Phagspa script 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 Phagspa script
Child systems	Zanabazar's square, Hangul?
Sister systems	Lepcha, Meitei, Khema, Marchen
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Phag (331), ​Phags-pa
Unicode
Unicode alias	Phags-pa
Unicode range	U+A840–U+A87F
The theorised Semitic origins of the Brahmi script are not universally agreed upon.

The Phagspa script or ʼPhags-pa script^[1] is an alphabet designed by the Tibetan monk and State Preceptor (later Imperial Preceptor) Drogön Chögyal Phagpa for Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty, 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.^[2][3]

It was used to write and transcribe varieties of Chinese, the Tibetic languages, Mongolian, the Uyghur language, Sanskrit, probably Persian,^[4][5][6][7] and other neighboring languages during the Yuan era. For historical linguists, the documentation of its use provides clues about the changes in these languages.

Its descendant systems include Horizontal square script, used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit. There is a theory that the Korean Hangul alphabet had a limited influence from ʼPhags-pa (see Origin of Hangul). During the Pax Mongolica the script has even made numerous appearances in western medieval art.^[8]

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.^[9]

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^[5] to encompass Mongol and Chinese, evidently Central Plains Mandarin.^[10] 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.^[5] It is unique among Brahmic scripts in that it is written from top to bottom,^[5] 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,^[11] 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.^[5]

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.^[5]

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.^[12]

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

Unicode

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:

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.^[14]

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

References

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Phagspa script.

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