Clear Script Oirat alphabet |
|
---|---|
Type | |
Languages |
Oirat Sanskrit Tibetic |
Creator | Zaya Pandita |
Time period
|
ca. 1648 – today |
Parent systems
|
|
Sister systems
|
Manchu alphabet Vagindra script |
Direction | Top-to-bottom |
ISO 15924 | Mong, 145 |
Unicode alias
|
Mongolian |
U+1800 – U+18AF | |
Clear Script (Oirat: ᡐᡆᡑᡆ
ᡋᡅᡔᡅᡎ, Тодо бичиг; Mongolian: Тод бичиг, ᠲᠣᠳᠣ
ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ᠌ tod biçig, or just todo) is an alphabet created in 1648 by the Oirat Buddhist monk Zaya Pandita for the Oirat language. It was developed on the basis of the Mongolian script with the goal of distinguishing all sounds in the spoken language, and to make it easier to transcribe Sanskrit and the Tibetic languages.
Clear Script is a Mongolian script, whose obvious closest forebear is vertical Mongolian. This Mongolian script was derived from the Old Uyghur alphabet, which itself was descendent from the Aramaic alphabet. Aramaic is an abjad, an alphabet that has no symbols for vowels, and Clear Script is the first in this line of descendants to develop a full system of symbols for all the vowel sounds.