ʼPhags-pa script

"ʼPhags-pa" redirects here. For the inventor of this script, see Drogön Chögyal Phagpa.

ʼPhags-pa ꡏꡡꡃꡣꡡꡙꡐꡜꡞ ḥPʻags-pa
Christian tombstone from Quanzhou dated 1314, with inscription in the ʼPhags-pa script ꞏung shė yang shi mu taw 'tomb memorial of Yang Wengshe'
Script type	Alphabet
Creator	Drogön Chögyal Phagpa
Time period	1269 – c. 1660
Direction	Vertical left-to-right
Languages	Chinese Mongolian Persian Sanskrit Tibetan Uyghur
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Brahmi Gupta Tibetan ʼPhags-pa
Child systems	Zanabazar's square
Sister systems	Lepcha, Meitei, Khema, Marchen, Tamyig script
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Phag (331), ​Phags-pa
Unicode
Unicode alias	Phags-pa
Unicode range	U+A840–U+A87F

The Phagspa script or ʼPhags-pa script is an alphabet designed by the Tibetan monk and State Preceptor (later Imperial Preceptor) Drogön Chögyal Phagpa (1235-1280) for Kublai Khan (r. 1264–1294), the founder of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) in China, as a unified script for the written languages within the Yuan. The actual use of this script was limited to about a hundred years during the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, and it fell out of use with the advent of the Ming dynasty.

The script was used to write and transcribe varieties of Chinese, the Tibetic languages, Mongolian, the Uyghur language, Sanskrit, probably Persian, and other neighboring languages during the Yuan era. For historical linguists, its use provides clues about changes in these languages.

Its descendant systems include Horizontal square script, used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit. During the Pax Mongolica the script even made numerous appearances in western medieval art.

Nomenclature

The 'Phags-pa script is natively called ꡏꡡꡃ ꡣꡡꡙ ꡐꡜꡞ mongxol tshi, meaning literally 'Mongolian script.' In Mongolian, it is called дөрвөлжин үсэг dörvöljin üseg (traditional script: ᠳᠥᠷᠪᠡᠯᠵᠢᠨ ᠦᠰᠦᠭ dörbelǰin üsüg), meaning 'square script,' or дөрвөлжин бичиг dörvöljin bichig (ᠳᠥᠷᠪᠡᠯᠵᠢᠨ ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ dörbelǰin bičig), meaning 'square writing.' In Tibetan the script is called ཧོར་ཡིག་གསར་པ་ (Wylie: hor yig gsar pa), meaning 'new Mongolian script.' During the Yuan dynasty the script was often called 蒙古新字 měnggǔ xīn zì: 'new Mongolian letters,' or 國字 guózì, meaning 'national script.' Today, it is most often called 八思巴字 bāsībā zì 'Phagspa letters.'

In English, it is also written as ḥPʻags-pa, Phaspa, Paspa, Baschpah, and Pa-sse-pa.

History

During the Mongol Empire, the Mongol rulers wanted a universal script to write down the languages of the people they subjugated. The Uyghur-based Mongolian alphabet is not a perfect fit for the Middle Mongol language, and it would be impractical to extend it to a language with a very different phonology like Chinese. Therefore, during the Yuan dynasty (c. 1269), Kublai Khan asked the Tibetan monk ʼPhags-pa to design a new alphabet for use by the whole empire. ʼPhags-pa extended his native Tibetan alphabet to encompass Mongol and Chinese, evidently Central Plains Mandarin. The resulting 38 letters have been known by several descriptive names, such as "square script", based on their shape, but today, are primarily known as the ʼPhags-pa alphabet.

Descending from Tibetan script, it is part of the Brahmic family of scripts, which includes Devanagari and scripts used throughout Southeast Asia and Central Asia. It is unique among Brahmic scripts in that it is written from top to bottom, like how classical Chinese used to be written; and like the Manchu alphabet or later Mongolian alphabet is still written.

It did not receive wide acceptance and was not a popular script even among the elite Mongols themselves, although it was used as an official script of the Yuan dynasty until the early 1350s, when the Red Turban Rebellion started. After this, it was mainly used as a phonetic gloss for Mongols learning Chinese characters. In the 20th century, it was also used as one of the scripts on Tibetan currency, as a script for Tibetan seal inscriptions from the Middle Ages up to the 20th century, and for inscriptions on the entrance doors of Tibetan monasteries.

