SC2/WG2 N2622
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2PROPOSAL SUMMARY FORM TO ACCOMPANY SUBMISSIONSFOR ADDITIONS TO THE REPERTOIRE OF ISO/IEC 10646
Please fill all the sections A, B and C below.
(Please read Principles and Procedures Document for guidelines and details before filling this form.)
See http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/summaryform.html for latest Form.
See http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/principles.html for latest Principles and Procedures document.
See http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/roadmaps.html for latest roadmaps.
(Form number: N2352-F (Original 1994-10-14; Revised 1995-01, 1995-04, 1996-04, 1996-08, 1999-03, 2001-05, 2001-09)

A. Administrative

1. Title:

Proposal to encode the Phags-pa script____________________________

2. Requester's name: Andrew C. West__________________________________________
3. Requester type:
Individual contribution_________________________________
4. Submission date: 18th September 2003_____________________________________
5. Requester's reference (if applicable): ___________________________________
6. (Choose one of the following:)
This is a complete proposal:
Complete Proposal
or, More information will be provided later:_______________
B. Technical - General

1. (Choose one of the following:)
a. This proposal is for a new script (set of characters):
Yes__________
Proposed name of script: PHAGS-PA_________________________________________
b. The proposal is for addition of character(s) to an existing block: _____Name of the existing block: ______________________________________________
2. Number of characters in proposal:
52____________
3. Proposed category (see section II, Character Categories):
C_____________
4. Proposed Level of Implementation (1, 2 or 3)(see clause 14, ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000):
2_____________Is a rationale provided for the choice?
No____________
If Yes, reference: _______________________________________________________
5. Is a repertoire including character names provided?
Yes___________
a. If YES, are the names in accordance with the'character naming guidelines in Annex L of ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000? Yes____b. Are the character shapes attached in a legible form suitable for review?
Yes___
6. Who will provide the appropriate computerized font (ordered preference:
True Type, or PostScript format) for publishing the standard?
Andrew C. West____________________________________________________________
If available now, identify source(s) for the font (include address,e-mail, ftp-site, etc.) and indicate the tools used:
http://uk.geocities.com/BabelStone1357/hPhags-pa/PHAGS-PA.zip_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. References:a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive
texts etc.) provided?
Yes___________
b. Are published examples of use (such as samples from newspapers,
magazines, or other sources) of proposed characters attached? Yes_______
8. Special encoding issues:
Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing(if applicable) such as input, presentation, sorting, searching, indexing,
transliteration etc. (if yes please enclose information)?
Yes______________________________________________________________________

9. Additional Information:
Submitters are invited to provide any additional information about Propertiesof the proposed Character(s) or Script that will assist in correctunderstanding of and correct linguistic processing of the proposed character(s)or script. Examples of such properties are: Casing information, Numeric
information, Currency information, Display behaviour information such as line
breaks, widths etc., Combining behaviour, Spacing behaviour, Directional
behaviour, Default Collation behaviour, relevance in Mark Up contexts,
Compatibility equivalence and other Unicode normalization related information.
See the Unicode standard at http://www.unicode.org for such information onother scripts. Also see Unicode Character Database
http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/UnicodeCharacterDatabase.html andassociated Unicode Technical Reports for information needed for considerationby the Unicode Technical Committee for inclusion in the Unicode Standard.
C. Technical - Justification

1. Has this proposal for addition of character(s) been submitted before? No__If YES explain ___________________________________________________________
2. Has contact been made to members of the user community (for example:
National Body, user groups of the script or characters,other experts, etc.)?
Yes___________
If YES, with whom? Academic community and Unicode community_______________
If YES, available relevant documents: __________________________________
3. Information on the user community for the proposed characters(for example: size, demographics, information technology use, or
publishing use) is included?
Mostly scholarly
Reference: ______________________________________________________________
4. The context of use for the proposed characters (type of use;common or rare)
Academic______
Reference: ______________________________________________________________
5. Are the proposed characters in current use by the user community? Yes_____
If YES, where? Reference: Academic journals and monographs_______________
6. After giving due considerations to the principles in Principles andProcedures document (a WG 2 standing document) must the proposedcharacters be entirely in the BMP?
No, but roadmapped to AB80-ABDF__
If YES, is a rationale provided?
______________
If YES, reference: Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 Roadmaps____________________
7. Should the proposed characters be kept together in a contiguous range(rather than being scattered)?
Yes___________
8. Can any of the proposed characters be considered a presentation form of an
existing character or character sequence?
No____________
If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
______________
If YES, reference: ______________________________________________________
9. Can any of the proposed characters be encoded using a composed character
sequence of either existing characters or other proposed characters? No___If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
______________
If YES, reference: ______________________________________________________
10. Can any of the proposed character(s) be considered to be similar (inappearance or function) to an existing character?
Yes___________
If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
No____________(Phags-pa is derived from Tibetan, and so some characters are similar)
If YES, reference: ______________________________________________________
11. Does the proposal include use of combining characters and/or use ofcomposite sequences (see clauses 4.12 and 4.14
in ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000)?
No___________
If YES, is a rationale for such use provided?
______________
If YES, reference: _____________________________________________________Is a list of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images(graphic symbols) provided?
______________
If YES, reference: ______________________________________________________
12. Does the proposal contain characters with any special properties such as
control function or similar semantics?
No____________

If YES, describe in detail (include attachment if necessary) _____________
13. Does the proposal contain any Ideographic compatibility character(s)? No_
If YES, is the equivalent corresponding unified ideographic character(s)identified?
____________
If YES, reference: ______________________________________________________ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
1. ABOUT THE PHAGS-PA SCRIPT

The Phags-pa script (known as
in modern Chinese) is derived from the Tibetan script, but
unlike other Brahmic scripts it is written in vertical columns from left to right, after the manner of the Mongolian
script. The script was devised by the Tibetan 'Phags-pa Lama

(1239-1280) at the behest of

Kublai Khan in 1260, and promulgated as the official script of the Mongolian empire in 1269.
The script was intended to represent the various languages spoken throughout the Mongolian empire, including
Mongolian, Chinese, Tibetan and Uighur. The vast majority of the extant Phags-pa inscriptions and texts datingfrom the 13th and 14th centuries are in Chinese or Mongolian. These include monumental inscriptions, printed
texts, manuscript documents, banknotes, coins and seals.
After the collapse of the Mongolian Yuan dynasty in 1368, the Phags-pa script fell out of use amongst the Chineseand Mongolians. However, a distinct Tibetan style of the Phags-pa script has continued in use amongst the
Tibetans to a limited extent up to the present day. Although the Tibetan style of the Phags-pa script is not normallyused for writing extensive texts, it is still used as a decorative script for engraving seals, inscribing architectural
inscriptions, and so on. Tibetan script primers such as the one shown in Example 4 are not uncommon.
Note that the script is more commonly known as 'Phags-pa,
or hPhags-pa in academic literature, but
as the initial letter is silent (representing TIBETAN LETTER -A) and the apostrophe is disallowed by the naming
guidelines in Annex L of ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000, it is proposed to use the name Phags-pa for both the script andfor the script element of the character names.

