Mongolian Colon

Place it after the introduction, before what follows. Mongolian punctuation uses this double dot after a speaker or thinker’s name before quoted words, or after a lead-in such as “for example” before examples or a list.

Traditional Mongolian is written vertically. W3C’s 2025 web-layout guidance centers punctuation within the vertical line and keeps the colon from starting a line. An oddly positioned mark can be a layout problem, not a different meaning.

The script’s origin does not date this particular mark

Traditional Mongolian writing was adapted from Old Uyghur, an earlier writing system, in the early thirteenth century; court record-keeping helped drive its adoption. The Yisüngge stele—an inscribed standing stone—probably dates to 1224 or 1225 and is an early surviving example.

These dates concern the script, not necessarily ᠄. A Mongolian edict from 1240 has no punctuation: an early text in the script does not automatically establish the colon’s age.