'Phags-pa script
U A840 - U A877
The Phagpa font, also Phagspa font, is an abugida. It was invented Gyeltshen during the Yuan Dynasty of Chögyel Phagpa Lodrö and representing all languages of the Mongol Empire. She fell after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty mostly into disuse, but is used in a modified form in Tibet today.
History
In 1260 the ruler of the Mongol Empire Kublai Khan commissioned ( 1215-1294 ) Tibetan clergy Chögyel Phagpa Lodrö Gyeltshen with the drafting of a new font. You should replace the Mongolian script and not only the Mongolian, but also the other languages of the Mongol Empire represent: the Chinese, Tibetan and Uygur. This created in 1269 syllabary ( abugida ) is ( ᠳ ᠥ ᠷ ᠪ ᠥ ᠯ ᠵ ᠢ ᠨ ᠪ ᠢ ᠴ ᠢ ᠭ ᠌ / дөрвөлжин бичиг ) named after its inventor " Phagpa font " or according to their shape " square script ". Although it was based on the Tibetan script, but was written on the model of Mongolian script from top to bottom.
Although the ruler among other things, education in the new font has been initiated, they could hardly prevail in the population. Their use has been mainly limited to official documents, most people continued to use their native script. After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368, the font was removed from the official use.
However, the Phagpa font never completely disappeared. It is in Tibet continues to be used as a seal script, for inscriptions on the walls of Tibetan monasteries and for inscriptions on coins.
Typefaces
It can be assigned three different typefaces from the font Phagpa.
The default font is primarily used in printed works such as manuscripts. It is characterized by a relatively round shapes. Next to her, there was also the seal script. It is completely square as opposed to the standard font and typeface is much more like a maze. It was mainly used on official seals.
The common use today in Tibet font style has evolved from the seal script, but is generally used as the default font for both seals as well as printed works.
Corpus
Since the Phagpa font was not accepted by the population, the existing corpus restricted from the time of the Yuan Dynasty mostly on official documents.
Most of the texts in Phagpa font are written in Chinese, with most of the text was biskriptal written in Chinese characters and in Phagpa font. This is mostly to imperial edicts, banknotes, coins and seals. Among the most important works in Phagpa font counts including the蒙古 字 韵Menggu Ziyun, a rhyming dictionary for 9,000 Chinese characters, which is used as the romanization Phagpa font. Also for the Mongolian texts can be in Phagpa font find where is predominantly here again to official documents. Phagpa texts in Tibetan or Uighur from the time of the Yuan Dynasty, however, are extremely rare.
Principle of operation
As in the Tibetan script is in the Phagpa font to a so-called Abugida. This means that all consonants have an inherent vowel a. This can be changed by vowel signs that are written always after the corresponding consonants. The vowel signs except a have different forms depending on whether they are at the beginning or follow a consonant.
The Phagpa script is written as the Mongolian script from top to bottom in columns from left to right. The characters are combined as in the Mongolian script together. The signs of Phagpa font are combined to form words that are separated by a space.
Understanding character inventory
The basic character inventory, consisting of 41 characters is described in contemporary works such as书 史 会 要Shushi Huiyao. These consist of 34 consonants, five vowels and two characters for consonants that occur in the middle of a syllable. The following table shows the inherent vowel a is omitted, which is normally present in all consonants.
At this table, a few comments:
- The letters ꡖ - and ꡝ ' do not have a debate, and are used depending on the language for different purposes. In Mongolian, the letters are used as a kind of vocal support, as both characters can wear all the vowels ( the ꡝ ' also still the inherent vowel a). In Tibetan and Sanskrit inscriptions, the ꡖ - used to mark a long vowel, the ꡝ ' as used in Mongolia. In Chinese inscriptions the two letters from etymological reasons are written at the beginning of a syllable.
- The letter ꡥ gg Although listed in the contemporary character lists, but there are no preserved inscription that uses this character. From the positioning of the character in the alphabet can be concluded that this sign represents sound that was not mentioned in the Tibetan one. A thesis states that this is the glottal stop that occurs in the Persian language and is represented by the character ع. Since there are no preserved inscriptions in Persian which in Phagpa script is written, can this thesis neither prove nor disprove.
Additional sign
The Phagpa font knows some additional characters. Although these are not listed in the contemporary character lists, but are used in inscriptions, such as the Sanskrit inscription on the Great Wall. You will be required to represent the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts faithfully.
- The Cerebral from the Sanskrit t, th, d, and n are as made in Tibetan by the corresponding dental consonants are mirrored. This, however, is also the connection line on the other side, which means that subsequent vowels or consonant ꡜ h must be mirrored, so they also have the connection line on the other side. ( The ꡡ o is not mirrored, as it is axially symmetric. ) The cerebral s, which also occurs in Sanskrit and was also taken to the Tibetan script is not documented in the Phagpa font. This may be because the mirrored consonant ꡚ sh looks exactly like the ꡖ -.
- The two consonants r correspond to the untergesetztem and the übergesetztem r from the Tibetan script, and used accordingly.
- The Chandrabindu equivalent in Sanskrit both the local and the Chandrabindu Anusvara. It represents both the nasalization of a vowel and a nasal consonant dar. Unlike all other Phagpa character is always written at the beginning of a syllable.
Punctuation mark
At the time of the Yuan Dynasty punctuation marks were rarely used. If they were used, they were usually taken from the Mongolian or Chinese writing.
However, own punctuation were designed in Tibet, which correspond to the Tibetan punctuation. The two characters ꡶ and ꡷ correspond to the Tibetan shad and are used accordingly: the first character is used to end a sentence, the second character is used to complete a section or verse. The characters ꡴ and ꡵ are the Tibetan yig mgo ajar and used as head characters at the beginning of a text.
Relationship to Hangeul
The U.S. Koreanologe Gari Keith Ledyard developed the thesis that the Hangul basic symbols are derived from the Phagpa font.
Unicode
The Phagpa font is from Unicode 5.0 in the code points U A840 to U A877 encoding (see Unicode block Phagspa ).