2. SCRIPT REPERTOIRE
The Phags-pa script seems to have originally comprised forty-one letters. This is the number of Phags-pa letters
said to have been devised by the 'Phags-pa Lama in his biography in the History of the Yuan Dynasty (compiled1369-1370). Although the History of the Yuan Dynasty does not enumerate these forty-one letters, two other(a work on calligraphy composed by the Yuan dynasty Uighur official
contemporaneous works, Fashu Kao

Sheng Ximing, first published in 1334) and Shushi Huiyao

the late Yuan / early Ming author Tao Zongyi(see Illustration 1).

(a work on the history of calligraphy by, first published in 1376) do list the forty-one Phags-pa letters

Illustration 1 : Table of 41 Phags-pa Letters in Shushi HuiyaoSource : Shushi Huiyao

vol. 7 folio 22a.

The forty-one Phags-pa letters given in Shushi Huiyao and Fashu Kao comprise (in the order listed in theseworks) :Thirty consonant letters corresponding to the thirty basic Tibetan consonants (TIBETAN LETTERS KA, KHA,
GA, NGA, CA, CHA, JA, NYA, TA, THA, DA, NA, PA, PHA, BA, MA, TSA, TSHA, DZA, WA, ZHA, ZA, -A,
YA, RA, LA, SHA, SA, HA and A).
Four vowel letters corresponding to the four primary Tibetan vowel signs (TIBETAN VOWEL SIGNS I, U, E
and O).
Four consonant letters that do not correspond to Tibetan letters, but which are used to represent sounds
found in Mongolian, Chinese and other languages :QA : used in Mongolian and Old Uighur
XA : used in Mongolian and Chinese
FA : used in Chinese and Old Uighur
GGA : not used in Chinese, Mongolian or Old Uighur. This letter does not occur in any extant Phags-

pa texts other than the lists of Phags-pa letters given in Shushi Huiyao and Fashu Kao, and the list of. It"seal script" Phags-pa letters given in the Phags-pa rhyming dictionary Menggu Ziyun
may have been used to represent a glottal stop for use in writing Persian (i.e. the letter 'ayn );however no Persian Phags-pa texts survive.
One vowel letter (EE) that does not correspond to a Tibetan vowel, which is used to represent an "e" vowel(usually transliterated as " ") in Mongolian and Chinese, or in combination with the letters U and O torepresent the front vowels "ü" and "ö" respectively.
Two subjoined letters corresponding to the Tibetan subjoined letters WA [U+0FAD] (Tib. wa-zur) and YA[U+0FB1] (Tib. ya-btags).

In addition to the forty-one basic letters listed in Shushi Huiyao and Fashu Kao, the Yuan dynasty Phags-pa
inscriptions of Buddhist texts at Juyong Guanat the Great Wall north-west of Beijing include a number of
additional Phags-pa letters that are used to represent Sanskrit (see Example 3) :Four reversed consonant letters (reversed TA, THA, DA and NA) corresponding to the Tibetan letters TTA,
TTHA, DDA and NNA that are used to represent Sanskrit retroflex letters. Note that a reversed letter SHA
corresponding to the Tibetan letter SSA [U+0F65] is not found. All instances of the Tibetan letter SSA in the
Tibetan version of the Juyong Guan Buddhist inscriptions correspond to an ordinary, unreversed letter SHA
in the Phags-pa version. The reason for this is probably because a reversed letter SHA would beindistinguishable from the letter AA.
One subjoined letter corresponding to the Tibetan subjoined letter RA [U+0FB2] (Tib. ra-btags). This letter isalso used in Tibetan Phags-pa inscriptions.
The Candrabindu sign that is used to represent the nasalization of the vowel it is attached to or a nasal
consonant that is homorganic with the following sound (in modern Devanagari usage the Candrabindu isused for the former, and the Anusvara is used for the latter). The Phags-pa Candrabindu corresponds to
TIBETAN SIGN RJES SU NGA RO (Anusvara) [U+0F7E] and TIBETAN SIGN SNA LDAN (Candrabindu)[U+0F83].
Tibetan Phags-pa inscriptions also make use of one further letter and several punctuation marks that are derived
from the Tibetan script :One superfixed letter corresponding to the Tibetan superfixed letter RA (Tib. ra-mgo) (see Example 6).
Two "head marks" (Tib. yig-mgo) corresponding to TIBETAN MARK INITIAL YIG MGO MDUN MA [U+0F04]
and the ligature of TIBETAN MARK INITIAL YIG MGO MDUN MA [U+0F04] and TIBETAN MARK CLOSINGYIG MGO SGAB MA [U+0F05] respectively, which are used to indicate the start of a text (see Examples 4
and 5). In many Tibetan Phags-pa texts the single and double head marks are used interchangeably, andthey could be considered as simple glyph variants. However, in one text that I have seen (see Example 5),
the single head mark and the double head mark are used contrastively, the double head mark at the start of
the text, and the single head mark at the start of a new column of text. It is for this reason that it is proposed
to encode the two forms of the head mark separately.
Two punctuation marks corresponding to TIBETAN MARK SHAD [U+0F0D] and TIBETAN MARK NYISSHAD [U+0F0E] (see Example 4).
These Phags-pa letters and marks are listed in Table 1 below :Table 1 : Proposed PHAGS-PA Characters
Proposed
Code Point

