Old Turkic alphabet

Old Turkic script
Type	Alphabet
Languages	Old Turkic
Time period	8th to 10th centuries
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Syriac Sogdian or Kharosthi Old Turkic script
Child systems	Old Hungarian
Direction	Right-to-left
ISO 15924	Orkh, 175
Unicode alias	Old Turkic
Unicode range	U+10C00–U+10C4F

Inscription in Kyzyl using Orkhon script

A copy of Bilge Kağan's stele in Ankara, Turkey.

Transcription of part of Bilge Kağan's inscription (lines 36-40)

Location of the Orkhon Valley.

The Old Turkic script (also known as variously Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script) is the alphabet used by the Göktürk and other early Turkic Khanates during the 8th to 10th centuries to record the Old Turkic language.

The script is named after the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia where early 8th-century inscriptions were discovered in an 1889 expedition by Nikolay Yadrintsev. These Orkhon inscriptions were published by Vasily Radlov and deciphered by the Danish philologist Vilhelm Thomsen in 1893.

This writing system was later used within the Uyghur Empire. Additionally, a Yenisei variant is known from 9th-century Kyrgyz inscriptions, and it has likely cousins in the Talas Valley of Turkestan and the Old Hungarian script of the 10th century. Words were usually written from right to left.

Origins

Orkhon script is derived from variants of the Aramaic alphabet, in particular via the Pahlavi and Sogdian alphabets, as suggested by V. Thomsen, or possibly via Karosthi (cf., Issyk inscription).

Aside from derivation from tamgas, an alternate possible derivation from Chinese script was suggested by V. Thomsen in 1893. Turkic inscriptions dating from earlier than the Orkhon inscriptions used about 150 symbols, which may suggest that tamgas first imitated Chinese script and then gradually was refined into an alphabet.

Thomsen (1893) connected the script to the reports of Chinese account (Shiji, vol. 110) from a 2nd-century BC Chinese Yan renegade and dignitary named Zhonghang Yue (Chinese: 中行说; pinyin: Zhōngháng Yuè), who

"taught the Shanyu (rulers of the Xiongnu) to write official letters to the Chinese court on a wooden tablet (simplified Chinese: 牍; traditional Chinese: 牘; pinyin: dú) 31 cm long, and to use a seal and large-sized folder".

The same sources tell that when the Xiongnu noted down something or transmitted a message, they made cuts on a piece of wood (ko-mu); they also mention a "Hu script". At Noin-Ula and other Hun burial sites in Mongolia and regions north of Lake Baikal, the artifacts displayed over twenty carved characters. Most of these characters are either identical with or very similar to the letters of the Turkic Orkhon script.

Part of the Zhou Shu, dating to the 5th century, mentions that the Turks did not have a way to keep records, implying that the Old Turkic alphabet may not have existed yet.

Corpus

The Old Turkic corpus consists of about two hundred inscriptions, plus a number of manuscripts.

The inscriptions, dating from the 7th to 10th century, were discovered in present-day Mongolia (the area of the Second Turkic Khaganate and the Uyghur Khaganate that succeeded it), in the upper Yenisey basin in central South Siberia, and, in smaller numbers, in the Altay mountains and in Xinjiang. The texts are mostly epitaphs (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 the Language Committee of Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan lists 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 the two monuments (obelisks) which were erected in the Orkhon Valley between 732 and 735 in honor of the Göktürk prince Kül Tigin and his brother the emperor Bilge Kağan. The Tonyukuk inscription, a monument situated somewhat farther east, is slightly earlier, dating to ca. 722. These inscriptions relate in epic language the legendary origins of the Turks, the golden age of their history, their subjugation by the Chinese, and their liberation by Bilge.

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

Table of characters

Table of characters as published by Thomsen (1893)

Old Turkic being a synharmonic 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 be taken as intrinsic to the consonant sign, giving the Old Turkic alphabet an aspect of an abugida script. 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

Orkhon	Yenisei variants	Transliteration / transcription
𐰀	𐰁 𐰂	a, ä
𐰃	𐰄 𐰅	y, i (e)
𐰆		o, u
𐰇	𐰈	ö, ü

Consonants

Synharmonic sets

Back vowel			Front vowel
Orkhon	Yenisei variant	Transliteration	Orkhon	Yenisei variant	Transliteration
𐰉	𐰊	b¹	𐰋	𐰌	b²
𐰑	𐰒	d¹	𐰓		d²
𐰍	𐰎	γ (g¹)	𐰏	𐰐	g (g²)
𐰴	𐰵	q (k¹)	𐰚	𐰛	k (k²)
𐰸	𐰹	oq, uq, qo, qu	𐰜	𐰝	ök, ük, kö, kü,
𐱃	𐱄	t¹	𐱅	𐱆	t²
𐰞	𐰟	ł (l¹)	𐰠		l (l²)
𐰣		n¹	𐰤	𐰥	n²
𐰺	𐰻	r¹	𐰼		r²
𐰽		s¹	𐰾		s²
𐰖	𐰗	j¹	𐰘	𐰙	j²

Other consonantal signs

Orkhon	Yenisei variant	Transliteration
𐰶	𐰷	yq, qy
𐰲	𐰳	č
𐰱		ič, či
𐰯		p
𐰢		m
𐰭	𐰮 𐰬	ṅ (ng, ŋ)
𐱁	𐱂	š
𐰔	𐰕	z
𐰨	𐰩	nč
𐰪	𐰫	ń, nj
𐰦	𐰧	nd
𐰡		ld
𐱇		ot, ut
𐱈		baš

A word separator : () is sometimes used.

