| Orkhon script | ||
|---|---|---|
| Type | Alphabet | |
| Spoken languages | Old Turkic | |
| Time period | 8th to 13th centuries | |
| Parent systems | Proto-Canaanite → Phoenician → Aramaic → Syriac → Sogdian (controversial) → Orkhon script | |
| Child systems | Old Hungarian script | |
| Unicode range | Not in Unicode | |
| ISO 15924 | Orkh | |
 | ||
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested Turkic language, found in inscriptions by the The Proto-Canaanite alphabet is a consonantal alphabet of twenty-two acrophonic glyphs found in Levantine texts of the Late Bronze Age (from ca The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC The Aramaic alphabet is an Abjad, a Consonantal Alphabet, used for writing Aramaic. The Syriac alphabet is a Writing system used to write the Syriac language from around the 2nd century BC. The Sogdian alphabet was originally used for the Sogdian language, which belongs to the Iranian family The Old Hungarian script, also known as rovásírás (rovásírás hu ''székely rovásírás'' ( or simply hu ''rovás'' is a type of Writing system used Unicode ’s ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of Writing systems (scripts In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's | ||
The Old Turkic script (also Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script; Turkish: Orhun Yazıtları, 鄂爾渾文字) is the alphabet used by the Göktürk from the 8th century to record the Old Turkic language. Kyzyl ( Tuvan and Кызы́л is a city, and is the capital of the Tuva Republic, Russia. Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after İstanbul. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either Göktürks ( Turkish: Gök Türkler) were a Turkic people of ancient Central Asia. Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested Turkic language, found in inscriptions by the It was later used by the Uyghur Empire; 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. The Uyghur (also spelled Uygur, Uighur, Uigur, Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر) are a Turkic people of Central Asia. Yenisei (Енисе́й is the greatest River system flowing to the Arctic Ocean, and at 5539 km (3445 mi is the fifth longest river in the world The Kyrgyz (also spelled Kirgiz, Kirghiz) are a Turkic Ethnic group found primarily in Kyrgyzstan. The Talas River crosses the territory of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Turkestan (literally meaning "Land of the Turks" is a region in Central Asia, which today is largely inhabited by Turkic peoples. The Old Hungarian script, also known as rovásírás (rovásírás hu ''székely rovásírás'' ( or simply hu ''rovás'' is a type of Writing system used The alphabet was usually written from right to left.
The script is named after the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia, where 8th century inscriptions were discovered in an 1889 expedition by Nikolay Yadrintsev. Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape sprawls along the banks of the Orkhon River in Central Mongolia, some 360 km west from the capital Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia (mɒŋˈɡoʊliə, literally Mongol country/nation,) is a Landlocked Country in East Year 1889 ( MDCCCLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common These Orkhon inscriptions were published by Vasily Radlov and deciphered by the Danish philologist Vilhelm Thomsen in 1893. Vasily Vasilievich Radlov or Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff (Васи́лий Васи́льевич Ра́длов – May 12, 1918) was a German The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Vilhelm Ludwig Peter Thomsen ( January 25, 1842 – May 12, 1927) was a Danish linguist. Year 1893 ( MDCCCXCIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common
The script is very similar to that on monuments left by Tu-jue (突厥 pinyin tú jué) in China during the Tang Dynasty. Göktürks ( Turkish: Gök Türkler) were a Turkic people of ancient Central Asia. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by Because of similarities to the angular shapes of the runic alphabet, the letters of the Orkhon script have been referred to as "Turkic runes" or described as "runiform". This similarity is superficial, however, since all alphabetic scripts used for incision in hard surfaces show this tendency (see Old Italic alphabets for other examples). Cutting is the separation of a physical object or a portion of a physical object into two portions through the application of an acutely directed force Old Italic refers to several now extinct Alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly Italic
Contents |
Origins
Mainstream opinion derives the Orkhon script from variants of the Aramaic alphabet, in particular via the Pahlavi and Sogdian alphabets, as suggested by V.Thomsen, or possibly via Karosthi (cf. The Aramaic alphabet is an Abjad, a Consonantal Alphabet, used for writing Aramaic. The Sogdian alphabet was originally used for the Sogdian language, which belongs to the Iranian family Vilhelm Ludwig Peter Thomsen ( January 25, 1842 – May 12, 1927) was a Danish linguist. The Kharoṣṭhī script, also known as the Gāndhārī script, is an ancient Abugida (an alphasyllabary based on consonants with graphical variations to express , Issyk inscription). The Issyk Kurgan, in south-eastern Kazakhstan, less than 20 km east from the Talgar alluvial fan, near Issyk, is a burial mound discovered in
Alternative possibilities include derivation from tamgas, suggested by W. A tamga, or tamgha (Modern Turkish: damga stamp mark stigma brand) is an abstract seal or device used by Eurasian nomadic peoples and by Thomsen in 1893, from the Chinese script. A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( Turkish inscriptions dated earlier than the Orkhon inscriptions used about 150 symbols, which may suggest tamgas at first imitating the Chinese script and then gradually refined into an alphabet.