Representative
Glyph

Proposed Character
Name

UnicodeData
Properties

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

AB80

PHAGS-PA LETTER KA

AB81

PHAGS-PA LETTER KHA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB82

PHAGS-PA LETTER GA

AB83

PHAGS-PA LETTER NGA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

Notes

0F40

tibetan letter

0F41

tibetan letter

ka

kha

0F42

tibetan letter

0F44

tibetan letter

ga

nga

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB84

PHAGS-PA LETTER CA

AB85

PHAGS-PA LETTER CHA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB86

PHAGS-PA LETTER JA

AB87

PHAGS-PA LETTER NYA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB88

PHAGS-PA LETTER TTA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB89

PHAGS-PA LETTER
TTHA

AB8A

PHAGS-PA LETTER DDA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB8B

PHAGS-PA LETTER NNA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB8C

PHAGS-PA LETTER TAAB8D

PHAGS-PA LETTER THA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB8E

PHAGS-PA LETTER DA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB8F

PHAGS-PA LETTER NA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB90

PHAGS-PA LETTER PA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB91

PHAGS-PA LETTER PHA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB92

PHAGS-PA LETTER BA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB93

PHAGS-PA LETTER MA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB94

PHAGS-PA LETTER TSA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB95

PHAGS-PA LETTER
TSHA

AB96

PHAGS-PA LETTER DZA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

0F46

tibetan letter

cha

0F47

tibetan letter ja

0F49

tibetan letter

nya

0F4A

tibetan letter

0F4B

tibetan letter

tta

ttha

0F4C

tibetan letter

dda

0F4E

tibetan letter

nna

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

tibetan letterca

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

0F45

0F4F

tibetan letter ta

0F50

tibetan letter

tha

0F51

tibetan letter

0F53

tibetan letter

0F54

tibetan letter

0F55

tibetan letter

da

na

pa

pha

0F56

tibetan letter

0F58

tibetan letter

ba

ma

0F59

tibetan letter

0F5A

tibetan letter

tsa

tsha

0F5B
dza

tibetan letter

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB97

PHAGS-PA LETTER WA

AB98

PHAGS-PA LETTER ZHA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB99

PHAGS-PA LETTER ZA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB9A

PHAGS-PA LETTER AA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB9B

PHAGS-PA LETTER YA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB9C

PHAGS-PA LETTER RA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB9D

PHAGS-PA LETTER LA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB9E

PHAGS-PA LETTER SHA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;AB9F

PHAGS-PA LETTER SA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;PHAGS-PA LETTER HA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;PHAGS-PA LETTER A

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;PHAGS-PA LETTER QA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;PHAGS-PA LETTER XA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;PHAGS-PA LETTER FA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

ABA6

!
"
#
$
%
&
'

PHAGS-PA SUBJOINEDLETTER WA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

ABA7

(

PHAGS-PA SUBJOINEDLETTER YA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

ABA8

)

PHAGS-PA SUBJOINEDLETTER RA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

ABA9

*

PHAGS-PA
SUPERFIXED LETTER
RA

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

ABAA

+

PHAGS-PA LETTER I

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

ABAB

,

PHAGS-PA LETTER U

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;PHAGS-PA LETTER E

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

ABA0

ABA1

ABA2

ABA3

ABA4

ABA5

ABAC

0F5D

tibetan letter

0F5E

tibetan letter

wa

zha

0F5F

tibetan letter

0F60

tibetan letter -a

0F61

tibetan letterzaya! tibetan letter ra
0F63 " tibetan letter la
0F64 # tibetan letter

0F62

sha

0F66

tibetan letter

0F67$ tibetan letter

0F68% tibetan letter asaha

PHAGS-PA LETTER GGA Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

0FAD&'tibetan

subjoined letter wa

0FB1&(tibetan

subjoined letter ya

0FB2&)tibetan

subjoined letter ra! tibetan letter ratibetan vowel
0F72 &*

0F62

sign i

0F74
sign u

0F7A&+tibetan vowel&,tibetan vowel

ABAD

ABAE

.
/

sign ePHAGS-PA LETTER O

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;PHAGS-PA LETTER EE

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

0F7C
sign o

0F83
ABAF

0

PHAGS-PA LETTERCANDRABINDU

Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;

sna ldan
0F7E&-tibetan vowel&.tibetan sign&/tibetan sign

rjes su nga ro

ABB0

1

PHAGS-PA SINGLE
HEAD MARK marks beginning of text
Po;0;ON;;;;;N;;;;;

0F04

0 tibetan markinitial yig mgo mdun ma marks beginning of text
ABB1

2

PHAGS-PA DOUBLEHEAD MARK

0F04
Po;0;ON;;;;;N;;;;;

0 tibetan markinitial yig mgo mdun ma
0F05

1 tibetan markclosing yig mgo sgab ma

ABB2

3

PHAGS-PA MARK SHAD Po;0;ON;;;;;N;;;;;

ABB3

4

PHAGS-PA MARKDOUBLE SHAD

Po;0;ON;;;;;N;;;;;

0F0D
shad

0F0E

2 tibetan mark3 tibetan marknyis shadNotes
1. Proposed code points reflect the provisional range for the 'Phags-pa script given in the Unicode andISO/IEC 10646 Roadmaps (U+AB80..ABDF).
2. Representative glyphs are intended to represent the most common forms of Phags-pa letters, but in manycases letters occur in a number of variant forms depending on individual the text. In particular the letter E
occurs in a wide range of different forms in different texts and inscriptions (see Table 2 for examples), andthere is no single form that can be considered standard. Generally speaking the double-toothed forms are
more common in Mongolian Phags-pa inscriptions and texts, and the single-toothed forms are morecommon in Chinese Phags-pa inscriptions and texts. The double-toothed form of the letter E that is found in
the Juyong Guan inscriptions has been selected as the representative glyph.
3. Character names follow those used for the corresponding Tibetan character where appropriate, except forthat "PHAGS-PA LETTER AA" is used instead of "PHAGS-PA LETTER -A" (corresponding to "TIBETANLETTER -A") as the forthcoming change to the Character Naming Rules will disallow leading hyphens incharacter names. However, if JTC1/SC2/WG2 consider it appropriate AB9A could be named PHAGS-PA
LETTER -A in order to maintain compatability with TIBETAN LETTER -A.
4. The letter FA is transliterated as " " (i.e. HA + SUBJOINED-WA) by some authorities (e.g. Junast andYang Naisi in their Menggu Ziyun Jiaoben). However, although the letter FA superficially resembles the[The Phags-pa
letter HA with a subjoined letter WA, in texts such as Baijiaxing Mengguwen
version of the "Hundred Chinese Surnames"] the letter FA and the compound letter HWA are clearly
differentiated : in the letter FA the upper part of the letter resembling a letter HA with no tail kink joinssmoothly onto the lower part of the letter resembling a subjoined letter WA [as shown in Example 11 "fang"of Table 3]; whereas in the letter HWA there is a kink in the tail of the letter HA before it joins onto the
subjoined letter WA [as shown in Example 4 "hwa" of Table 3].

