Old Turkic script

Old Turkic script Orkhon script
A line dedicated toBumin Qaghanin theOngin inscription
Script type	Alphabet
Time period	8th to 10th centuries
Direction	Right-to-left script
Languages	Old Turkic
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphics Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Syriac alphabet ▪︎Sogdian alphabet Old Turkic script
Child systems	Old Hungarian
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Orkh(175),​Old Turkic, Orkhon Runic
Unicode
Unicode alias	Old Turkic
Unicode range	U+10C00–U+10C4F

class=notpageimage|

Location of the Orkhon Valley in Asia

TheOld Turkic script(also known as variouslyGöktürk script,Orkhon script,Orkhon-Yenisey script,Turkic runes) was thealphabetused by theGöktürksand other earlyTurkickhanatesfrom the 8th to 10th centuries to record theOld Turkic language.

The text is derived from the Aramaic alphabet.

The script is named after theOrkhon ValleyinMongoliawhere early 8th-century inscriptions were discovered in an 1889 expedition byNikolai Yadrintsev.TheseOrkhon inscriptionswere published byVasily Radlovand deciphered by theDanishphilologistVilhelm Thomsenin 1893.

This writing system was later used within theUyghur Khaganate.Additionally, aYeniseivariant is known from 9th-centuryYenisei Kirghizinscriptions, and it has likely cousins in theTalas ValleyofTurkestanand theOld Hungarian alphabetof the 10th century. Words were usually writtenfrom right to left.

Origins

Many scientists, starting withVilhelm Thomsen(1893), suggested that Orkhon script is derived from descendants of theAramaic alphabetin particular via thePahlaviandSogdian alphabetsofPersia,or possibly viaKharosthiused to writeSanskrit.It has also been speculated thattamgas(livestock brands used by Eurasian nomads) were one of the sources of the Old Turkic script,but despite similarities in shape and forms, this hypothesis has been widely rejected as unverifiable, largely because early tamgas are too poorly attested and understood to be subject to a thorough comparison..The text is most likely derived from Aramaic viaSogdian alphabetand Graphic fatherSyriac alphabet.

Contemporary Chinese sources conflict as to whether the Turks had a written language by the 6th century. The 7th centuryBook of Zhoumentions that the Turks had a written language similar to that of the Sogdians. Two other sources, theBook of Suiand theHistory of the Northern Dynasties,claim that the Turks did not have a written language.According to István Vásáry, Old Turkic script was invented under the rule of the first khagans and was modelled after the Sogdian fashion.Several variants of the script came into being as early as the first half of the 6th century.

Corpus

The Old Turkic corpus consists of about two hundredinscriptions, plus a number of manuscripts. The inscriptions, dating from the 7th to 10th century, were discovered in present-day Mongolia (the area of theSecond Turkic Khaganateand theUyghur Khaganatethat succeeded it), in the upperYenisey basinof central-southSiberia,and in smaller numbers, in theAltay mountainsandXinjiang.The texts are mostlyepitaphs(official or private), but there are also graffiti and a handful of short inscriptions found on archaeological artifacts, including a number of bronze mirrors.

The website of theLanguage Committee of Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstanlists 54 inscriptions from the Orkhon area, 106 from the Yenisei area, 15 from the Talas area, and 78 from the Altai area. The most famous of the inscriptions are thetwo monuments(obelisks) which were erected in theOrkhon Valleybetween 732 and 735 in honor of theGöktürkprinceKül Tiginand his brother the emperorBilge Kağan.TheTonyukuk inscription,a monument situated somewhat farther east, is slightly earlier, dating toc. 722.These inscriptions relate in epic language the legendary origins of theTurks,the golden age of their history, their subjugation by theChinese(Tang-Gokturk wars), and their liberation byBilge.

The Old Turkic manuscripts, of which there are none earlier than the 9th century, were found in present-day Xinjiang and representOld Uyghur,a different Turkic dialect from the one represented in the Old Turkic inscriptions in the Orkhon valley and elsewhere.They includeIrk Bitig,a 9th-century manuscript book on divination.

Alphabet

Table of characters as published by Thomsen (1893)

Old Turkic being asynharmonic language,a number of consonant signs are divided into two "synharmonic sets", one for front vowels and the other for back vowels. Such vowels can betaken as intrinsic to the consonant sign,giving the Old Turkic alphabet an aspect of anabugidascript. In these cases, it is customary to use superscript numerals ¹ and ² to mark consonant signs used with back and front vowels, respectively. This convention was introduced by Thomsen (1893), and followed by Gabain (1941), Malov (1951) and Tekin (1968).

