The Manchu script is an alphabetic writing system used by ethnic Manchu people. It was created in 1599 by Erdeni and Gagai, using the Mongolian alphabet as reference, at the order of the Manchu leader Nurhachi (posthumously honored as Emperor Taizu of Qing). This version is commonly known as the Old Manchu Script or the “script without dots and circles.” Its alphabet largely resembles the Mongolian one. After being in use for over thirty years, the script was improved by Dahai in 1632 at the order of Huangtaiji (Emperor Taizong of Qing). Dahai not only added letters for spelling loan phonemes, but also modified the shapes of some letters and added dots and circles next to letters (thus this version is commonly known as the “script with dots and circles”). He standardized the shapes of letters, improved the spelling, and removed much of the phonetic ambiguity in the previous version, giving the Manchu script salient features that separate it from the Mongolian alphabet. In 1748, during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, another script was created using the Chinese seal script as reference. It has thirty-two variants that are named to reflect the styles of their strokes, such as the “tassel seal style” and “dragon style.” The Manchu writing system is a vertical script written from left to right. It has six letters for vowels, twenty-four for consonants, and ten for loan phonemes. The letters have different shapes depending on their positions in words, or more specifically, whether they are used alone, at the head of a word, at the head of a middle syllable, at the end of a middle syllable, or at the end of a word. There are punctuation marks as well. During the Qing dynasty, the Manchu script was used as the national script along with Mandarin Chinese. After the Qing regime was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, the Manchu script largely went out of use. The Old Archives in Manchu Script is among the earliest existing documents written in this script.