3. SCRIPT EXAMPLESExample 1
This is a typical Yuan dynasty Phags-pa monumental inscription dated 1298. It comprises parallel Phags-pa andideographic versions of an imperial edict written in Chinese. The Phags-pa text, which reads from left to right, is anexact transliteration of the ideographic text, which reads from right to left.

Source : Basibazi yu Yuandai Hanyu Plate 29.

Example 2This is an impression of the seal of the Imperial Preceptor (viz. the viceroy of Tibet, a position first bestowed on the'Phags-pa Lama by Kublai Khan) that was used on documents dated 1290 through 1337.
As is typical of official seals dating from the Yuan (1271-1368) and Northern Yuan (1368-1402) dynasties, the text
is engraved in a labyrinthine, pseudo-archaic "seal script" form of the Phags-pa letters.

Source : Minzu Yuwen

1997.3 Back Cover Illustration XII.

Example 3This is a portion of the Phags-pa transliteration of a Sanskrit text that is engraved on the east wall of the "Cloud
Platform"at Juyong Guanat the Great Wall north-west of Beijing. This is part of a set of parallelversions of Buddhist texts engraved in the scripts of six languages (Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongolian, Uighur, Chineseand Tangut) in commemoration of the construction of a Buddhist edifice in 1345.
This example illustrates the use of the series of reversed letters (TTA, TTHA, DDA and NNA), as well as the
subjoined letter RA and the Candrabindu sign.

Source : Chü-Yung-Kuan
Northwest of Peking.

: The Buddhist Arch of the Fourteenth Century A.D. at the Pass of the Great Wall

Example 4This is the first page of a Tibetan primer of the Phags-pa and Lantsa scripts obtained by the Buriat Cossack officer
Tsokto Garmeyevich Badmazhapov in 1903.
This example illustrates the distinctive style of the decorative Tibetan form of the Phags-pa script, as well as somepunctuation marks (the head mark, the shad and the double shad) that are Tibetan innovations.

Script page 16.

Source : The Mongolian Monuments in

Example 5This example shows a page from a modern Tibetan book on calligraphy, showing various styles of contemporary
Tibetan calligraphy by Kun-dga' Rin-chen

4!* ,, including two columns of Phags-pa letters.

In this example a double head mark is found at the top of the first column of Phags-pa letters, and a single head

mark is found at the top of the second, continuation column. This contrastive use of the two styles of head mark is
one reason why it is proposed to encode a Single Head Mark and a Double Head Mark separately.
The topmost character of the left column is a variant form of the double head mark (this form of the double headmark is also used on the seal of the 13th Dalai Lama), whilst the topmost character of the right column is the single
head mark. In both cases the head mark is followed by a single shad mark.

Source : Bod-kyi Yi-ge'i gZugs Ris- 5* * ,* 6 !* (Lhasa : Tibet People's Publishing House, 1999)

page 44 [from a scan kindly provided by Chris Fynn].
Example 6This is the seal of the Imperial Preceptor Sangs-rgyas-dpal (1267-1314).
The main text reads sangs rgyal dpal (Tibetan sangs-rgyal-dpal(Chinese dìsh7"2), whilst the word ti shi"Imperial Preceptor") is engraved horizontally along the bottom of the seal.

This seal illustrates usage of the superfixed letter RA (top of middle column) and the Tibetan shad mark (bottom ofright column).

Source : Minzu Yuwen

1997.3 Back Cover Illustration XI.

4. SCRIPT STYLES
There are three distinctive styles of the Phags-pa script :The standard script used on monumental inscriptions, printed texts and manuscript documents, etc. (seeExamples 1 and 3)
A labyrinthine, pseudo-archaic "seal script" form of the Phags-pa letters that is used mainly on official seals
dating from the Yuan (1271-1368) and Northern Yuan (1368-1402) dynasties (see Example 2), but which isalso sometimes used for the title on monumental inscriptions.
A distinctive squashed, rectilinear form of the Phags-pa letters used as a decorative script in Tibet (seeExample 4). The Tibetan style of Phags-pa letters may be seen in seals (such as that of the 13th Dalai Lamathat was made in 1909) and in architectural inscriptions (e.g. on the pillars on either side of the main alter at
the St. Petersburg Buddhist Monastery [Datsan Kuntsechoinei] which was consecrated in 1915).
Examples of the various forms of the Phags-pa letters that occur in these three script styles are given in Table 2
below.
It should be noted that the variant forms of letters in different script styles shown in Table 2 are informative only,
and there is no intention (or need) to encode them separately.

Table 2 : Variant Forms of Phags-pa Letters
Character
Name

KA

KHA

Standard Style

Tibetan Style

Seal Script Style

GA

NGA

CA

CHA

JA

NYA

TTA

N/A

N/A

TTHA

N/A

N/A

DDA

N/A

N/A

NNA

N/A

N/A

TA

THA

DA

NA

PA

PHA

BA

MA

TSA

TSHA

DZA

WA

ZHA

ZA

AA

5

YA

RA

LA

6

SHA

SA

HA

!
7

A

"

QA

#

N/A

XA

$

N/A

FA

%

8

GGA

&

Subjoined WA'

Subjoined YA(

Subjoined RA)

N/ASuperfixed RA

*

N/A

I

+
9

U

,
:

N/A

N/A

E

;

O

.<
=>

EE

/

N/A

Candrabindu

0

N/A

Single Head
Mark

N/A

N/A

Double Head
Mark

N/A

N/A

Shad

N/A

N/A

Double Shad

N/A

N/A

N/A

Notes
1. Tibetan style letters are mainly based on the forms given in the primer shown in figs.5-7 of Poppe's The
Script (see Example 4). A number of similar examples of primers
Mongolian Monuments inhave been made available to me by my colleagues on the TIBEX mailing list (see for example
http://snark.ptc.spbu.ru/~uwe/tibex/phagspa/), and they do show some variation in letter form for someletters in some cases, but on the whole the style of Tibetan Phags-pa letters is remarkably uniform.
, and from actual seals
2. Seal script style letters are taken from the examples given in Menggu Ziyun
and epigraphic inscriptions.
3. N/A indicates that the particular Phags-pa letter or mark is not used in that script style, or no examples are
known.

5. MORPHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION
The Phags-pa script is written in vertical columns reading from top-to-bottom, laid out left-to-right across the writing
surface. This follows the directionality and page layout of the Uighur-derived Mongolian script that was in use at thetime that the 'Phags-pa Lama devised the Phags-pa script. This top-to-bottom / left-to-right layout is common to all
extant Phags-pa texts, whether written in Mongolian, Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit or Old Uighur. The only exampleof horizontal textual layout that I have encountered is the word ti shi (Chinese dìsh"Imperial Preceptor") thatis engraved horizontally left-to-right along the bottom of the seal shown in Example 6. This anomalous layout isprobably an artefact of the limited space available for engraving the word on the seal, and may perhaps better be
regarded as four vertical columns of one letter each rather than a single horizontal row.
In writing Chinese, Mongolian, Old Uighur, Tibetan, Sanskrit and other languages with the Phags-pa script, Phagspa letters join together graphically to form discrete syllable units, separated from each other by whitespace. For
Chinese, which is monosyllabic at the ideographic level, this means that one ideograph corresponds to one Phagspa syllable unit. On the other hand, for languages like Mongolian, Tibetan and Sanskrit, which have polysyllabic
words, a word spelled in the Phags-pa script comprises one or many syllable units separated by whitespace. It
should be noted that when writing Tibetan all the letters corresponding to a Tibetan "syllable" unit (Tib. tsheg bar)are ligated together, as can be seen from Example 6. The normal Space character [U+0020] should be used toseparate syllable units. A line break opportunity may occur between syllable units, but not within a syllable unit.
The simplest syllable unit comprises either a vowel letter (I, U, E or O) by itself or a consonant letter by itself. As
with Tibetan, when an initial consonant is not followed by a vowel letter, it carries an inherent vowel "a". Thus, forexample, the letter KA by itself represents the sound "ka", but when followed by the vowel letter I, the two letters
combine to represent the sound "ki". A null consonant letter [PHAGS-PA LETTER A] is used to represent an initial
vowel "a". Note that, unlike the Tibetan vowel signs, Phags-pa vowel letters other than EE can occur in isolation or
initially, and do not have to be attached to a null consonant (i.e. the letter A) to represent an initial vowel sound.
As the Phags-pa script is written vertically, all vowel letters come after the consonant that they modify, so that
unlike Tibetan the vowels I, E and O are written below the preceding consonant.
Examples of various words in Chinese, Mongolian, Uighur, Tibetan and Sanskrit, as written in the Phags-pa script,
are given in Table 3 below (the individual syllable units that make up a polysyllabic word are separated bywhitespace) :Table 3 : Example Phags-pa Words
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

,
11

Key to Table 3
1. u = Chinese

wú "Wu [proper name]"2. 'eeu = Chineseyú "Yu [proper name]" (the letters EE and U form a digraph representing a front u,
normally transcribed as ü)
3. shi = Chinese
shí "stone"
4. hwa = Chinese
5. hya = Chinese

hu "flower"
xià "summer"

6. hay = Chinese
7. ngiw = Chinese

h i "sea"

8. mue = Chinese
9. -an = Chineseméi "plum"niú "ox"n "peaceful"

10. lhing = Chinese
l ng "cold" (the the letters HA and I form a digraph representing a vowel sound that issometimes transcribed as ï)
11. fang = Chinese
f ng "square"
12. na yan = Classical Mongolian nayan

13. deng ri = Classical Mongolian tengri

14. q-an = Classical Mongolian"eighty""heaven""emperor, khan" (in a medial position the letter AA is used torepresent a long vowel)
15. ta layi = Classical Mongolian dalai"sea, ocean" (the final yi forms a diphthong with the preceding

vowel in Mongolian and Sanskrit Phags-pa texts, and layi is thus a single syllable, written with the letters
ligated together)
16. quth luq = Old Uighur"with fortune"
17. sangs rgyas = Tibetan sangs-rgyas
18. ba dzra = Sanskrit vajra
19. '-a kad ddha ya = Sanskrit
20. bh-ru^ = Sanskrit

7"Buddha"Note : In the above examples the Phags-pa letters A, AA and Candrabindu are transcribed as ' (apostrophe), (hyphen) and ^ (circumflex) respectively.
Within each syllable unit all Phags-pa letters except for the Candrabindu are ligated together, usually by extending
the right-hand stem of a letter down to join up with the next letter. The reversed series of letters TTA, TTHA, DDA
and NNA normally ligate by extending their left-hand stem. In some Tibetan Phags-pa texts the ligature may be ashort vertical line along the central axis of adjacent letters. How these ligatures are achieved would be up to theindividual font designer. In very many cases two adjacent letters are able to ligate simply by having zero spacing
between them (for example, the stem of the letter KA would naturally join up with the stem of a following letter I if
there was no spacing between them).

6. ENCODING MODEL
The proposed encoding model for the Phags-pa script is very simple : each letter of a syllable unit is encoded invisual order from top to bottom. Note that unlike Tibetan and most other Brahmic scripts, the Phags-pa vowels arenormal spacing letters rather than vowel signs.
The physical/visual order of Phags-pa letters within a syllable unit normally represents their logical andpronunciation order. The one exception to this is the Candrabindu sign, which is always physically written as thefirst character in a syllable unit, even though it is logically the last character (as it represents nasalization of the final
vowel). For example the well-known mantric syllable OM is written top-to-bottom as a Candrabindu sign followed by
the letter O (see Example 3 lines 1 & 2). Quite long sequences with an initial Candrabindu also occur, such as

CANDRABINDU + BA + HA + AA + SUBJOINED-RA + U [representing Sanskrit] (see Example 3 line 2).

