Phags-pa (Unicode block)

Phags-pa is a Unicode block containing characters from the 'Phags-pa script promulgated as a national script by Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty. It was used primarily in writing Mongolian and Chinese, although it was intended for the use of all written languages of the Mongol Empire.

Phags-pa
Range	U+A840..U+A87F (64 code points)
Plane	BMP
Scripts	Phags Pa
Major alphabets	Mongolian Chinese
Assigned	56 code points
Unused	8 reserved code points
Unicode version history
5.0 (2006)	56 (+56)
Unicode documentation
Code chart ∣ Web page
Note: [1][2]

Visual representation of the Phags-pa Unicode block.

Block

Phags-pa[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+A84x

ꡀ

ꡁ

ꡂ

ꡃ

ꡄ

ꡅ

ꡆ

ꡇ

ꡈ

ꡉ

ꡊ

ꡋ

ꡌ

ꡍ

ꡎ

ꡏ

U+A85x

ꡐ

ꡑ

ꡒ

ꡓ

ꡔ

ꡕ

ꡖ

ꡗ

ꡘ

ꡙ

ꡚ

ꡛ

ꡜ

ꡝ

ꡞ

ꡟ

U+A86x

ꡠ

ꡡ

ꡢ

ꡣ

ꡤ

ꡥ

ꡦ

ꡧ

ꡨ

ꡩ

ꡪ

ꡫ

ꡬ

ꡭ

ꡮ

ꡯ

U+A87x

ꡰ

ꡱ

ꡲ

ꡳ

꡴

꡵

꡶

꡷

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The block has six variation sequences defined for standardized variants.^[3] They use U+FE00 VARIATION SELECTOR-1 (VS01):

Variation sequences for reversed shaping

U+	Character	Base code point	Base + VS01
A856	Phags‑Pa Letter Small A	ꡖ	ꡖ︀
A85C	Phags‑Pa Letter Ha	ꡜ	ꡜ︀
A85E	Phags‑Pa Letter I	ꡞ	ꡞ︀
A85F	Phags‑Pa Letter U	ꡟ	ꡟ︀
A860	Phags‑Pa Letter E	ꡠ	ꡠ︀
A868	Phags‑Pa Subjoined Letter Ya	ꡨ	ꡨ︀

Note that four vowel letters have positional variants:

Positional forms of I, U, E, and O

U+	Character	Orientation	Isolate	Initial	Medial	Final
U+A85E	Phags‑Pa Letter I	regular	ꡞ	ꡞ‍	‍ꡞ‍	‍ꡞ
		reversed	ꡞ︀	ꡞ︀‍	‍ꡞ︀‍	‍ꡞ︀
U+A85F	Phags‑Pa Letter U	regular	ꡟ	ꡟ‍	‍ꡟ‍	‍ꡟ
		reversed	ꡟ︀	ꡟ︀‍	‍ꡟ︀‍	‍ꡟ︀
U+A860	Phags‑Pa Letter E	regular	ꡠ	ꡠ‍	‍ꡠ‍	‍ꡠ
		reversed	ꡠ︀	ꡠ︀‍	‍ꡠ︀‍	‍ꡠ︀
U+A861	Phags‑Pa Letter O	regular	ꡡ	ꡡ‍	‍ꡡ‍	‍ꡡ

History

The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Phags-pa block:

