Script guide › Cyrillic
Mongolian vs Russian
Mongolian and Russian sit in the same corner of the writing-system map — Grafle's Cyrillic group — and players mix them up constantly. Here's the fastest way to tell them apart.
The tell
Mongolian doubles its vowels (уу, ээ, өө) and uses ө/ү; Russian never doubles vowels that way.
Side by side
Mongolian
Хүн бүр төрж мэндлэхдээ эрх чөлөөтэй байдаг.
Сайн байна уу? Өнөөдөр сайхан өдөр байна.
Аяны зам мянган бээрээс эхэлдэг.
Mongolian's own tells
- Cyrillic with ө and ү plus constant doubled vowels: уу, ээ, аа.
On signs in:
- Mongolia
Russian
Все люди рождаются свободными и равными.
Здравствуйте! Это Москва — столица России.
Старый друг лучше новых двух.
Russian's own tells
- Has ы and э (plus rarer ъ, ё); uses и but never the dotted і.
- The 'default' Cyrillic — no extra bars, hooks or accents.
On signs in:
- Russia
- Belarus
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Tajikistan