33.3253, From the Linguist List Archives: Mongolian Script

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-33-3253. Wed Oct 26 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 33.3253, From the Linguist List Archives: Mongolian Script

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Editor for this issue: Joshua Sims <joshua at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2022 00:29:06
From: LINGUIST List [linguist at linguistlist.org]
Subject: From the Linguist List Archives: Mongolian Script

 
Mongolian Script in the Linguist List Archives

Greetings to all of our readers! This is Joshua Sims, systems administrator at
the Linguist List and a PhD student of Linguistics at Indiana University. I've
focused a large part of my research on the Mongolian language and its
phonology. Aside from linguistic theory, one of my favorite elements of
Mongolian is its traditional script, a beautiful and unique alphabet written
in vertical cursive. 

It turns out that the Linguist List has been publishing news about Mongolian
Script and other fascinating topics for over 30 years. On October 3rd, 1991,
in Linguist List issue 2.607, Henry Rogers, a professor of linguistics at
Toronto University, queried the list about writing Mongolian on a Macintosh
computer:

"...There is a small group of people here at Toronto working on Mongolian, and
we would appreciate any help. Mongolian is written with a cursive alphabet in
lines running from top to bottom...The best solution so far seems to be a
Hebrew/Arabic word processor with the letters entered on their side. Naturally
Mongolian speakers/writers find writing sideways odd. The output must be
turned 90 degrees to be read... I realise that this problem may seem a touch
recherche, but it is comforting to think that technology is allowing us to
think about such things nowadays."

Mongolian typography became easier to work with in 1999, when Mongolian was
added to Unicode 3.0. However, the trouble of representing a left-to-right
vertical script in the digital world persists to this day. I can personally
attest to finding Mongolian Script materials online with all text turned 90
degrees--it's not good for the neck! But just as Rogers said, it is comforting
that advancing technology lets us encounter these issues. Today many Mongolian
language websites print content in Mongolian Script running top to bottom, as
intended since the 13th century. Rogers' Mongolian research continued, and he
wrote about Mongolian script in his 2004 book "Writing Systems",  announced on
the Linguist List in issue 15.2760. 

It makes me so glad to see research queries from the earliest issues of the
Linguist List grow from questions to answers over years of work. How many jobs
posted here have become lifelong careers? How many conferences lead to
fruitful research pursuits? What will result from the books, conferences and
openings we announce today? What will we be sharing 30 years from now? 

Likewise, countless linguistics graduate students have succeeded in their
studies only because of their work at the Linguist List, myself included. My
colleagues and I could not work and research as we do without your
contributions to our annual Fund Drive. Please, take the time to donate today
at https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/. Who knows what stories your
donations will write in the next 30 years?

Thank you,

Joshua Sims






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