from Mongolian, which was adapted from Uighur script. Epic.

[@emberfire6146]

Yeah I'm Mongolian and I quite surprised about that but it's dying Manchu people forgetting their semi Mongolian language

[@vatsalamolly]

The verticle line connecting the alphabets reminds me of Hindi that has a horizontal line that connects the apphabets

[@karmakanic]

"sm...small...." 🤣

[@louisayers3477]

give Flanders back! XD

[@sodinc]

bootsk, really

[@Zabawne_Gierki]

Mongolians never occupied Netherlands. /s

[@Shaden0040]

You should do a compatison of Celtic stone cross carvings and Armenian stone cross carvings. There is a lot of similarity in the knot styles between the too far separated cultures. Is there a cultural link or even a genetic link between thte two groups?

[@dracodistortion9447]

The Celts developed in Germany but their ancestors migrated from the Caucuses, which is where Armenia is. Probably has something to do with that

[@timflatus]

And Christianity - that's a cultural link.

[@sephikong8323]

@@timflatus Both of those examples pre date Christianity ........

[@cyrilprouveur7151]

they were a celtic people called the galates (in french, idk in english) that migrated to anatolia

[@jakenadalachgile1836]

The similarities are mostly superficial. Many cultures in Europe and elsewhere have developed styles of interlace (knotwork) and although they might have influenced each other I doubt there is any link between Ireland and Armenia, given that just about everywhere in between also used interlace.

[@xixigi8003]

On the first of September, China has banned traditional Mongolian script in Mongolian teaching school.

[@kbkim6497]

Good to hear that relative scripts are being restored!

[@jonpaulojequinto4169]

Just for reference, some traditional Filipino scripts are also read from top to bottom, then from left to right. One example is the Baybayin. So the Mongol script is not alone 😁🇵🇭 ᜋ ᜉᜓ ᜊᜓ ᜃ ᜑ ᜌᜓ ᜌ᜔

[@jonpaulojequinto4169]

@Huslen Batsuuri Well, nowadays, it CAN, but traditionally speaking, our ancestors did not write horizontally as the script was not written on paper, but on Bamboos, hence they wrote vertically. But yeah, unlike the Mongol script, it can also be written horizontally if wanted to as it's not fundamentally restricted

[@velazquezarmouries]

they are preparing for the second coming of chinghis khaan this july

[@armennazarian7097]

@Zu I'm just gonna leave this here kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGW0lqaOeciIY6s

[@thomaskember4628]

I always thought that Hangul was a completely new alphabet designed from scratch and in some ways better than the Latin alphabet because it is based on representing phonetic features rather than phonemes.

[@L1M.L4M]

Mongolia bringing back its old script is like England switching to the Anglo-Saxon runes

[@leonardoschiavelli6478]

and Italians recovering the tradition of writing leftwards like Etruscans 🤣

[@DailyKansasNews]

Fun fact: Nomadic tribes in Northeastern China adapted the Mongolic script in order to understand, write, and have their own identity. These tribes are Manchu, and would later rule China as the Great Qing Dynasty.