Mongolian script was the first writing system to be used to write the Mongolian language. It is similar to the Arabic alphabet in that it is a cursive writing system, or a writing system where all the letters in a word always touch each other and change depending on if the letter is at the beginning, middle, or end of a word. It is a vertically written system, meaning that it is written top-to-bottom, and it is the only vertical writing system to be read left-to-right (all other vertical systems, like Chinese and Korean, are left-to-right). It is one of the two writing systems used to write the Mongolian language, alongside Cyrillic, in the independent country of Mongolia (which is sometimes called Outer Mongolia to distinguish it from Inner Mongolia) and the only writing system used to write the language in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. It is also used to write several other Mongolic and Tungustic languages such as Buryat, Kalmyk, Oirat, Manchu, and Xibe.
It is believed that the reason why Mongolian script is vertical is so that it could easily be written on the neck of a horse, which horses were a very important part of Mongolian culture. In the year 1208, Genghis Khan captured a Uighur scribe named Tatar-Tonga and forced him to make the alphabet of his native language, the Old Uyghr alphabet, be used to write the Mongolian language. It did not fit the Mongolian language well, and it was difficult to learn even for native Mongolian speakers.
In 1941, a few decades after Mongolia became a communist state, the Cyrillic alphabet replaced Mongolian script likely due to influence from their communist ally, the Soviet Union. After the fall of communism, Mongolia made Mongolian script official alongside Cyrillic to revive Mongolian culture. However, Cyrillic is still more common due to the lack of education in Mongolian writing, the lack of money to support it, and the difficulty of typing Mongolian on a computer. Also, more Mongolians can read Cyrillic than Mongolian script. In Inner Mongolia, on the other hand, most ethnic Mongols do not know Cyrillic and can only read Mongolian in the Mongolian script.
Autonomous regions of China
Autonomous regions of China are areas with very large numbers of ethnic minorities living in them. Their local government is similar to a province, but unlike provinces, minority languages are often co-official alongside the Chinese language, and some laws are written to meet the needs of the minority groups. China's five autonomous regions are the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (East Turkestan), and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Their shortened names are Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Ningxia respectively. The largest minority group in each region are the Zhuang, the Mongol, the Tibetan, the Uighur, and the Hui people respectively.
Manchu language
The Manchu language is a Tungustic language and it was the native language of the Manchu people before and during the Qing dynasty. The Manchus are the ethnic minority in China that overthrew the Ming dynasty in 1644 and took over the country. When they ruled, they formed the Qing dynasty. Manchu uses a version of the Mongolian script that was changed to better suit the language. For the first 200 years, it was the official language in the courts, although commoners still spoke Chinese. However, during the mid-1800s, it became more common for the Manchu nobles to speak Chinese as their first language. As a matter of fact, China's last emperor, Aisin Gioro Puyi, knew very little Manchu and spoke Chinese as his first language. Nonetheless, Manchu was still written alongside Chinese in official documents until the end of Imperial China. Even though China today has 10 million Manchus, only 20 people speak Manchu today. This makes Manchu a critically endangered language. Almost all Manchus today speak Mandarin Chinese as their first language.
Early Modern English
Early Modern English is the period of the English language when both the written and the spoken English language begins to be familiar to English speakers today, or speakers of Late Modern English. That is the period in which William Shakespeare wrote his plays. What sets Early Modern English apart from Middle English is the Great Vowel Shift, when all long vowel sounds changed to their current sounds.
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"Kuroko's Basketball" was the third highest selling manga series of 2013. In 2013, around 8,761,081 copies of this manga were sold.
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Urbie Green
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Green died in Hellertown, Pennsylvania from congestive heart failure on December 31, 2018, aged 92.
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Warren Plunkett
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Plunkett died of complications from pneumonia in Austin, Minnesota on December 30, 2018 at the age of 98.
Carlos Sánchez (actor)
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Stella was trained as a public health nurse. She became the iyalorixá of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá in 1976.She was known for writing on the beliefs and practices of Candomblé for the general public, rather than practitioners.
Stella died of a stroke on 27 December 2018 in Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil, aged 93.
Dick Van Orden