This article is from the Mongolia FAQ, by Oliver Corff with numerous contributions by others.
The FAQ maintainer uses the MLS system for romanizing Mongolian. The
MLS system offers round-trip compatibility (Cyrillic texts can be
transliterated, the romanized version can be retransliterated and will
be identical with the Cyrillic original). Software for MS-DOS and UNIX
based computers is available at no charge.
The basic principles underlying MLS are simple: if ever possible, use
one Latin character for one Cyrillic letter, and if not possible, use
an unambiguous digraph. Vowels are classified as front (female) or
back (male); front vowels are all marked with diacritics. It is a fact
that Mongolian *has* seven basic vowels, and it is not possible to
avoid these in writing.
Furthermore, if ever possible, one transliteration symbol should be
used for Cyrillic *and* Classical Mongolian letters of the same
linguistic origin.
The following simple table tries to avoid graphics and foreign
character sets but uses conventional names and positions to identify
Cyrillic letters.
Position Name Romanization Notes __________________________________________________________________ 1 A A/a 2 Be B/b 3 Ve W/w (1) 4 Ge G/g 5 De D/d 6 Ye E/e 7 Yo Yo/ë or yo (2) 8 Je J/j 9 Ze Z/z 10 Ih I/i 11 Xagas I (I kratkoye) I or Ï/ï (3) 12 Ka K/k 13 eL L/l 14 eM M/m 15 eN N/n 16 O Ö/o 17 Front (barred) O Ö/ö 18 Pe P/p 19 eR R/r 20 eS S/s 21 Te T/t 22 U U/u 23 Front (Straight) U Ü/ü 24 Fe F/f 25 Xa X/x (4) 26 Ce C/c 27 Che Q/q 28 Sha Sh/sh 29 Shcha Qh/qh (5) 30 Xatuu Temdeg (Hard Sign) ` (6) 31 61-Y Y/y (7) 32 Zöölön Temdeg (Soft Sign) ' (6) 33 E (not Ye) Ä/ä 34 Yu Yu/yu (8) 35 Ya Ya/ya
 
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