It would be difficult for the rendering engine and inconvenient for the end user to encode the Candrabindu sign as
the last character in a syllable unit (its logical position) and yet render it as the first glyph in a syllable unit (its visual
position), as cursor movement, text selection and delete/backspace operations would be confusing. It is therefore
proposed to treat the Candrabindu as a normal spacing letter, and encode it within a text stream in its visual
position. Thus, for example, the Phags-pa syllable OM would be encoded as <CANDRABINDU, O>, and thePhags-pa representation of Sanskrit
would be encoded as <CANDRABINDU, BA, HA, AA, SUBJOINEDRA, U>. Nevertheless, an Input Method Editor for the Phags-pa script that processed keystrokes representing
romanized transcription could accept the keystroke representing Candrabindu as the final keystroke in a keystroke
sequence for a syllable unit, and simply reorder the Candrabindu within the text stream as appropriate.
Note that the Phags-pa letter CANDRABINDU is only used in certain Yuan dynasty texts, primarily thetransliteration of the Buddhist sutras in large Phags-pa letters at Juyong Guan (see Example 3). In other Phags-pa
texts the anusvara and candrabindu are represented by a final M. Thus, for example, in the Mongolian text writtenwith small Phags-pa letters at Juyong Guan, the mantric syllable OM is writen as <O, MA>. Similarly, in writing
Tibetan using the Tibetan style of Phags-pa script, the mantric syllable OM is written as <A, O, MA> (see fifthsyllable of the right column in Example 5).
It is proposed to encode subjoined forms of the letters WA, YA and RA, and a superfixed form of the letter RA, in
addition to (and separately from) the ordinary letters WA, YA and RA. The reason why these positional forms of theletters WA, YA and RA must be encoded separately is that without an explicit vowel "a" it would be impossible todistinguish, and hence correctly render, normal and subjoined/superfixed forms of the letters in a syllable with an
inherent "a" vowel. For example, the Phags-pa spelling of the Chinese word
h i "sea" is hay <HA, YA>,

whereas the Phags-pa spelling of the Chinese wordxià "summer" is hya <HA, SUBJOINED-YA>. With no
explicit vowel, the only way to tell whether the second letter in each Phags-pa syllable is the normal form of theletter YA or the graphically distinct subjoined form of the letter YA is to encode the two forms of the letter YA
separately. The same applies for the normal and graphically distinct subjoined forms of the letters WA and RA.
Likewise, it is necessary to separately encode the graphically distinct superfixed form of the letter RA that is found
before the letters KA, GA, NGA, JA, TA, DA, NA, BA, MA, TSA and DZA when writing Tibetan (before the letter
NYA only, the normal form of the letter RA is used), as otherwise it would be impossible to distinguish, and hencecorrectly render, Tibetan words written in the Phags-pa script such as rnga "drum" and rang "self". The important
thing here is to provide a mechanism for determining which graphic form of the letter RA to render, not necessarily
to distinguish which is the base consonant. Thus it is not necessary to separately encode superfixed forms of theletters LA and SA that are also used in writing Tibetan, as the normal and superfixed forms of the letters LA and SA
are identical. In fact, in the case of words with a superfixed letter LA or SA, the base consonant is indicated in
Phags-pa spelling by suffixing the letter AA when there is no explicit vowel (e.g. sam for Chineses n "three",but sm-a for Sanskrit "sma").
It may be noted that in some Tibetan Phags-pa texts, for example the seal of the 13th Dalai Lama made in 1909,
the superfixed letter RA is written in the normal form rather than the T-shaped form. Nevertheless, it is stillnecessary to separately encode a Superfixed Letter RA in order to correctly render texts that do write thesuperfixed letter RA in the more normal T-shape, such as the seal given in Example 6 (as well as other Tibetan
Phags-pa texts that I have seen). The "fixed-form" superfixed RA found in the seal of the 13th Dalai Lama should
be considered to be simply a glyph variant of the T-shaped superfixed letter RA. A font in the style of the 13th Dalai
Lama's seal could then render it the same as the ordinary letter RA, whereas a more typical Tibetan-style Phagspa font would render it with a T-shaped glyph.

7. POSITIONAL VARIANTS
Positional variants are variant glyphs used for a particular character in a given position within a syllable unit. The
rendering engine would be expected to select the correct glyph for any given position without any need for
additional control codes or user intervention.
The vowel letters I, U, E and O (but not EE) each take two or more graphic forms, depending upon their position
within a syllable unit.
U+200C [ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER] (ZWNJ) and U+200D [ZERO WIDTH JOINER] (ZWJ) may be used tooverride the expected positional variant for the letters I, U, E and O in the same way as they do for the Mongolian
script :A preceding ZWNJ will force selection of the initial or isolate form even when the letter is not in an initial
positionA preceding ZWJ will force selection of the medial or final form even when the letter is in an initial position
A following ZWNJ will force selection of the final or isolate form even when the letter is not in a final position
A following ZWJ will force selection of the medial or initial form even when the letter is in a final position
The positional variants of these vowel letters, and the code sequences needed to obtain each positional variant inisolation are shown in Table 4. Note that for the letters I and E, the initial form is usually the same as the isolate
form, and for the letters I, U and E, the final form is usually the same as the medial form. The letter O has a medialstem that ligates with the following letter when in the initial or medial position, and the letter U has a medial stemthat ligates with the following letter when in the initial position (see Example 3 line 6).

Table 4 : Phags-pa Positional Variants
Vowel

I

U

E

O

IsolateInitialMedial

Final

+ <I>
, <U>
- <E>
. <O>

? <I, ZWJ>
A <U, ZWJ>
C <E, ZWJ>
< <O, ZWJ>

9 <ZWJ, I, ZWJ>
: <ZWJ, U, ZWJ>
; <ZWJ, E, ZWJ>
= <ZWJ, O, ZWJ>

@ <ZWJ, I>
B <ZWJ, U>
D <ZWJ, E>> <ZWJ, O>

It should be noted that the Candrabindu sign does not affect the positional variant for a vowel with which it isassociated. Thus, for example, the mantric syllable OM is written with the isolate form of the letter O preceded by a
Candrabindu sign.

