Phags-pa

The 'Phags-pa script, (Mongolian: дөрвөлжин үсэг „Square script”) was an alphabet designed by the Tibetan monk and vice-king Drogön Chögyal Phagpa for the Mongol Yuan emperor Kublai Khan as a unified script for the literary languages of the Yuan. Widespread use was limited to about a hundred years during the Yuan Dynasty, and it fell out of use with the advent of the Ming dynasty. The documentation of its use provides clues about the changes in the varieties of Chinese, the Tibetic languages, Mongolian and other neighboring languages during the Yuan era.