Vowels, with Yenisian variants

𐰀‎𐰁 𐰂‎ IPA:/ɑ/,/æ/ a, ä

𐰃‎𐰄‎ IPA:/ɯ/,/i/ ï/ı, i

𐰅‎ IPA:/e/ e

𐰆‎ IPA:/o/,/u/ o, u

𐰇‎𐰈‎ IPA:/ø/,/y/ ö, ü

Consonant sets, with Yenisian variants

Back vowels	𐰉‎𐰊‎ IPA:/b/ b¹	𐰑‎𐰒‎ IPA:/d/ d¹	𐰍‎𐰎‎ IPA:/ɢ/ γ/g¹	𐰞‎𐰟‎ IPA:/l/ l¹	𐰣‎ IPA:/n/ n¹	𐰺‎𐰻‎ IPA:/r/ r¹	𐰽‎ IPA:/s/ s¹	𐱃‎𐱄‎ IPA:/t/ t¹	𐰖‎𐰗‎ IPA:/j/ y¹/j¹	𐰴‎𐰵‎ IPA:/q/ q	𐰸‎𐰹‎ IPA:/oq/ oq
Front vowels	𐰋‎𐰌‎ IPA:/b/ b²	𐰓‎ IPA:/d/ d²	𐰏‎𐰐‎ IPA:/ɡ/ g/g²	𐰠‎ IPA:/l/ l²	𐰤‎𐰥‎ IPA:/n/ n²	𐰼‎ IPA:/r/ r²	𐰾‎ IPA:/s/ s²	𐱅‎𐱆‎ IPA:/t/ t²	𐰘‎𐰙‎ IPA:/j/ y²/j²	𐰚‎𐰛‎ IPA:/k/ k	𐰜‎𐰝‎ IPA:/øk/ ök
Others	𐰲‎𐰳‎ IPA:/tʃ/ č	𐰢‎ IPA:/m/ m	𐰯‎ IPA:/p/ p	𐱁‎𐱀 𐱂‎ IPA:/ʃ/ š	𐰔‎𐰕‎ IPA:/z/ z	𐰭‎𐰮 𐰬‎ IPA:/ŋ/ ñ, ň, ŋ	𐰱‎ IPA:/itʃ/, /tʃi/,/tʃ/ ič, či, č	𐰶‎𐰷‎ IPA:/ɯq/, /qɯ/,/q/ ıq, qı, q	𐰨‎𐰩‎ IPA:/ntʃ/ -nč	𐰪‎𐰫‎ IPA:/ɲ/ -nj, ny, ñ	𐰡‎ IPA:/lt/,/ld/ -lt
	𐰦‎𐰧‎ IPA:/nt/,/nd/ -nt	𐰿‎ IPA:/aʃ/ aš	𐱇‎ IPA:/ot/,/ut/ ot, ut	𐱈‎ IPA:/baʃ/ baš

Acolon-like symbol (U+205A⁚TWO DOT PUNCTUATION) is sometimes used as a word separator.In some cases a ring (U+2E30⸰RING POINT) is used instead.

A reading example (right to left): 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃 transliteratedt²ñr²i,this spells the name of the Turkic sky god,Täñri(/tæŋri/).

Variants

Examples of the Orkhon-Yenisei alphabet are depicted on thereverseof the Azerbaijani 5manatbanknote issued since 2006.

Oldest known Turkic alphabet listings, Ryukoku and Toyok manuscripts. Toyok manuscript transliterates Turkic alphabet into theOld Uyghur alphabet.PerКызласов, Игорь Леонидович[in Russian](1994).Рунические письменности евразийских степей.Восточная литература РАН.ISBN978-5-02-017741-3.

Variants of the script were found from Mongolia andXinjiangin the east to the Balkans in the west. The preserved inscriptions were dated to between the 8th and 10th centuries.

These alphabets are divided into four groups by Kyzlasov (1994)

• Asiaticgroup (includes Orkhon proper)
• Eurasiaticgroup
• Southern Europegroup

TheAsiaticgroup is further divided into three related alphabets:

• Orkhon alphabet, Göktürks, 8th to 10th centuries
• Yenisei alphabet,
  • Talas alphabet, a derivative of the Yenisei alphabet,KanglyorKarluks8th to 10th centuries. Talas inscriptions include Terek-Say rock inscriptions found in the 1897, Koysary text, Bakaiyr gorge inscriptions, Kalbak-Tash 6 and 12 inscriptions, Talas alphabet has 29 identified letters.