The Danish hypothesis connects the script to the reports of Chinese account[1], from a 2nd century BC Chinese Yan renegade and dignitary named Zhonghang Yue (中行说) who
- "taught the Shanyu (rulers of the Xiongnu) to write official letters to the Chinese court on a wooden tablet (牍) 31 cm long, and to use a seal and large-sized folder". Yan ( was a state during the Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods in China. Shanyu ( Archaic Chinese: dar wa, transliterated Chanyu, the pronunciation in modern Mandarin it is also sometimes transliterated Shanyu supposedly because the The Xiongnu ( Turkish: Doğu Hun were a confederation of nomadic tribes from Central Asia with a ruling class of unknown origin and other subjugated tribes
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), and they also mention a "Hu script". At Noin-Ula and other Hun burial sites in Mongolia and region north of Lake Baikal, the artifacts displayed over twenty carved characters. The Noin-Ula kurgans are located by the Selenga River in the northern Mongolia hills north of Ulan Bator. Most of these characters are either identical or very similar to the letters of the Turkic Orkhon script. [2]
Kazakh turkologist A. S. Amanzholov proposes that the script may derive directly from the Phoenician alphabet, or even "ascends to the most ancient common source of alphabetic writing [. The Kazakhs (also spelled Kazaks, Qazaqs; Kazakh: Қазақтар qɑzɑqtɑr Russian: Казахи the English name is transliterated The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC . . ] of the 3rd - 2nd millennia BC". [3].
Corpus
The inscription corpus consists of two monuments which were erected in the Orkhon Valley between 732 and 735 in honour of the two Kokturk prince Kul Tigin and his brother the emperor Bilge Khan, as well as inscriptions on slabs scattered in the wider area. Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape sprawls along the banks of the Orkhon River in Central Mongolia, some 360 km west from the capital Ulaanbaatar. For the area code see Area code 732. Events By Place Europe October 10 — Battle of Events A Smallpox epidemic starts in Ancient Japan, which reduces the population by 30% Göktürks ( Turkish: Gök Türkler) were a Turkic people of ancient Central Asia. Kul Tigin ( Kül (Köl Gül Göl Tigin (Tegin Kul Khan Bengü İnançu Apa Tarkan) 闕特勒 (685 - 731 or 732 CE was a famous general of the Second Turkic Kaganate
The Orkhon monuments are the oldest known examples of Turkic writings; they are inscribed on obelisks and have been dated to 720 (for the obelisk relating to Tonyukuk), to 732 (for that relating to Kültigin), and to 735 (for that relating to Bilge Kagan). The Turkic languages constitute a Language family of some thirty languages spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the An obelisk (from Greek ὀβελίσκος - obeliskos, diminutive of ὀβελός - obelos, "spit nail pointed pillar" Events By Place Asia The Nihon Shoki (日本書紀 one of the oldest history books in Japan, is completed Tonyukuk 暾欲谷(died c 724 AD was the Yabgu and Commander-in-chief of four Göktürk Khagans the best known of whom is Bilge Khan For the area code see Area code 732. Events By Place Europe October 10 — Battle of Kul Tigin ( Kül (Köl Gül Göl Tigin (Tegin Kul Khan Bengü İnançu Apa Tarkan) 闕特勒 (685 - 731 or 732 CE was a famous general of the Second Turkic Kaganate Events A Smallpox epidemic starts in Ancient Japan, which reduces the population by 30% They are carved in a script used also for inscriptions found in Mongolia, Siberia, and Eastern Turkistan and called by Thomsen "Turkish runes". Mongolia (mɒŋˈɡoʊliə, literally Mongol country/nation,) is a Landlocked Country in East Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving DO NOT ADD THE FLAG OF EAST TURKESTAN TO THIS ARTICLE *** THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT A GEOGRAPHICAL AREA AND [4] They 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 Turkish people (Türk Halkı also known as " Turks " ( Türkler) are defined mainly as being speakers of Turkish as a First language China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National [4] The polished style of the writings suggests considerable earlier development of the Turkish language. [4]
Variants
Variants of the script were found from Mongolia and Uyghurstan/Eastern Turkestan in the east to Balkans in the west. The preserved inscriptions were dated to between 7th and 13th centuries AD.