Syllable formation

Although it is an alphabet, phagspa is written like a syllabary or abugida, with letters forming a single syllable glued or 'ligated' together.

An imperial edict in ʼPhags-pa

The ʼPhags-pa script, with consonants arranged according to Chinese phonology. At the far left are vowels and medial consonants.

Top: Approximate values in Middle Chinese. (Values in parentheses were not used for Chinese.)
Second: Standard letter forms.
Third: Seal script forms. (A few letters, marked by hyphens, are not distinct from the preceding letter.)

Bottom: The "Tibetan" forms. (Several letters have alternate forms, separated here by a • bullet.)

Example of the Chinese poem Hundred Family Surnames written in Phagspa script, from Shilin Guangji written by Chen Yuanjing in the Yuan dynasty

Unlike the ancestral Tibetan script, all ʼPhags-pa letters are written in temporal order (that is, /CV/ is written in the order C–V for all vowels) and in-line (that is, the vowels are not diacritics). However, vowel letters retain distinct initial forms, and short /a/ is not written except initially, making ʼPhags-pa transitional between an abugida, a syllabary, and a full alphabet. The letters of a ʼPhags-pa syllable are linked together so that they form syllabic blocks.

Typographic forms

ʼPhags-pa was written in a variety of graphic forms. The standard form (top, at right) was blocky, but a "Tibetan" form (bottom) was even more so, consisting almost entirely of straight orthogonal lines and right angles. A "seal script" form (Chinese: 蒙古篆字; pinyin: měnggǔ zhuànzì ; "Mongolian Seal Script"), used for imperial seals and the like, was more elaborate, with squared sinusoidal lines and spirals. This 'Phags-pa script is different from the 'Phags-pa script, or 八思巴字 in Chinese, that shares the same name but its earliest usage can be traced back to the late 16th century, the early reign of Wanli Emperor. According to Professor Junast 照那斯图 of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the later 'Phags-pa script is actually a seal script of Tibetan.

Korean records state that hangul was based on an "Old Seal Script" (古篆字), which may be ʼPhags-pa and a reference to its Chinese name 蒙古篆字 měnggǔ zhuànzì (see origin of hangul). However, it is the simpler standard form of ʼPhags-pa that is the closer graphic match to hangul.

Letters

Basic letters

The following 41 are the basic ʼPhags-pa letters.

Letters 1-30 and 35-38 are base consonants. The order of Letters 1-30 is the same as the traditional order of the thirty basic letters of the Tibetan script, to which they correspond. Letters 35-38 represent sounds that do not occur in Tibetan, and are either derived from an existing Tibetan base consonant (e.g. Letters 2 and 35 are both derived from the simple Tibetan letter KHA, but are graphically distinct from each other) or from a combination of an existing Tibetan base consonant and the semi-vowel (subjoined) letter WA (e.g. Letter 36 is derived from the complex Tibetan letter KHWA).

As is the case with Tibetan, these letters have an inherent [a] vowel sound attached to them in non-final positions when no other vowel sign is present (e.g. the letter KA with no attached vowel represents the syllable ka, but with an appended vowel i represents the syllable ki).

Letters 31-34 and 39 are vowels. Letters 31-34 follow the traditional order of the corresponding Tibetan vowels. Letter 39 represents a vowel quality that does not occur in Tibetan, and may be derived from the Tibetan double-E vowel sign.

Unlike Tibetan, in which vowels signs may not occur in isolation but must always be attached to a base consonant to form a valid syllable, in the ʼPhags-pa script initial vowels other than a may occur without a base consonant when they are not the first element in a diphthong (e.g. ue) or a digraph (e.g. eeu and eeo). Thus in Chinese ʼPhags-pa texts the syllables u 吾 wú, on 刓 wán and o 訛 é occur, and in Mongolian ʼPhags-pa texts the words ong qo chas "boats", u su nu (gen.) "water", e du -ee "now" and i hee -een "protection" occur. These are all examples of where 'o, 'u, 'e, 'i etc. would be expected if the Tibetan model had been followed exactly. An exception to this rule is the Mongolian word 'er di nis "jewels", where a single vowel sign is attached to a null base consonant. Note that the letter EE is never found in an initial position in any language written in the ʼPhags-pa script (for example, in Tao Zongyi's description of the Old Uighur script, he glosses all instances of Uighur e with the ʼPhags-pa letter EE, except for when it is found in the initial position, when he glosses it with the ʼPhags-pa letter E instead).