8. CONTEXTUAL VARIANTS
Contextual variants are variant glyphs used for a particular character in certain defined contexts. The renderingengine would be expected to select the correct glyph for the context without any need for additional control codes
or user intervention.
In the Phags-pa script, reversed forms of the letters HA, Subjoined YA, I, U and E occur after the letters TTA,
TTHA, DDA and NNA. These five reversed letters cannot be considered to be separate characters in their own
right, as they only occur after the letters TTA, TTHA, DDA and NNA, and they do not represent different phonetic
values compared with their unreversed counterparts. The reason why these letters occur in a reversed form after
the letters TTA, TTHA, DDA and NNA is simply because TTA, TTHA, DDA and NNA are themselves reversed
forms of the letters TA, THA, DA and NA (but in this case they are distinct characters), and so following lettersneed to have their stem on the left rather than the right in order to ligate with them.
The reversed letter HA only occurs after the letter DDA, where the combination DDA + HA corresponds to U+0F4D[TIBETAN LETTER DDHA] (note that in the corresponding Tibetan letter DDHA, the HA component is notreversed).
Reversed letters I, U and E can occur after any of the letters TTA, TTHA, DDA or NNA. There is no reversed letterO, as it is symmetrical about a central stem.
Reversed letter Subjoined YA is found after the letter NNA.
Another letter that commonly occurs after the letter TTHA is the letter AA (which is used to represent a long vowel
A). However, the letter AA never occurs in a reversed form, although it may ligate with the preceding letter TTHAeither along the left stem or the right stem (which side the ligation occurs on would be up to the individual fontdesigner to decide).
In the Juyong Guan inscriptions the letter I occurs in both reversed and unreversed forms after the letter TTHA,
with no semantic or phonetic differences between the two forms.

Table 5 : Phags-pa Contextual Variants
Normal Form

Letter

HA

Subjoined YA

I

U

E

Reversed Form

E
F
G
H
I

!
(
9
:
;

Example Syllables

ddha [Juyong Guan West Wall]nnya [Juyong Guan West Wall]tthi [Juyong Guan West Wall]nni [Juyong Guan East & West Wall]nnu [Juyong Guan West Wall]tthe [Juyong Guan West Wall]dde [Juyong Guan West Wall]nne [Juyong Guan West Wall]

In order to show a reversed letter HA, Subjoined YA, I, U or E in isolation (e.g. for metalanguage descriptions of the
Phags-pa script) and for overriding the default shape of the letters HA, Subjoined YA, I, U and E (reversed after
TTA, TTHA, DDA and NNA, unreversed after all other letters), it is necessary to have a mechanism for inhibiting
letter reversal where normally expected, and producing letter reversal where not normally expected. This isespecially needed to deal with the cases in the Juyong Guan inscriptions where both reversed and unreversed
forms of the letter I are arbitrarily found after the letter TTHA.
There is no obvious mechanism for doing this with any existing Unicode control character, and it may be that a newcontrol character will need to be introduced for this purpose. For example, a hypothetical "Contextual Variant
Override" (CVO) character could be used to control the shaping behaviour of Phags-pa letters as illustrated inTable 6 :Table 6 : Overriding Phags-pa Contextual Variants
Code
Sequence

RenderedGlyphs9<ZWJ, I, CVO> G<ZWJ, I>

Description

Default final form letter I in isolation (unreversed)

Non-default final form letter I in isolation (reversed)<TTHA, I>

Letter TTHA with default form letter I (reversed)<TTHA, I,
CVO>

Letter TTHA with non-default letter I (unreversed)<THA, I>

Letter Letter THA with default form letter I (unreversed)<THA, I, CVO>

9. STANDARDIZED VARIANTS

Letter THA with non-default letter I (reversed)[this glyph combination does not occur naturally, but is included forcompleteness]

Standardized Variants are particular graphic variants of a character that are selected by means of a Variation
Selector [U+FE00..FE0F] (VS-1 through VS-16) or [U+E0100..E01EF] (VS-17 through VS-256). Such variants are
not simple glyph variants, but are used contrastively with respect to the standard glyph form of the character.
Standardized Variants are regulated by Unicode (seehttp://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/StandardizedVariants.html), and only those defined by Unicode may berecognised as such by any Unicode conformant process.
The rhyming dictionary of Chinese ideographs, Menggu Ziyun, that was revised and edited by Zhu

Zongwenin 1308 (this work now only survives as a single manuscript copy) is one of the most importantsources for understanding the Phags-pa script, as it gives Phags-pa spellings for over 9,000 Chinese ideographs,
arranged according to fifteen rhyme categories.
Within each rhyme category the Chinese ideographs are ordered according to an idealised set of thirty-six initials
devised over a period of time from the Tang to the Song dynasty by Chinese phoneticists. Unlike the fifteen rhyme
categories, which clearly do correspond to Yuan dynasty phonetics, the thirty-six initials represent an earlier stage
in the history of Chinese phonetic evolution. As the Phags-pa letters had been devised to represent Chinese as
spoken during the Yuan dynasty (i.e. Old Mandarin), there is not a one-to-one correspondence between theclassical thirty-six initials and the thirty consonant letters of the Phags-pa script, as is shown in Illustration 2.
Illustration 2 : Table of 36 Initials in Menggu Ziyun

Source : Basibazi yu Yuandai Hanyu

page 97.

The following discrepancies between the idealised set of thirty-six initials and the actual phonetic characteristics of
14th century Chinese are reflected in Menggu Ziyun :Initials 9-11 ( ,and ) [ , ' and ] had merged with Initials 26-28 ( ,and ) [ ,and !] (to formthe " #, " # , !" $ series in Yuan Chinese). Initials 9 & 26, 10 & 27 and 11 & 28 are represented by the
Phags-pa letters JA, CHA and CA respectively (i.e. the distinction between Initials 9-11 and Initials 26-28 isnot preserved in the Phags-pa script).
Initials 17-19 ( ,and ) [f, f' and v] had merged together (all pronounced [f] in Yuan Chinese). Twoforms of the Phags-pa letter FA (one with a tail kink, one without) are used to represent these three initials.
These two forms are distributed with apparent randomness between Initials 17-19 (e.g. the words
f ng"wind" andf ng "square" both have an historic Initial 17 [f], but in Menggu Ziyun the former word isspelled with the form of the letter FA with a tail kink, whereas the latter word is spelled with the form of theletter FA without a tail kink).
Initials 29 ( ) [ ] and 30 ( ) [!] had merged together (both pronounced "# in Yuan Chinese). Two forms of
the Phags-pa letter SHA are used to represent these two initials (the normal form of the letter SHA is used
for Initial 30, whereas a variant form of the letter SHA with a sloping stroke is used for Initial 29).
Initial 32 ( ) [ ] had diverged. The Phags-pa letters XA and a variant form of the letter HA with no tail kinkare both used to represent this initial (the standard form of the letter HA is used to represent Initial 31 ( )[x]). When representing Initial 32 the letters XA and variant form HA are mutually exclusive, as the former
letter only occurs before back vowels and [i], whereas the latter letter only occurs before the semi-vowel [j]and front vowels other than [i].
Initial 33 ( ) [Ø] had diverged. The Phags-pa letters AA and the standard form of the letter YA are bothused to represent this initial.
Initial 34 ( ) [j] had diverged. The Phags-pa letters A and a variant form of the letter YA with a rounded
appearance are both used to represent this initial.
In summary, Menggu Ziyun uses variant forms of the letters FA, SHA, HA and YA contrastively in order torepresent historical phonetic differences between Chinese syllables that were pronounced the same (except for
tone, which is not represented in the Phags-pa script) in early 14th century Chinese.

