Soyombo Letter La

It writes the consonant l, normally with an a vowel. Soyombo is an abugida: its consonant letters normally include a following a vowel unless a vowel sign changes it.

Zanabazar created Soyombo in 1686 to write Mongolian and Buddhist texts in Sanskrit and Tibetan more accurately. The script served Buddhist study and translation. Written horizontally, its ornate, time-consuming forms appear in religious texts, temple inscriptions, prayer wheels and seals.

Is La Mongolia’s Soyombo emblem?

No. The emblem is a separate Soyombo head mark. It shows a moon, sun and flame; 𑩽 is a letter.

Soyombo has historical connections with Ranjana (also called Lantsa, a script used in Buddhist texts), Devanagari (the script used for Hindi and Sanskrit), and Tibetan writing. Zanabazar also created the related Zanabazar Square script.

After Mongolia’s independence in 1911, the separate head mark became a national symbol. The individual letters kept their role in the writing system.

Why does Soyombo La change in a consonant cluster?

Clusters use a special form of La, not a new letter value. A Soyombo subjoiner is a connector that helps stack consonants vertically. La has a separate form when it starts a consonant cluster.

Font coverage and shaping software affect the display: a missing glyph may fall back, and a cluster may fail to stack. A Microsoft Windows typography article described Soyombo’s aligned vertical bars in 2015.