However, initial semi-vowels, diphthongs and digraphs must be attached to the null base consonant 'A (Letter 30). So in Chinese ʼPhags-pa texts the syllables 'wen 元 yuán, 'ue 危 wēi and 'eeu 魚 yú occur; and in Mongolian ʼPhags-pa texts the words 'eeu lu "not" and 'eeog bee.e "gave" occur. As there is no sign for the vowel a, which is implicit in an initial base consonant with no attached vowel sign, then words that start with an a vowel must also use the null base consonant letter 'A (e.g. Mongolian 'a mi than "living beings"). In Chinese, and rarely Mongolian, another null base consonant -A (Letter 23) may be found before initial vowels (see "Letter 23" below).

No.	ʼPhags-pa letter	Derivation	Letter Name	Transcription	IPA	Mongolian Examples	Chinese Examples
1	ꡀ	TIBETAN LETTER KA ཀ [U+0F40]	KA	k	/ka/	Only used for words of foreign origin, such as kal bu dun (gen. pl.) from Sanskrit kalpa "aeon" [cf. Mongolian ᠭᠠᠯᠠᠪ galab], with the single exception of the common Mongolian word ye kee "large, great" [cf. Mongolian ᠶᠡᠬᠡ yeke]	kiw 裘 qiú kue 夔 kuí
2	ꡁ	TIBETAN LETTER KHA ཁ [U+0F41]	KHA	kh	/kʰa/	kheen "who" [cf. Mongolian ᠬᠡᠨ ken]	khang 康 kāng kheeu 屈 qū
3	ꡂ	TIBETAN LETTER GA ག [U+0F42]	GA	g	/ɡa/	bi chig "written document, book" [cf. Mongolian ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ bičig]	ging 荊 jīng gu 古 gǔ
4	ꡃ	TIBETAN LETTER NGA ང [U+0F44]	NGA	ng	/ŋa/	deng ri "heaven" [cf. Mongolian ᠲᠡᠩᠷᠢ tengri]	ngiw 牛 niú ngem 嚴 yán ding 丁 dīng
5	ꡄ	TIBETAN LETTER CA ཅ [U+0F45]	CA	c	/tʃa/		cay 柴 chái ci 池 chí
6	ꡅ	TIBETAN LETTER CHA ཆ [U+0F46]	CHA	ch	/tʃʰa/	cha q-an "white" [cf. Mongolian ᠴᠠᠭᠠᠨ čaɣan]	chang 昌 chāng cheeu 褚 chǔ
7	ꡆ	TIBETAN LETTER JA ཇ [U+0F47]	JA	j	/dʒa/	jil "year" [cf. Mongolian ᠵᠢᠯ ǰil]	jim 針 zhēn
8	ꡇ	TIBETAN LETTER NYA ཉ [U+0F49]	NYA	ny	/ɲa/		nyiw 鈕 niǔ
9	ꡈ	TIBETAN LETTER TA ཏ [U+0F4F]	TA	t	/ta/	Mostly used in words of foreign origin, such as 'er ti nis (also 'er di nis) "jewels" [cf. Mongolian ᠡᠷᠳᠡᠨᠢᠰ erdenis] and ta layi "sea, ocean" [cf. Mongolian ᠳᠠᠯᠠᠢ dalai]	ten 田 tián tung 童 tóng
10	ꡉ	TIBETAN LETTER THA ཐ [U+0F50]	THA	th	/tʰa/	thu thum "each, all" [cf. Mongolian ᠲᠤᠲᠤᠮ tutum]	thang 湯 tāng thung 通 tōng
11	ꡊ	TIBETAN LETTER DA ད [U+0F51]	DA	d	/da/	u ri da nu (gen.) "former, previous" [cf. Mongolian ᠤᠷᠢᠳᠠ urida]	dung 東 dōng du 都 dū
12	ꡋ	TIBETAN LETTER NA ན [U+0F53]	NA	n	/na/	ma nu "our" [cf. Mongolian ᠮᠠᠨᠤ manu]	nee 聶 niè nung 農 nóng gon 管 guǎn
13	ꡌ	TIBETAN LETTER PA པ [U+0F54]	PA	p	/pa/	Only used in words of foreign origin, such as pur xan "Buddha" [cf. Mongolian ᠪᠤᠷᠬᠠᠨ burqan]	pang 龐 páng pay 白 bái
14	ꡍ	TIBETAN LETTER PHA ཕ [U+0F55]	PHA	ph	/pʰa/		phon 潘 pān phu 浦 pǔ
15	ꡎ	TIBETAN LETTER BA བ [U+0F56]	BA	b	/ba/	ba sa "then, still, also" [cf. Mongolian ᠪᠠᠰᠠ basa]	ban 班 bān been 邊 biān
16	ꡏ	TIBETAN LETTER MA མ [U+0F58]	MA	m	/ma/	'a mi than "living beings" [cf. Mongolian ᠠᠮᠢᠲᠠᠨ amitan]	min 閔 mǐn mew 苗 miáo gim 金 jīn
17	ꡐ	TIBETAN LETTER TSA ཙ [U+0F59]	TSA	ts	/tsa/		tsaw 曹 cáo tsin 秦 qín
18	ꡑ	TIBETAN LETTER TSHA ཚ [U+0F5A]	TSHA	tsh	/tsʰa/	Only used in words of foreign origin, such as sha tshin "religion"	tshay 蔡 cài tshiw 秋 qiū
19	ꡒ	TIBETAN LETTER DZA ཛ [U+0F5B]	DZA	dz	/dza/		dzam 昝 zǎn dzew 焦 jiāo