Version	Final code points[a]	Count	L2 ID	WG2 ID	Document
5.0	U+A840..A877	56	L2/00-055	N2163 (pdf, doc)	Sato, T. K. (2000-01-06), Soyombo and Pagba (old Mongol scripts)
			L2/03-224		Baxter, William H. (2003-07-10), Email on 'Phags-pa
			L2/03-246		Quejingzhabu; West, Andrew (2003-08-12), Letter commenting on Phags-pa encoding
			L2/03-269		West, Andrew; Fynn, Christopher (2003-08-16), E-mail questions and answers on Phags-pa encoding
			L2/03-229R3	N2622	West, Andrew (2003-09-18), Proposal to encode the Phags-pa script
			L2/03-366	N2666	Principles on Encoding Phags-pa Script, 2003-10-20
			L2/03-374		West, Andrew (2003-10-22), Response to N2666 (Principles on Encoding Phags-pa Script)
				N2912	Constable, Peter (2004-01-22), Open Issues on Phags-pa Encoding
			L2/04-085	N2706	Summary of Voting on ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 N 3696 : Project Subdivision Proposal for ISO/IEC 10646: 2003/Amendment 1, 2004-02-03
			L2/04-112	N2719	West, Andrew (2004-03-10), Response to Comments on Phags-pa Proposal in N2706
			L2/04-134	N2745	HPhags-pa script encoding, 2004-04-02
			L2/04-174	N2771	West, Andrew (2004-06-01), Comments on Chinese-Mongolian joint proposal to encode the Hphags-pa script (N2475)
			L2/04-275	N2829	Chen, Zhuang; Jia, La Sen; He, Xi Ge Du Ren; Tumurtogoo, Domi; Everson, Michael; Sekiguchi; Constable, Peter; Whistler, Ken; Freytag, Asmus (2004-06-22), Consensus on the encoding of the Phags-pa script in the PDAM code chart
			L2/04-414	N2870	Summary of the Revised User's Agreement Related to Phags-pa Script, 2004-10-25
			L2/04-412	N2869	Proposal to Encode the Phags-Pa Script, 2004-11-17
			L2/04-413	N2869c	Cover letter to Updated proposal to encode the Phags-pa Script, 2004-11-17
			L2/04-415	N2871	Some Problems on the Encoding of the Phags-pa Script, 2004-11-17
			L2/05-036	N2922	Consensus on Encoding Phags-pa Script, 2005-01-25
			L2/05-059		Whistler, Ken (2005-02-03), "1. Phags-pa", WG2 Consent Docket, Part 2: Unicode 5.0 Issues
			L2/05-026		Moore, Lisa (2005-05-16), "WG2 - Unicode 5.0 Consent Docket (B.1.16)", UTC #102 Minutes
			L2/05-219	N2964	A User's Agreement Related to Phags-pa Script, 2005-08-05
			L2/05-255	N2972	West, Andrew (2005-08-17), Glyph Forms for PHAGS-PA LETTER YA and PHAGS-PA LETTER ALTERNATE YA
			L2/05-257	N2979	West, Andrew (2005-09-01), Phags-pa Glyphs
			L2/05-270		Whistler, Ken (2005-09-21), "F. Phags-pa Glyphs", WG2 Consent Docket (Sophia Antipolis)
			L2/05-279		Moore, Lisa (2005-11-10), "Consensus 105-C29", UTC #105 Minutes
				N2953 (pdf, doc)	Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2006-02-16), "7.2.1", Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 47, Sophia Antipolis, France; 2005-09-12/15
			L2/12-360		Esfahbod, Behdad; Pournader, Roozbeh (2012-11-05), Mongolian and 'Phags-Pa Shaping
			L2/12-343R2		Moore, Lisa (2012-12-04), "B.14.5 Mongolian Shaping", UTC #133 Minutes
			L2/13-146	N4435	Suignard, Michel (2013-05-27), Presentation of vertical scripts
			L2/13-132		Moore, Lisa (2013-07-29), "B.1.7 Presentation of vertical scripts", UTC #136 Minutes
				N4403 (pdf, doc)	Umamaheswaran, V. S. (2014-01-28), "11.1.2 Presentation of Vertical scripts (Mongolian and Phags-pa)", Unconfirmed minutes of WG 2 meeting 61, Holiday Inn, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2013-06-10/14
			L2/18-278		Dyi-Yuaan, Lo (2018-08-30), A Glyph Error of 'Phags-pa Alternate YA (U+A86D)
			L2/18-280	N5012	West, Andrew (2018-08-30), Discussion of 'Glyph Error of 'Phags-pa Alternate YA'
			L2/18-272		Moore, Lisa (2018-10-29), "C.5.1 A Glyph Error of 'Phags-pa Alternate YA (U+A86D)", UTC #157 Minutes
Proposed code points and characters names may differ from final code points and names