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Mongolian Script: Written Top to Bottom

· 2 min read

Most of the world's scripts run horizontally — either left to right or right to left. A handful run vertically from top to bottom. Among those, the traditional Mongolian script is unique: it runs top to bottom in columns that progress from left to right — the opposite direction from Chinese and Japanese vertical text. This unusual orientation is one of the most visually distinctive features of any writing system in regular modern use.

Origins in the Uyghur Script

The Mongolian script was adapted from the Uyghur script in the early 13th century, during or shortly before the rise of Genghis Khan. The Uyghur script itself descended from Sogdian, a Middle Iranian language's script that in turn came from the Aramaic branch of the Phoenician family. When the Uyghur scribes wrote their script, it ran right to left horizontally; when the Mongols adopted it, they rotated the orientation 90 degrees counterclockwise — producing a top-to-bottom script.

The traditional Mongolian script has been used in Inner Mongolia (China) continuously since the 13th century and is experiencing a strong revival in Mongolia itself.

Soviet Interruption

In the 1940s, Soviet-aligned Mongolia replaced traditional Mongolian script with a Cyrillic alphabet under Soviet pressure. For decades, traditional script was associated with reactionary nationalism. After 1990 Mongolia became democratic and independent, and efforts began to revive traditional writing. A 2025 law mandated the return of traditional Mongolian script in official government documents — the culmination of a decades-long cultural rehabilitation.

Orthographic Challenges

Traditional Mongolian script presents interesting challenges for digitization. Unlike most scripts, text flows in narrow vertical columns, which requires specific Unicode layout properties and font support. The script also has an unusual feature: many letters have different forms depending on whether they appear in the front or back vowel harmonically — reflecting the deep vowel harmony of the Mongolian language.

View the Mongolian script page in the scripts index and compare it with other vertical scripts using the comparison tool.

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