20	ꡓ	TIBETAN LETTER WA ཝ [U+0F5D]	WA	w	/wa/	Only used in words of foreign origin, such as wa chi ra ba ni "Vajrapāṇi"	wan 萬 wàn wu 武 wǔ xiw 侯 hóu gaw 高 gāo
21	ꡔ	TIBETAN LETTER ZHA ཞ [U+0F5E]	ZHA	zh	/ʒa/		zheeu 茹 rú zhew 饒 ráo
22	ꡕ	TIBETAN LETTER ZA ཟ [U+0F5F]	ZA	z	/za/	Only found in the single word za ra "month" [cf. Mongolian ᠰᠠᠷᠠ sara]	zin 陳 chén zeeu 徐 xú zi 席 xí
23	ꡖ	TIBETAN LETTER -A འ [U+0F60]	-A	-	/'a/	This letter is found rarely initially, e.g. -ir gee nee (dat./loc.) "people" [cf. Mongolian ᠢᠷᠭᠡᠨ irgen], but frequently medially between vowels where it serves to separate a syllable that starts with a vowel from a preceding syllable that ends in a vowel, e.g. er khee -ud "Christians" and q-an "emperor, khan" [cf. Mongolian ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨᠨ qaɣan] (where q-an is a contraction for the hypothetical qa -an)	-an 安 ān -ing 應 yīng -eeu 郁 yù
24	ꡗ	TIBETAN LETTER YA ཡ [U+0F61]	YA	y	/ja/	na yan "eighty" [cf. Mongolian ᠨᠠᠶᠠᠨ nayan]	yi 伊 yī yang 羊 yáng day 戴 dài hyay 解 xiè
25	ꡘ	TIBETAN LETTER RA ར [U+0F62]	RA	r	/ra/	chee rig "army" [cf. Mongolian ᠴᠡᠷᠢᠭ čerig]
26	ꡙ	TIBETAN LETTER LA ལ [U+0F63]	LA	l	/la/	al ba "tax, tribute" [cf. Mongolian ᠠᠯᠪᠠ alba]	leeu 呂 lǚ lim 林 lín
27	ꡚ	TIBETAN LETTER SHA ཤ [U+0F64]	SHA	sh	/ʃa/	shi nee "new" [cf. Mongolian ᠱᠢᠨᠡ šine]	shi 石 shí shwang 雙 shuāng
28	ꡛ	TIBETAN LETTER SA ས [U+0F66]	SA	s	/sa/	hee chus "end, goal" [cf. Mongolian ᠡᠴᠦᠰ ečüs]	su 蘇 sū syang 相 xiàng
29	ꡜ	TIBETAN LETTER HA ཧ [U+0F67]	HA	h	/ha/	Initially in words that now have null initials, such as har ban "ten" [cf. Mongolian ᠠᠷᠪᠠᠨ arban], and medially only in the single word -i hee -een (or -i h-een) "protector, guardian"	hwa 花 huā sh.hi 史 shǐ l.hing 冷 lěng j.hang 莊 zhuāng
30	ꡝ	TIBETAN LETTER A ཨ [U+0F68]	'A	'	/a/	'eeu lu "not" [cf. Mongolian ᠦᠯᠦ ülü]	'wang 王 wáng 'eeu 虞 yú
31	ꡞ	TIBETAN VOWEL SIGN I ི [U+0F72]	I	i		-i hee -een (or -i h-een) "protection"	li 李 lǐ n.hing 能 néng heei 奚 xī
32	ꡟ	TIBETAN VOWEL SIGN U ུ [U+0F74]	U	u		u su nu (gen.) "water" [cf. Mongolian ᠤᠰᠤᠨ usun]	u 吳 wú mue 梅 méi
33	ꡠ	TIBETAN VOWEL SIGN E ེ [U+0F7A]	E	e		e du -ee "now" [cf. Mongolian ᠡᠳᠦᠭᠡ edüge]	ze 謝 xiè jem 詹 zhān gue 國 guó
34	ꡡ	TIBETAN VOWEL SIGN O ོ [U+0F7C]	O	o		ong qo chas "boats" [cf. Mongolian ᠣᠩᠭᠣᠴᠠᠰ ongɣočas]	no 那 nā mon 滿 mǎn
35	ꡢ	TIBETAN LETTER KHA ཁ [U+0F41]	QA	q		qa muq "all" [cf. Mongolian ᠬᠠᠮᠤᠭ qamuɣ]
36	ꡣ	TIBETAN LETTER KHA [U+0F41] plus TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER WA [U+0FAD] ཁྭ	XA	x		Only used in words of foreign origin, such as pur xan "Buddha" [cf. Mongolian ᠪᠤᠷᠬᠠᠨ burqan]	xu 胡 hú xong 黃 huáng
37	ꡤ	TIBETAN LETTER HA [U+0F67] plus TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER WA [U+0FAD] ཧྭ	FA	f	/fa/		fang 方 fāng fi 費 fèi
38	ꡥ	TIBETAN LETTER GA ག [U+0F42]	GGA
39	ꡦ	TIBETAN VOWEL SIGN EE ཻ [U+0F7B]	EE	ee		el deeb "various" [cf. Mongolian ᠡᠯᠳᠡᠪ eldeb] (Poppe reads this word as eel deeb, as the only example of an initial letter EE)	chee 車 chē seeu 胥 xū geeing 經 jīng
40	ꡧ	TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER WA ྭ [U+0FAD]	SUBJOINED WA	w	/w/		xway 懷 huái jwaw 卓 zhuō gwang 廣 guǎng
41	ꡨ	TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER YA ྱ [U+0FB1]	SUBJOINED YA	y			hya 夏 xià gya 家 jiā dzyang 蔣 jiǎng

