Writing Systems
The literary tradition of Oirat reaches back to 11th century when the Uyghur script was used. The official Kalmyk alphabet, named Todo Bichig (Clear Script), was created in the 17th century by a Kalmyk Buddhist monk called Zaya Pandit. In 1924 this script was replaced by a Cyrillic script, which was abandoned in 1930 in favor of a Latin script. The Latin script was in turn replaced by another Cyrillic script in 1938. These script reforms effectively disrupted the Oirat literary tradition.
The modified Cyrillic alphabet used for the Kalmyk language is as follows:
| Cyrillic | IPA | Transliteration | Cyrillic | IPA | Transliteration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Аа | a | A a | Оо | ɔ | O o | |
| Әә | æ | Ä ä | Өө | o | Ö ö | |
| Бб | p, pʲ | B b | Пп | (pʰ, pʲʰ) | P p | |
| Вв | w, wʲ | W w | Рр | r, rʲ | R r | |
| Гг | ɡ, ɡʲ, ɢ | G g | Сс | s | S s | |
| Һһ | h | H h | Тт | tʰ, tʲʰ | T t | |
| Дд | t, tʲ | D d | Уу | ʊ | U u | |
| Ее | je | E e | Үү | u | Ü ü | |
| Ёё | jɔ | Yo | Фф | (f) | F f | |
| Жж | tʃ | Ž ž | Хх | x, xʲ | X x | |
| Җҗ | dʒ | J j | Цц | tsʰ | Ts, S | |
| Зз | ts | Z z | Чч | tʃʰ | Ç ç | |
| Ии | i | I i | Шш | ʃ | Ş ş | |
| Йй | j | Y y | Щщ | (stʃ) | şç | |
| Кк | (k, kʲ) | K k | Ыы | i | I i | |
| Лл | ɮ, ɮʲ | L l | Ьь | ʲ | ˇ (diac.) | |
| Мм | m, mʲ | M m | Ээ | e | E e | |
| Нн | n, nʲ | N n | Юю | jʊ | Yu | |
| Ңң | ŋ | Ñ ñ | Яя | ja | Ya |
Read more about this topic: Kalmyk Oirat
Famous quotes containing the words writing and/or systems:
“The human head is bigger than the globe. It conceives itself as containing more. It can think and rethink itself and ourselves from any desired point outside the gravitational pull of the earth. It starts by writing one thing and later reads itself as something else. The human head is monstrous.”
—Günther Grass (b.1927)
“The geometry of landscape and situation seems to create its own systems of time, the sense of a dynamic element which is cinematising the events of the canvas, translating a posture or ceremony into dynamic terms. The greatest movie of the 20th century is the Mona Lisa, just as the greatest novel is Gray’s Anatomy.”
—J.G. (James Graham)