Galik alphabet
The Galik script (Mongolian: Али-гали үсэг, Ali-Gali üseg) is an extension to the traditional Mongolian script. It was created in 1587 by the translator and scholar Ayuush Güüsh (Mongolian: Аюуш гүүш), inspired by the third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso. He added extra characters for transcribing Tibetan and Sanskrit terms when translating religious texts, and later also from Chinese. Some of those characters are still in use today for writing foreign names.[1]
Galik Ali Gali | |
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Script type | |
Creator | Ayuush Güüsh |
Time period | 16th century |
Languages | Mongolian, Tibetan, Sanskrit |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems | Clear script Vagindra script |

Some authors (particularly historic ones like Isaac Taylor in his The Alphabet: an account of the origin and development of letters, 1883) don't distinguish between the Galik and standard Mongolian alphabets.
To ensure that most text in the script displays correctly in your browser, the text sample below should resemble its image counterpart. Additional notes on the affected characters and their desired components are provided in the tables further down. For relevant terminology, see Mongolian script § Components.
Reference image | Browser-rendered text | Romanization |
---|---|---|
![]() | ᠾᠠ᠋ᠠ | hā |
Letters
Vowels[2]: 241–243 [3]: 26–28 [4]: 233 [1]: 37 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Mongolian | Romanization | Devanagari | Tibetan |
ᠠ᠋ | a | अ | ཨ |
ᠠ᠋ᠠ[note 1] | ā | आ / ा | ཨཱ |
ᠢ | i | इ / ि | ཨི |
ᠢᠢ | ī | ई / ी | ཨཱི |
ᠦ᠋ | u | उ / ु | ཨུ |
ᠤᠦ | ū | ऊ / ू | ཨཱུ |
ᠷᠢ | ṛ | ऋ / ृ | རྀ |
ᠷᠢᠢ | ṝ | ॠ / ॄ | རཱྀ |
ᠯᠢ | ḷ | ऌ / ॢ | ལྀ |
ᠯᠢᠢ | ḹ | ॡ / ॣ | ལཱྀ |
ᠧ | e | ए / े | ཨེ |
ᠧᠧ | ai | ऐ / ै | ཨཻ |
ᠣᠸᠠ | o | ओ / ो | ཨོ |
ᠣᠸᠸᠠ[note 2] | au | औ / ौ | ཨཽ |
ᢀ᠋ᠠ᠋ | am / aṃ | अं | ཨ / ཨཾ |
ᠠ᠋ᢁ | aẖ / aḥ | अः | ཨ / ཨཿ |
Consonants[2]: 244–255 [3]: 26–28 [4]: 234–239 [1]: 37 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Mongolian[note 3] | Romanization | Devanagari | Tibetan |
ᢉᠠ | ka | क | ཀ |
ᠻᠠ | kha | ख | ཁ |
ᠺᠠ | ga | ग | ག |
ᠺᠾᠠ᠋ | gha | घ | གྷ |
ᢊᢇ | ṅa | ङ | ང |
ᢋᠠ᠋ | ca | च | ཅ / ཙ |
ᠼᠠ᠋ | cha | छ | ཆ / ཚ |
ᢖᠠ᠋ / ᠽᠠ᠋ | ja | ज | ཇ / ཛ |
ᢖᠾᠠ᠋ / ᠽᠾᠠ᠋ | jha | झ | ཇྷ / ཛྷ |
ᡛᠠ᠋ | ña | ञ | ཉ |
ᢌᠠ᠋ | ṭa | ट | ཊ |
ᢍᠠ᠋ | ṭha | ठ | ཋ |
ᢎᠠ᠋ | ḍa | ड | ཌ |
ᢎᠾᠠ᠋ | ḍha | ढ | ཌྷ |
ᢏᠠ᠋ | ṇa | ण | ཎ |
ᢐᠠ᠋ | ta | त | ཏ |
ᠲᠠ᠋ / ᡐᠠ᠋ | tha | थ | ཐ |
ᢑᠠ᠋ / ᡑᠠ᠋ | da | द | ད |
ᢑᠾᠠ᠋ / ᡑᠾᠠ᠋ | dha | ध | དྷ |
ᠨᠠ᠋ | na | न | ན |
ᢒᠠ | pa | प | པ |
ᠹᠠ | pha | फ | ཕ |
ᠪᠠ | ba | ब | བ |
ᠪᠾᠠ᠋ | bha | भ | བྷ |
ᠮᠠ᠋ | ma | म | མ |
ᠶ᠋ᠠ᠋ | ya | य | ཡ |
ᠷᠠ᠋ | ra | र | ར |
ᠯᠠ᠋ | la | ल | ལ |
ᠸᠠ᠋ | va | व | ཝ |
ᢕᠠ᠋ | zha | [...] | ཞ |
ᠱᠠ᠋ | śa | श | ཤ |
ᢔᠠ᠋ | ṣa | ष | ཥ |
ᠰᠠ᠋ | sa | स | ས |
ᠾᠠ᠋ | ha | ह | ཧ |
ᢖᠠ᠋ | za | [...] | ཟ |
ᢗᠠ᠋ | 'a | [...] | འ |
ᢉᢔᠠ᠋ | kṣa | क्ष | ཀྵ |
Symbols & diacritics
Form(s) | Name | Examples | |
---|---|---|---|
Mongolian | Tibetan equivalent | ||
ᢀ | Anusvara One | ᢀᠠ᠋ | ཨྃ |
ᢀ᠋ | |||
ᢁ | Visarga One | ᠠ᠋ᢁ | ཨཿ |
ᢁ᠋ | |||
ᢂ | Damaru | ᢂᠻᠠ | ྈྑ |
ᢃ | Ubadama | ᢃᠹᠠ | ྌྥ |
ᢄ | ᢄᠹᠠ | ྉྥ | |
ᢅ | Baluda | ᢉᢅᠣᠸᠸᠠ[note 4] | ཀཽ྅ |
ᢆ | Three Baluda | ᢉᢆᠣᠸᠸᠠ[note 5] | ཀཽ྅྅྅ |
Notes
- For correct rendering, this should appear as a short tooth (ᠡ) + one connected, and one separated left-pointing tail (both
).
- For correct rendering, this should appear as a short tooth (ᠡ) + loop (ᠤ) + two long teeth with downturns (ᠧ) + a final with right-pointing tail (ᠡ).
- For correct rendering, all these final a's should appear as connected and left-pointing tails (
). A's directly preceded by any of the bow-shaped letters k, kh, g, p, ph, and b should also include a tooth in between.
- For correct rendering, this should appear as a right-side diacritic.
- For correct rendering, this should appear as a right-side diacritic.
References
- Chuluunbaatar, Otgonbayar (2008). Einführung in die mongolischen Schriften (in German). Buske. ISBN 978-3-87548-500-4.
- "BabelStone : Mongolian and Manchu Resources". babelstone.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-16.
- Poppe, Nicholas (1974). Grammar of Written Mongolian. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-00684-2.
- Shagdarsürüng, Tseveliin (2001). "Study of Mongolian Scripts (Graphic Study or Grammatology). Enl". Bibliotheca Mongolica: Monograph 1.