Re: Mongolian script ?s

Sharon Correll recently said:

> (1) Some consonants followed by "a" or "e" have an alternate final form,
> which (from what I understand) is indicated in Unicode by a variation
> selector character in the data.

I presume you are talking about when a and e are separated from the rest of
the word by a word internal space. (The a and e then look like a long arc.)
Unicode uses Mongolian Vowel Separator when the a or e is part of the root
of the word, and Narrow No Break Space when the a or e is added as the
dative ending. The preceding consonant can different forms in these
circumstances, e.g. n and g have no dots with the dative ending. Words can
end with a or e without a word internal space as well.

> Do these forms appear in words of one
> syllable, for instance in "ra" or "ne" (assuming such words exist), or only
> in longer words like "nara"?

Most seem to be multisyllable words, but there is a form of aa! like that.

> (2) I'm realizing that until yesterday I was assuming that Mongolian
> syllables always showed up in a nice CV pattern, with maybe a spare initial
> vowel or final consonant. I guess this was because of the chart I've been
> working from.

Chinese origin charts seem to favour CV combinations. Also the round
consonants form ligatures with the following vowel, so a CV chart is an easy
way to show that.

> Now I'm suspecting that may not be the case. If you have a
> series of consonants, are "a" forms used for all but the last? (ie, "bgmno"
> would be written the same as "bagamano"?)

No, the consonants are just written one after the other, although some
change shape, n being a common example (it loses its dot).

> Similarly, can you have sequences of vowels?

Yes for dipthongs. I can follow other vowels. (I is neuter so it can be in
both masculine and feminine words.) Did you notice that the q g shape split
is by gender depending on the following vowel being masculine or feminine / neuter?

> (3) My chart did not include the Uncode characters LHA, ZHI, and CHI. Is
> there something special about them?

I don't have any examples, but I suspect they are used for foreign sounds.
(Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese being the best candidates.)

Tim

--
Tim Partridge. Any opinions expressed are mine only and not those of my employer