Tata-tonga

Tata-tonga (Mongolian: Тататунга, Mongolian script: ᠲᠠᠲᠠᠲᠤᠩᠭ᠎ᠠ, Tatatungү‑a; Uighur: تاتاتوڭا; Chinese: 塔塔统阿; pinyin: Tǎtǎ-tǒng'ā) was a Uyghur man involved in bringing and adapting the Old Uyghur alphabet to the Mongolian Plateau in the form of the Mongolian script (Mongol bichig or hudum bichig).^[1] He was captured by Genghis Khan in the 13th century and soon taught the Old Uyghur alphabet to members of the court and adapted it to Khalkha Mongolian,^{[citation needed]} although Genghis Khan himself never learned it.

The Uyghur script was used until 1946, when Cyrillic script was introduced to replace it. It is still used mainly in Inner Mongolia, China. In present-day Mongolia, Cyrillic is the official script for the Mongolian language and the traditional script is referred to as the Old Mongol script (Mongolian: Хуучин монгол бичиг). Today, an estimated six million Mongol people in China can still read the traditional Mongolian script.

The Manchu alphabet was derived since the very end of the 16th century from this Mongolian script.

References[]

^ Christian, David (1998). A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire. Wiley. p. 398. ISBN 978-0-631-20814-3.

Sources[]

de Hartog, Leo "Genghis Khan, Conqueror of the World"

[1] Christian, David (1998). A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire. Wiley. p. 398. ISBN 978-0-631-20814-3.

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