Additional letters

No.	ʼPhags-pa letter	Derivation	Letter Name	Transcription	Sanskrit or Tibetan Examples
42	ꡩ	TIBETAN LETTER TTA ཊ [U+0F4A]	TTA	tt	sha tt-a pa ... i ta (Sanskrit ṣaṭ pāramitā) [Ill.3 Line 6]
43	ꡪ	TIBETAN LETTER TTHA ཋ [U+0F4B]	TTHA	tth	pra tish tthi te (Sanskrit pratiṣṭhite) [Ill.3 Line 8] (TTHA plus unreversed I) dhish tthi te (Sanskrit dhiṣṭhite) [Tathāgatahṛdaya-dhāraṇī Line 16] (TTHA plus reversed I) nish tthe (Sanskrit niṣṭhe) [Tathāgatahṛdaya-dhāraṇī Line 10] (TTHA plus reversed E)
44	ꡫ	TIBETAN LETTER DDA ཌ [U+0F4C]	DDA	dd	dann dde (Sanskrit daṇḍaya) [Tathāgatahṛdaya-dhāraṇī Line 14] '-a kad ddha ya (Sanskrit ākaḍḍhaya) [Ill.4 Line 7] (DDA plus reversed HA)
45	ꡬ	TIBETAN LETTER NNA ཎ [U+0F4E]	NNA	nn	sb-a ra nna (Sanskrit spharaṇa) [Ill.3 Line 3] ush nni ... (Sanskrit uṣṇīṣa) [Ill.3 Line 6] (NNA plus reversed I) kshu nnu (Sanskrit kṣuṇu) [Tathāgatahṛdaya-dhāraṇī Line 2] (NNA plus reversed U) ha ra nne (Sanskrit haraṇe) [Ill.4 Line 5] (NNA plus reversed E) pu nn.ya (Sanskrit puṇya) [Tathāgatahṛdaya-dhāraṇī Line 13] (NNA plus reversed subjoined Y)
46	ꡱ	TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER RA ྲ [U+0FB2]	Subjoined RA	r	bh-ru^ (Sanskrit bhrūṁ) [Ill.3 Line 2] mu dre (Sanskrit mudre) [Ill.3 Line 9] ba dzra (Sanskrit vajra) [Ill.3 Line 9] bkra shis (Tibetan bkra-shis "prosperity, good fortune") [Ill.5]
47	ꡲ	TIBETAN LETTER RA ར [U+0F62]	Superfixed RA		sangs rgyas (Tibetan sangs-rgyas "Buddha") [Ill.6]
48	ꡳ	TIBETAN SIGN SNA LDAN ྃ [U+0F83] DEVANAGARI SIGN CANDRABINDU [U+0901]	Candrabindu	^	o^ bh-ru^ bh-ru^ (Sanskrit oṁ bhrūṁ bhrūṁ) [Ill.3 Line 2] sa^ ha ... (Sanskrit saṁhatana) [Ill.3 Line 9]

