A Wild Flag Appears: Iron Man Mongolian

A Wild Flag Appears: Iron Man Mongolian

Monday, August 27, 2012

I didn't notice the flag while watching the movie but a few months ago I stumbled upon an image of the flag for the Ten Rings Group that makes an appearance within the Iron Man movies. I immediately recognized the script in the rings as Mongolian. However, internet searching didn't provide a translation. My Mongolian is a little rusty, but I decided to give this a shot.

So the first thing to do is get a good image of the flag. Unfortunately, all the available images of the flag or of the symbols on the flag that I've found are blurry. What makes translating a script difficult is small nuances that make the difference between one glyph or another. The largest image of the flag that I found is still blurry. It is also upside-down but I'm sure the photographer had no idea. I decided to make do with what I had.

Now the next problem is to find a source to transliterate the script into Latin characters so I can reference the word easier with a dictionary. The Mongolian script isn't hard to find but the actually written version of the letters is. Most of the Mongolian glyphs found on the internet or even printed in books are from a version different than writing. Take the letter "R" for example which is found at the end of the second row of consonants in the chart at Omniglot.com. Don't worry about initial, medial and final because the constructions all look very similar in this particular case. You'll notice that the glyph looks sort of like a number 7 with a hook in the front (except for the final version where the tail of the 7 swings down). It looks like it would be created with one continuous line starting with the bottom of the hook. This representation is misleading because the proper construction in handwriting is to make the hook at the top and the cross the hook with the 7. It would almost look like the way a person would cross a 7 (to differentiate it from a 1) and continuing to write another 7.

Another problem with the Mongolian script is that it is naturally ambiguous. Some glyphs can mean different things and usually the only way to determine the translation is through context. For example the words "long" (urtu) and "palace" (ordo) look identical in the script. There are also a few rules that help determine what letters are being represented but without a clear image, this is going to be difficult.

After about an hour of referencing the flag to the script and using my dictionaries, I believe I have the root words of 3 rings. Starting from the top center and moving clockwise, the 5th ring I believe starts with "M(A/E)R...". The "M" glyph is very recognizable because of the tail on the right side of the spine and after the tooth ("A/E") I see a faint representation of the "R" that I described earlier. My dictionary does not find a root for the word "MAR..." but for "MER..." which is "to gnaw, chew". The 8th ring I first thought to begin with either "IN(A/E)L..." or "Y(A/E)L..." but neither showed any roots in my dictionary. I believe this may begin as "S(A/E)L..." instead as the "S" character is often exaggerated in handwriting. The next issue is that both "SAL..." and "SEL..." are valid roots. "SAL..." means "to separate" while "SEL..." means to row. I'm leaning toward the "SAL..." word given the context of the flag. The 9th ring is difficult because of the first letter also however, I believe it begins "TAR..." which means "to scatter".

If I find a better image of the flag or the symbols on it, I'll update this post.