“Монголын Нууц Товчоо”-г галиглахад хэрэглэсэн “馬” үсгийн тухай

‘馬’ used in transcribing ‘The History of the Mongols’

Abstract

This paper is related to the transcription system of the Secret History of the Mongols. In this unique work, there are many ways to transcribe Mongolian words by Chinese characters. For instance, compound ideogram translated as logical aggregates or associative compounds is commonly used. These characters have been interpreted as combining two or more pictographic or ideographic characters to suggest a third meaning.  I aim to consider on a case of Chinese pictogram 馬 (ma) which means horse. The 馬 is used to compose 12 different characters: 馬, , , , , , , , 驪, , 驖, 驛. The main focus is based on two points: frequency of 12 characters and its explanation. The characters are used 600 times in SHM. According to the study, one can see that there are many intentionally composed characters in Chinese for transcription of the Secret History of the Mongols.