As this dictionary is the single most important source for the Phags-pa spelling of Chinese, it is important to be able
to represent the differences between the standard and variant forms of the letters FA, SHA, HA and YA. However,as these variant forms seem to be an artificial distinction devised by Zhu Zongwen, and are not used contrastively
in any Yuan dynasty Phags-pa inscription (i.e. syllables that are differentiated by variant forms of the letters FA,
SHA, HA or YA in Menggu Ziyun are written identically in actual inscriptions), I do not believe that the variant forms
should be accorded individual character status. Indeed to do so would invite confusion amongst end-users overwhich is the correct character to use for the letters FA, SHA, HA and YA, when the variant form should normally be
restricted to quotations from Menggu Ziyun. I believe that the most sensible solution would be to represent thevariant forms of FA, SHA, HA and YA as standardized variants by means of variation selectors. This proposedsolution is shown in Table 7 :Table 7 : Phags-pa Standardized Variants
Ref Glyph

Code Sequence<YA, VS-1>!
%<HA, VS-1><FA, VS-1><SHA, VS-1>

Alt Glyph

57
8
6Description of variant appearance

PHAGS-PA LETTER YA with rounded appearance

PHAGS-PA LETTER HA without tail kink

PHAGS-PA LETTER FA with tail kink

PHAGS-PA LETTER SHA with sloping stroke

Note that the only extant manuscript copy of Menggu Ziyun uses two forms of the letter FA to represent the threehistoric initials 17-19 that merged into Yuan dynasty [f]. It is possible that if another manuscript or printed copy ofthis text is discovered (a copy of a Yuan dynasty printed edition of this work was seen by one 19th century Chinesesource) the three historic initials may there be represented by three distinct variant forms of the letter FA, in whichcase a further standardized variant <FA, VS-2> may need to be designated.

In the Sekai Moji Jiten [Scripts and Writing Systems of the World] volume of the Sanseido Encyclopedia ofLinguistics the three historic initials [f], [f'] and [v] are represented by three distinct variant forms of the letter FA(see Table 2 Letters 39-41 on p.729) : the normal form (Letter 39); the variant form with a tail kink (Letter 40); and avariant form without a tail kink but with a rounded triangular component (Letter 41). Although the table of 36 initials
in Menggu Ziyun (see Illustration 2 above) does show a very slight rounding in the form of the letter FA used torepresent Initial 17 ( ) compared with the form of the letter FA used to represent Initial 19 ( ), I believe that this ispurely accidental. Within the body of the text (and I have examined the original manuscript of Menggu Ziyun inperson) there is definitely no differentiation into three distinct graphic forms of the letter FA : the only obvious
distinction between the forms of the letter FA used to represent historic Initials 17-19 is the presence or absence ofa tail kink (in some cases the shapes of the Phags-pa letters are corrupted in the manuscript to the extent that thelower triangular component of both forms of the letter FA is missing). It is therefore not justified to define a second
standardized variant of the letter FA at the present time.

Indeed, as the three initials 17, 18 and 19 do not occur together for any single final (e.g. f'am and vam occur but
not fam; fang and vang occur but not f'ang), it is possible that in Menggu Ziyun the two variant forms of the letterFA are used to distinguish between any two of initials 17-19 that occur with the same final, but are not fixed to a
specific initial.

10. PUNCTUATION
Most Phags-pa texts and inscriptions do not use any punctuation marks at all. Those that do generally borrow
Chinese or Mongolian punctuation marks. For example the Phags-pa texts inscribed at Juyong Guan use theMongolian punctuation marks[U+1802 : MONGOLIAN COMMA],[U+1803 : MONGOLIAN FULL STOP], and[U+1805 : MONGOLIAN FOUR DOTS] (see Example 3); whereas the fragments of the printed edition of the
Phags-pa script Mongolian translation of the
FULL STOP] as a punctuation mark.

%&& &use a small circle[U+3002 : IDEOGRAPHIC

Tibetan Phags-pa texts may also make use of punctuation marks derived from the Tibetan script. These areincluded within Table 1.

11. REFERENCES
Fashu Kao

. By Sheng Ximing

Liutongchu
Shushi Huiyao. Shanghai : Shanghai Gushu. In Lianting Shier Zhong, 1921.

. By Tao Zongyi. Shanghai : Shanghai Shudian, 1984.

[Lectures on the History of.
1896/1897,
Mongolian Literature given during the Academic Year 1896-1897]. By Alexei Matveevich Pozdneyev (1851-1920).
St. Petersburg, 1897.
The Mongolian Monuments inWiesbaden : Otto Harrassowitz, 1957.

Chü-Yung-Kuan

Script. By Nicholas Poppe. Translated and edited by John R. Krueger.

: The Buddhist Arch of the Fourteenth Century A.D. at the Pass of the Great Wall

Northwest of Peking. Edited by Murata Jiro

. Kyoto : Kyoto University Faculty of Engineering, 1957.

[

Basibazi yu Yuandai Hanyu [Ziliao Huibian]Chinese]. Compiled by Luo Changpei
1959.
Menggu Ziyun Jiaoben

and Cai Meibiao] [The Phags-pa script and Yuan dynasty. Beijing : Kexue Chubanshe,[A critical edition of the "Mongolian Rhyming Dictionary"]. Edited by Junast

and Yang Naisi
Sekai Moji Jiten. Beijing : Minzu Chubanshe, 1987.

[Scripts and Writing Systems of the World]. Vol.7 of Gengogaku Daijiten[The Sanseido Encyclopedia of Linguistics] (7 vols.). Edited by Kamei Takashi, K!no Rokur!, Chino Eiichi andNishida Tatsuo. Tokyo : Sanseid!, 1988-2001.

12. FURTHER INFORMATION
Further information on the history of the Phags-pa script, its usage, and examples of texts written in the Phags-pa
script can be found at :http://uk.geocities.com/BabelStone1357/hPhags-pa/index.html