Mongolian Letter Sibe U

Manchu has it as a sixth vowel; Sibe keeps only positional forms.

Manchu transcriptions render this vowel as ū, v, or uu—different Latin spellings for one letter. The mark in ū is a transcription convention, not a direction to lengthen the vowel; descriptions differ on its exact historical sound. Sibe removed ᡡ from its five-vowel alphabet, but after ᡴ, ᡤ, or ᡥ it keeps the middle and final forms as variants of the fifth vowel ᡠ, pronounced the same way in those positions.

The Manchu script was adapted from Mongolian in 1599 under the order of Nurhaci and reformed in 1632. Sibe soldiers and families were moved to Xinjiang’s Ili Valley in 1764; the later Sibe written standard grew from Manchu, and a 1947 reform established it under its own name. Schools in Cabcal were using the revised writing by 1957.

How do I type ᡡ in a word?

Use a Mongolian-capable keyboard, font, and text layout.

Mongolian-based writing runs vertically, top to bottom, in columns from left to right. Letters join and change shape by word position, and neighbors may form ligatures; this sample’s isolated form may not match its shape inside a word.

As of 2026, separate Sibe and Manchu layouts are listed for Keyman; the Manchu layout types ū with v. Some Microsoft Word versions leave a first letter disconnected; beginning with a space is the documented workaround. Word’s “Vertical for Mongolian” setting lays out text vertically, while apps without vertical support may rotate the writing by 90 degrees.