Soyombo
Script details
See all script details: code, region, status and more
| Code | Soyo |
| Script type | abugida |
| Region | Indic |
| Status | Current |
| Direction | LTR |
| Baseline | hanging |
| Case | unknown |
| White space | unspecified |
| Complex behaviors | diacritics, complex positioning, required ligatures |
| OpenType code | soyo |
| ISO 15924 Numeric Code / Key | 329 (alphasyllabic) |
Script description
The Soyombo script was developed by the Mongolian monk and scholar Bogdo Zanabazar in 1686 to write Mongolian.
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According to legend, Zanabazar based the script on letter-like signs he saw in the sky one night. Other theories suggest that the shapes of the letters may have been based on the Ranjana script of Nepal.
The Mongolian language had been written for centuries before the creation of Soyombo, using the Mongolian script, but Zanabazar was the first to write it horizontally.
Soyombo can also be used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit.
Languages that use this script
| Language | Writing System Code | Writing System Status | SLDR/CLDR locale | Regional variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classical Mongolian | cmg-Soyo | in use | cmg-Soyo-MN (Mongolia) | |
| Sanskrit | sa-Soyo | in use | sa-Soyo-IN | |
| Tibetan, Central | bo-Soyo | in use | bo-Soyo-CN |
Unicode status
In The Unicode Standard, Soyombo script implementation is discussed in Chapter 14: South and Central Asia-III — Ancient Scripts
.
Resources
- ScriptSource page for Soyombo - all about scripts, languages, and writing systems
- Wikipedia article on Soyombo