Quick answer: Traditional Mongolian script is written vertically in connected strokes, with columns read from top to bottom and arranged from left to right. Its calligraphy is both a writing system and a disciplined visual art, used in manuscripts, letters, seals, emblems and contemporary design.
How traditional Mongolian script works
Letters change shape according to whether they appear at the beginning, middle or end of a word. UNESCO describes the calligraphic alphabet through six fundamental strokes—head, tooth, stem, stomach, bow and tail—from which more complex letterforms are built. Good calligraphy depends on rhythm and proportion as much as legibility.
Five calligraphic forms
Mongolian calligraphers use different forms for different purposes. Careful penmanship suits formal writing; running and shorthand forms favour speed; ancient styles evoke historical models; and folded script compresses letters into geometric designs used for emblems, seals and decorative compositions.
The Mongolian nations have created and used various scripts since ancient times and they keep a complex tradition of calligraphy. Mongolian calligraphy has strictly-observed writing symbols called tig (glyph).
Ancient Script Forms
Ancient Mongolian historical chronicles, inscriptions on monuments, and royal letters and documents are written in ancient scripts, using graceful, yet hard pointed writing tools. Historical and cultural objects with inscriptions, made with the help of a bamboo-brush, and engravings are abundant in Mongolia.
Formal Penmanship
When writing with diligent style, all the traits, lines, points, and dots are written with great legibility. Beginners use the diligent style to learn to write using Mongolian script. By mastering Mongolian script letter components, such as atsag and shüd with this glyph, one can learn the other glyphs easily.
Shorthand Script
In Mongolian script stenography, the main line is written short or long, according to the number of atsag and shüd. Shorthand Script is sometimes called précis-writing as well. Artistic and fast Stenograph is the highest form of calligraphy.
Running Script
The running glyph is thought to have originated from the jotting down
of conversations and dialogues. The running glyph is a unique form of handwriting in between the diligent glyph and stenography. (As Mongolian script is vertical, this type of script also appears in a vertical way.) Researchers noted that running glyph emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century
Folded Script
Folded glyphs appear on the seals and stamps of the Yuan Dynasty of the thirteenth century, on which letters are folded in accordance with the folding way of the Mongolian script. Using the Mongolian folded glyph, letters can be written in various forms, including square, circle, and vertical forms. Folded glyphs in various artistic forms look like beautiful ornaments and they are given different names, such as ‘folded script’, ‘stylized writing’, ‘ornamental character’ and ‘couple melody’.
Why Mongolian calligraphy is being safeguarded
UNESCO placed Mongolian calligraphy on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2013. The concern was not that the script had disappeared, but that the traditional master-to-apprentice system and the number of experienced calligraphers had sharply declined. Teaching, exhibitions and renewed public use now help connect the vertical script with a new generation.
What to notice in a calligraphic work
Follow the balance of thick and fine lines, the spacing between connected letters and the way each vertical word sits beside the next. Even when a composition becomes highly decorative, the best work keeps the movement of writing visible.