Phags-Pa for Modern Mandarin

Phags-Pa for Modern Mandarin (Hànyǔ bāsībā wén / 汉语八思巴文) was designed by Arthur Li in 2020. It is an alternative way to write Mandarin Chinese with the old Phags-Pa script, which was created by Drogön Chögyal in 1260 to write Chinese, Tibetan, Uyghur, Sanskrit and Persian

Notable features

Type of writing system: alphabet
Direction of writing: right to left write in vertical columns
Used to write: Mandarin Chinese (普通话)
Number of letters: 30, plus diacritics

Phags-Pa for Modern Mandarin

Notes

ye, yi, ying, wu, you, wen, weng, yu, yün, yuan, yan, and yang when spelled as words by tjhemselves are changed to ie, i, ing, u, iu, un, ung, ü, ün, üan, ian, and iang for brevity.
o is not written when it comes after b, p, m, f, even with finals.
e is not written when it comes after d, t, n, l, g, k, h even with finals.
i is not written when it comes after j, q, x, z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, and r, also applies to i before last vowels and finals (e.g. jian is written as jan, xian is written as xan, qian is written as qan)
Punctuation: only the full stop punctuation mark in Chinese (。) is used. Put a space between morphemes.
In case of ambiguity, you can choose to indicate the tones. The diacritics are placed at the end of the morpheme. The 1st and the 5th (neutral) tones are not represented with any diacritics.

Download an alphabet chart for Phags-Pa for Modern Mandarin (Excel)

Sample Text

ꡘꡠꡋ ꡲ ꡘꡠꡋ ꡲ ꡮꡠꡃ ꡷ꡲ ꡕꡳ ꡞꡟꡲ。 ꡝꡞꡳ ꡕꡟꡋ ꡞꡝꡋꡲ ꡜꡲ ꡢꡟꡝꡋꡲ ꡙꡞꡳ ꡮꡝꡃꡳ ꡞ ꡙꡟꡳ ꡎꡞꡃꡲ ꡈꡃꡱ。 ꡊꡝ ꡏꡋ ꡤꡟꡳ ꡞꡟꡱ ꡙꡞꡱ ꡗꡃꡳ ꡜꡲ ꡙꡞꡝꡃꡲ ꡗꡋ。 ꡌꡞꡃꡳ ꡞꡃ ꡞꡱ ꡗꡞꡡꡃ ꡈꡞꡳ ꡀꡟꡝꡋ ꡗꡳ ꡈ ꡄꡃ ꡮꡠꡃꡲ ꡜꡟꡳ ꡗꡝꡃ ꡈꡟꡞꡳ ꡈꡝꡞꡳ。

Simplified Chinese version

人人生而自由,在尊严和权利上一律平等。他们赋有理性和良心,并应以兄弟关系的精神互相对待。

Traditional Chinese version

人人生而自由﹐在尊嚴和權利上一律平等。他們賦有理性和良心﹐並應以兄弟關係的精神互相對待。

Transliteration (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn)

Rénrén shēng ér zìyóu, zài zūnyán hé quánlì shàng yīlù píngděng. Tāmen fùyǒu lǐxìng hé liángxīn, bìng yīng yǐ xiōngdì guānxì de jīngshén hùxiāng duìdài.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

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