The Eurasiatic group is further divided into five related alphabets:

• Achiktash, used inSogdia8th to 10th centuries.
• South-Yenisei, used by the Göktürks 8th to 10th centuries.
• Two especially similar alphabets: the Don alphabet, used by theKhazars,8th to 10th centuries; and the Kuban alphabet, used by theBulgars,8th to 13th centuries. Inscriptions in both alphabets are found in thePontic–Caspian steppeand on the banks of theKamariver.
• Tisza, used by thePechenegs8th to 10th centuries.

A number of alphabets are incompletely collected due to the limitations of the extant inscriptions. Evidence in the study of the Turkic scripts includes Turkic-Chinese bilingual inscriptions, contemporaneous Turkic inscriptions in the Greek alphabet, literal translations into Slavic languages, and paper fragments with Turkic cursive writing from religion,Manichaeism,Buddhist,and legal subjects of the 8th to 10th centuries found inXinjiang.

Sample text

Transcription of part of Bilge Kağan's inscription (lines 36-38).

𐰖𐰕𐰸𐰞𐱃----: 𐰋𐰃𐰼𐰘𐰀: 𐱃𐰉𐰍𐰲𐰑𐰀: 𐱃𐰃: 𐰚𐰇𐰾𐰃:
𐰖𐰸: 𐰉𐰆𐰡𐰃: 𐰉𐰆: 𐰘𐰼𐰓𐰀: 𐰢𐰭𐰀: 𐰴𐰆𐰺: 𐰉𐰆𐰡𐰃:
𐰢𐰤: 𐰇𐰕𐰢: 𐰴𐰍𐰣: 𐰆𐰞𐰺𐱃𐰸𐰢: 𐰇𐰲𐰤: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:
𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣𐰍: ----𐰇----: 𐰴𐰞𐰢𐰑𐰢: 𐰃𐰠𐰏: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰇𐰏:
𐰘𐰏𐰓𐰃: 𐰴𐰕𐰍𐰦𐰢: 𐰃𐰑----: ----𐱅𐰃𐰼𐰠𐰯: 𐰘----:‎
𐰦𐰀: 𐰾𐰇𐰤𐱁𐰓𐰢: 𐰾𐰇𐰾𐰃𐰤: 𐰽𐰨𐰑𐰢: 𐰃𐰲𐰚𐰏𐰢𐰀:
𐰱𐰚𐰓𐰃: 𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣: 𐰉𐰆𐰡𐰃: 𐰇𐰠𐰏𐰢𐰀: 𐰇𐰠𐱅𐰃: 𐰾𐰠𐰭𐰀:
𐰸𐰆𐰑𐰃: 𐰖𐰆𐰺𐰯𐰣: 𐰴𐰺𐰍𐰣: 𐰶𐰃𐰽𐰞𐱃𐰀: 𐰋𐰃𐰤:
𐰉𐰺𐰴𐰃𐰤: 𐰦𐰀: 𐰉𐰆𐰕𐰑𐰢: ----: 𐰘𐱁𐰴𐰀: 𐰍𐰑𐰃:
𐰆𐰖𐰍𐰺: 𐰠𐱅𐰋𐰼: 𐰘𐰇𐰕𐰲𐰀: 𐰼𐰏: 𐰃𐰠𐰏𐰼𐰇: 𐱅𐰕𐰯:
𐰉𐰺𐰑𐰃: ----:‎
𐱅𐰃: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰: 𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣: 𐰀𐰲: 𐰼𐱅𐰃: 𐰆𐰞:
𐰘𐰃𐰞𐰴𐰃𐰍: 𐰞𐰯: 𐰃𐰏𐱅𐰢: 𐰆𐱃𐰕: 𐰺𐱃𐰸𐰃: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐱅:
𐰖𐱁𐰢𐰀: 𐰆𐰍𐰕: 𐱅𐰕𐰯: 𐱃𐰉𐰍𐰲𐰴𐰀: 𐰚𐰃𐰼𐱅𐰃:
𐰇𐰚𐰤𐰯: 𐰾𐰇𐰠𐰓𐰢: 𐰽𐰆𐰴𐰣: ----: 𐰆𐰍𐰞𐰃𐰤:
𐰖𐰆𐱃𐰕𐰃𐰤: 𐰦𐰀: 𐰞𐱃𐰢: 𐰚𐰃: 𐰠𐱅𐰋𐰼𐰠𐰏: 𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣:‎

Unicode

Main article:Old Turkic (Unicode block)

The Unicode block for Old Turkic is U+10C00–U+10C4F. It was added to theUnicodestandard in October 2009, with the release of version 5.2. It includes separate "Orkhon" and "Yenisei" variants of individual characters.