Menggu Ziyun

Following are the initials of the 'Phags-pa script as presented in Menggu Ziyun. They are ordered according to the Chinese philological tradition of the 36 initials.

36 initials in 蒙古字韵 Menggu Ziyun

No.	Name	Phonetic value	'Phags-pa letter	'Phags-pa Initial	Notes
1	見 jiàn	*[k]	ꡂ	g-
2	溪 qī	*[kʰ]	ꡁ	kh-
3	群 qún	*[ɡ]	ꡀ	k-
4	疑 yí	*[ŋ]	ꡃ	ng-
5	端 duān	*[t]	ꡊ	d-
6	透 tòu	*[tʰ]	ꡉ	th-
7	定 dìng	*[d]	ꡈ	t-
8	泥 ní	*[n]	ꡋ	n-
9	知 zhī	*[ʈ]	ꡆ	j-
10	徹 chè	*[ʈʰ]	ꡅ	ch-
11	澄 chéng	*[ɖ]	ꡄ	c-
12	娘 niáng	*[ɳ]	ꡇ	ny-
13	幫 bāng	*[p]	ꡎ	b-
14	滂 pāng	*[pʰ]	ꡍ	ph-
15	並 bìng	*[b]	ꡌ	p-
16	明 míng	*[m]	ꡏ	m-
17	非 fēi	*[p̪]	ꡤ	f-	Normal form of the letter fa
18	敷 fū	*[p̪ʰ]	ꡰ	f¹-	Variant form of the letter fa
19	奉 fèng	*[b̪]	ꡤ	f-	Normal form of the letter fa
20	微 wēi	*[ɱ]	ꡓ	w-	Letter wa represents [v
21	精 jīng	*[ts]	ꡒ	dz-
22	清 qīng	*[tsʰ]	ꡑ	tsh-
23	從 cóng	*[dz]	ꡐ	ts-
24	心 xīn	*[s]	ꡛ	s-
25	邪 xié	*[z]	ꡕ	z-
26	照 zhào	*[tɕ]	ꡆ	j-
27	穿 chuān	*[tɕʰ]	ꡅ	ch-
28	床 chuáng	*[dʑ]	ꡄ	c-
29	審 shěn	*[ɕ]	ꡮ	sh¹-	Variant form of the letter sha
30	禪 chán	*[ʑ]	ꡚ	sh-	Normal form of the letter sha
31	曉 xiǎo	*[x]	ꡜ	h-	Normal form of the letter ha
32	匣 xiá	*[ɣ]	ꡣ	x-
			ꡯ	h¹-	Variant form of the letter ha
33	影 yǐng	*[ʔ]	ꡖ	ʼ-	glottal stop
			ꡗ	y-	Normal form of the letter ya
34	喻 yù	*[j]	ꡝ	-	null initial
			ꡭ	y¹-	Variant form of the letter ya
35	來 lái	*[l]	ꡙ	l-
36	日 rì	*[ɲ]	ꡔ	zh-

Shilin Guangji

The Shilin Guangji used Phagspa to annotate Chinese text, serving as a precursor to modern pinyin. The following are the Phagspa transcriptions of a section of the Hundred Family Surnames in the Shilin Guangji. For example, the name Jin (金), meaning gold, is written as ꡂꡞꡏ gim, similar to how it is transliterated in Korean (김 gim, usually spelled as "Kim" in English according to the McCune–Reischauer style of romanization).