A reading example (right to left): transliterated t²ṅr²i, this spells the name of the Turkic sky god, Tengri (/teŋri/).

Variants

Examples of the Orhon-Yenisei alphabet are depicted on the reverse of the Azerbaijani 5 manat banknote issued since 2006.

Variants of the script were found from Mongolia and Xinjiang in 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)

• Asiatic group (includes Orkhon proper)
• Eurasiatic group
• Southern Europe group

The Asiatic group is further divided into three related alphabets:

• Orkhon alphabet, Göktürk, 8th to 10th centuries
• Yenisei alphabet,
  • Talas alphabet, a derivative of the Yenisei alphabet, Kangly or Karluks 8th 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 in Sogdiana 8th to 10th centuries.
• South-Yenisei, used by the Göktürk 8th to 10th centuries AD.
• Two especially similar alphabets: the Don alphabet, used by the Khazar Khaganate, 8th to 10th centuries; and the Kuban alphabet, used by the Bulgars, 8th to 13th centuries. Inscriptions in both alphabets are found in the Pontic steppe and on the banks of the Kama river.
• Tisza, used by the Badjanaks (Pechenegs) 8th 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 in Xinjiang.

• 

  Oldest known Turkic alphabet listings, Rjukoku and Toyok manuscripts. Toyok manuscript transliterates Turkic alphabet into Uyghur alphabet. Per I. L. Kyzlasov, "Runic Scripts of Eurasian Steppes", Moscow, Eastern Literature, 1994, ISBN 5-02-017741-5.

Unicode

Main article: Old Turkic (Unicode block)

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

Since Windows 8 Unicode Old Turkic writing support was added in the Segoe UI Symbol font.

Old Turkic 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 8.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also

• Banpo symbols
• Göktürks
• Irk Bitig – a 9th-century manuscript book on divination in the Old Turkic script
• Khazar language
• Old Hungarian script
• Khöshöö Tsaidam Monuments
• Orkhon inscriptions
• Tariat inscriptions
• Sükhbaatar inscriptions

References

• Diringer, David. The Alphabet: a Key to the History of Mankind, New York: Philosophical Library, 1948, pp. 313–315
• Erdal, Marcel. 2004. A grammar of Old Turkic. Leiden & Boston: Brill.
• Faulmann, Carl. 1990 (1880). Das Buch der Schrift. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn. ISBN 3-8218-1720-8 (German)
• Février, James G. Histoire de l’écriture, Paris: Payot, 1948, pp. 311–317 (French)
• Ishjatms, N. "Nomads In Eastern Central Asia", in the "History of civilizations of Central Asia", Volume 2, UNESCO Publishing, 1996, ISBN 92-3-102846-4
• .
• Kara, György. 1996. “Aramaic scripts for Altaic languages”, in Peter T. Daniels and William Bright, eds. The world’s writing systems. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507993-0
• Kyzlasov, I.L. "Runic Scripts of Eurasian Steppes", Moscow, Eastern Literature, 1994, ISBN 5-02-017741-5
• Malov, S.E. 1951, Pamjatniki Drevnitjurkskoj Pisʹmennosti (Памятники Древнитюркской Письменности), Moskva & Leningrad. (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. (Russian)
• Róna-Tas, A. 1991. An introduction to Turkology. Szeged.
• Scharlipp, Wolfgang Ekkehard. 2000. Eski Türk run yazıtlarına giris ̧: ders kitabı = An introduction to the Old Turkish Runic inscriptions: A textbook in English and Turkish. Engelschoff: Auf dem Ruffel. ISBN 978-3-933847-00-3
• 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. 5 Helsingfors: La société de literature Finnoise [1] (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 (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. (German)

External links

• Orkhon Inscriptions in Old Turkic Alphabet Unicode
• Türk bitig - Old Turkic inscriptions, Texts, Translations
• Orkhon Alphabet page from Omniglot
• Gokturkish Keyboard by Isa SARI
• glyph table (kyrgyz.ru)
• Bilgitay Orhun Writer (An online converter for Latin alphabet based texts to Orhun Abece.)
• Michael Everson's Proposal for encoding the Old Turkic script in Unicode
• Хөх Түрүгийн Бичиг (in Mongolian)
• Göktürk Orhun Öz Türk Yazısını Öğrenme Kılavuzu (in Turkish)