SinceWindows 8Unicode Old Turkic writing support was added in theSegoefont.

Old Turkic[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+10C0x

𐰀

𐰁

𐰂

𐰃

𐰄

𐰅

𐰆

𐰇

𐰈

𐰉

𐰊

𐰋

𐰌

𐰍

𐰎

𐰏

U+10C1x

𐰐

𐰑

𐰒

𐰓

𐰔

𐰕

𐰖

𐰗

𐰘

𐰙

𐰚

𐰛

𐰜

𐰝

𐰞

𐰟

U+10C2x

𐰠

𐰡

𐰢

𐰣

𐰤

𐰥

𐰦

𐰧

𐰨

𐰩

𐰪

𐰫

𐰬

𐰭

𐰮

𐰯

U+10C3x

𐰰

𐰱

𐰲

𐰳

𐰴

𐰵

𐰶

𐰷

𐰸

𐰹

𐰺

𐰻

𐰼

𐰽

𐰾

𐰿

U+10C4x

𐱀

𐱁

𐱂

𐱃

𐱄

𐱅

𐱆

𐱇

𐱈

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

See also

• Neolithic signs in China § Banpo and Jiangzhai
• Khazar language
• Tariat inscriptions
• Sükhbaatar inscriptions

References

Sources

• Diringer, David.The Alphabet: a Key to the History of Mankind,New York, NY: Philosophical Library, 1948, pp. 313–315.
• Erdal, Marcel. 2004.A grammar of Old Turkic.Leiden & Boston: Brill.
• Guzev, V.G., Kljashtornyj, S.G.The Turkic Runic script: Is the hypothesis of its indigenous origin no more viable?Rocznik Orientalistyczny, T. 49, Z. 2 (1994), wyd. 1995 [19]
• LFaulmann, Carl. 1990 (1880).Das Buch der Schrift. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn.ISBN3-8218-1720-8(in German)
• Février, James G.Histoire de l'écriture,Paris: Payot, 1948, pp. 311–317(in French)
• Ishjatms, N. "Nomads in Eastern Central Asia", in the "History of civilizations of Central Asia", Volume 2, UNESCO Publishing, 1996,ISBN92-3-102846-4
• Jensen, Hans (1970).Sign Symbol and Script.London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.ISBN0-04-400021-9.
• Kyzlasov, I.L. "Runic Scripts of Eurasian Steppes", Moscow, Eastern Literature, 1994,ISBN5-02-017741-5
• Malov, S.E. 1951,Pamjatniki Drevnitjurkskoj Pisʹmennosti(Памятники Древнитюркской Письменности), Moskva & Leningrad.(in Russian)
• Muxamadiev, Azgar. (1995). Turanian Writing (Туранская Письменность). In Zakiev, M. Z.(Ed.), Problemy lingvoėtnoistorii tatarskogo naroda (Проблемы лингвоэтноистории татарского народа). Kazan: Akademija Nauk Tatarstana.(in Russian)
• Róna-Tas, A. 1991.An introduction to Turkology.Szeged.
• Tekin, Talat.A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic. Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series,vol. 69 (Bloomington/The Hague: Mouton, 1968)
• Thomsen, Vilhelm.Inscriptions de l'Orkhon déchiffrées,Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, Helsinki Toimituksia, no. 5Helsingfors: La société de littérature Finnoise[1](in French)
• Vasilʹiev, D.D.Korpus tjurkskix runičeskix pamjatnikov Bassina Eniseja[Corpus of the Turkic Runic Monuments of the Yenisei Basin], Leningrad: USSR Academy of Science, 1983(in Russian)
• von Gabain, A. 1941.Alttürkische Grammatik mit Bibliographie, Lesestücken und Wörterverzeichnis, auch Neutürkisch.Mit vier Schrifttafeln und sieben Schriftproben. (Porta Linguarum Orientalium; 23) Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz.(in German)

External links

• Türk bitig - Old Turkic inscriptions, Texts, Translations
• Orkhon Alphabet page from Omniglot
• Gokturkish Keyboard by Isa SARI
• Old Turkic Virtual Keyboard by Pamukkale University
• glyph table(kyrgyz.ru)
• Everson, Michael(25 January 2008)."L2/08-071: Proposal for encoding the Old Turkic script in the SMP of the UCS"(PDF).
• Хөх Түрүгийн Бичиг(in Mongolian)
• Göktürükçe çevirici(An online converter for Turkish alphabet )