Hundred Family Surnames
百家姓蒙古文
Bǎi Jiā Xìng Měng Gǔ Wén
ꡎꡗ ꡂꡨ ꡛꡞꡃ ꡏꡟꡃ ꡂꡟ ꡓꡟꡋ
Bay Gya Sing Mung Gu Wun

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
'Phags-pa Spelling	ꡄꡠꡓ cew	ꡒꡠꡋ dzen	ꡛꡟꡋ sun	ꡙꡞ li	ꡆꡞꡓ jiw	ꡟ u	ꡄꡞꡃ cing	ꡝꡧꡃ 'wang	ꡤꡟꡃ fung	ꡄꡞꡋ cin
Chinese Character	趙 zhào	錢 qián	孫 sūn	李 lǐ	周 zhōu	吳 wú	鄭 zhèng	王 wáng	馮 féng	陳 chén

Unicode

Main article: Phags-pa (Unicode block)

ʼPhags-pa script was added to the Unicode Standard in July 2006 with the release of version 5.0.

The Unicode block for ʼPhags-pa is U+A840–U+A877:

Phags-pa[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+A84x

ꡀ

ꡁ

ꡂ

ꡃ

ꡄ

ꡅ

ꡆ

ꡇ

ꡈ

ꡉ

ꡊ

ꡋ

ꡌ

ꡍ

ꡎ

ꡏ

U+A85x

ꡐ

ꡑ

ꡒ

ꡓ

ꡔ

ꡕ

ꡖ

ꡗ

ꡘ

ꡙ

ꡚ

ꡛ

ꡜ

ꡝ

ꡞ

ꡟ

U+A86x

ꡠ

ꡡ

ꡢ

ꡣ

ꡤ

ꡥ

ꡦ

ꡧ

ꡨ

ꡩ

ꡪ

ꡫ

ꡬ

ꡭ

ꡮ

ꡯ

U+A87x

ꡰ

ꡱ

ꡲ

ꡳ

꡴

꡵

꡶

꡷

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.1 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

U+A856 ꡖ PHAGS-PA LETTER SMALL A is transliterated using U+A78F ꞏ LATIN LETTER SINOLOGICAL DOT from the Latin Extended-D Unicode block.

See also

• Brahmic scripts
• Mongolian alphabets
• Origin of hangul
• Mongol elements in Western medieval art
• Menggu Ziyun (Yuan dynasty ʼPhags-pa—Chinese rhyming dictionary)
• Shilin Guangji
• Siddhaṃ script

Further reading

• Coblin, W. South (2006). A Handbook of ʼPhags-pa Chinese. ABC Dictionary Series. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-3000-7. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
• Denlinger, Paul. B. (1963). Chinese in Hp'ags-pa Script. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
• Everding, Karl-Heinz (2006). Herrscherurkunden aus der Zeit des mongolischen Großreiches für tibetische Adelshäuser, Geistliche und Klöster. Teil 1: Diplomata Mongolica. Mittelmongolische Urkunden in ʼPhags-pa-Schrift. Eidtion, Übersetzung, Analyse. Halle: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies. ISBN 978-3-88280-074-6.
• Poppe, Nicholas (1957). The Mongolian Monuments in hP´ags-pa Script (Second ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Sampson, Geoffrey (1985). Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction. Great Britain: Anchor Brenton Ltd. ISBN 978-0-09-156980-8.
• Schuh, Dieter (1981). Grundlagen tibetischer Siegelkunde. Eine Untersuchung über tibetische Siegelaufschriften in ʼPhags-pa-Schrift. Sankt Augustin: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag. ISBN 978-3-88280-011-1.

External links

• BabelStone: ʼPhags-pa Script (with free fonts)
• Omniglot: ʼPhags-pa script
• Ancientscripts: hPhags-pa
• Mongolian characters after Kublai Khan