These alphabets are divided into four groups by Kyzlasov (1994)[5]
- Asiatic group (includes Orkhon proper)
- Eurasiatic group
- Turanian group
- Southern Europe group
The Asiatic group is further divided into three related alphabets:
- Orkhon alphabet, Göktürk, 8-10th centuries AD
- Yenisei alphabet,
- Talas alphabet, a derivative of the Yenisei alphabet, Kangly or Karluks 8-10th centuries AD. There is a wide variety of Languages spoken throughout Asia, comprising a number of families and some unrelated isolates For the superstate in George Orwell 's novel see Nations of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Tūrān ( is the ancient Iranian name for Central Asia, literally meaning "the land of the Tur" The term Southern Europe can have four definitions geographical political climatic phytogeographic There is a wide variety of Languages spoken throughout Asia, comprising a number of families and some unrelated isolates Göktürks ( Turkish: Gök Türkler) were a Turkic people of ancient Central Asia. Yenisei (Енисе́й is the greatest River system flowing to the Arctic Ocean, and at 5539 km (3445 mi is the fifth longest river in the world Kangju (Chinese 康居 was the name of an ancient people and the kingdom they established in central Asia The Karluks (obs Qarluqs, Qarluks, Karluqs, Arab/Persian Halluh,, customary phonetic Gelolu, Gelu, Khololo 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. [6]
The Eurasiatic group is further divided into five related alphabets:
- Achiktash, Sogdiana 7-10th centuries AD
- Isfar, Sogd unidentified ethnicity 7-10th centuries AD
- South-Yenisei, Göktürk 8-10th centuries AD
- Don alphabet, Alans and Khazar Khaganate, 8-10th centuries AD and Kuban alphabet, Bulghars, 8th-13th centuries AD, closely related, inscriptions in both alphabets found in the Pontic steppe and on the banks of the Kama river
- Tisza, Badjanaks 8-10th centuries AD
A number of alphabets are not completed, due to the limitations of the extant inscriptions. For the superstate in George Orwell 's novel see Nations of Nineteen Eighty-Four. History Hellenistic period The Sogdian Rock or Rock of Ariamazes a fortress in Sogdiana was captured in 327 BC by the forces of Alexander the Great Göktürks ( Turkish: Gök Türkler) were a Turkic people of ancient Central Asia. The Don (Дон is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 Kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast The Alans or Alani (occasionally but more rarely termed Alauni or Halani) were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people "Kazar" redirects here for the Marvel Comics character see Ka-Zar; for the village in Azerbaijan see Xəzər. Kuban ( Кубáнь) is a geographic region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe The Bulgars (also Bolgars or proto-Bulgarians) were a seminomadic people probably of Turkic descent originally from Central Asia, The term Pontic-Caspian steppe summarizes the vast Steppelands stretching from north of the Black Sea as far as the east of the Caspian Sea, from central Kāma ( Skt, Pali; Devanagari: काम is pleasure sensual gratification sexual fulfillment pleasure of the Senses, desire eros the aesthetic "Tisa" redirects here For other uses see Tisa (disambiguation and Tisza (disambiguation. The Pechenegs or Patzinaks ( Turkish: Peçenekler, Hungarian: Besenyő, Greek: Patzinaki/Petsenegi or Πατζινάκοι/Πετσενέγοι/Πατζινακίται Great help in the studies of the Türkic scripts was received from Türkic-Chinese bi-lingual inscriptions, contemporaneous Türkic inscriptions in Greek alphabet, literal translation into Slavic language, and paper fragments with Türkic cursive writing on Türkic religion, Manichaeism, Buddhist and legal subjects of the 8-10th centuries AD found in Uyghurstan/Eastern Turkestan. [7]
During the last two centuries the number of specialists knowledgeable in the Türkic scripts never exceeded low single digits. The last quarter of the 20th century brought about most of the paleographical and textual discoveries.
 2nd century BC - 2nd century AD, characters of Hun- Syanbi script (Mongolia and Inner Mongolia), N. The Xiongnu ( Turkish: Doğu Hun were a confederation of nomadic tribes from Central Asia with a ruling class of unknown origin and other subjugated tribes The Xianbei ( were a significant nomadic people residing in Manchuria and eastern Mongolia, or Xianbei Shan. Ishjatms, "Nomads In Eastern Central Asia", in the "History of civilizations of Central Asia", Volume 2, Fig 5, p. 166, UNESCO Publishing, 1996, ISBN 92-3-102846-4 |  2nd century BC - 2nd century AD, characters of Hun- Syanbi script (Mongolia and Inner Mongolia), N. The Xiongnu ( Turkish: Doğu Hun were a confederation of nomadic tribes from Central Asia with a ruling class of unknown origin and other subjugated tribes The Xianbei ( were a significant nomadic people residing in Manchuria and eastern Mongolia, or Xianbei Shan. Ishjatms, "Nomads In Eastern Central Asia", in the "History of civilizations of Central Asia", Volume 2, Fig 5, p. 166, UNESCO Publishing, 1996, ISBN 92-3-102846-4 |  Oldest known Turkic alphabet listings, Rjukoku and Toyok manuscripts. Toyok manuscript transliterates Turkic alphabet into Uyghur alphabet. Uyghur (/ ug-Latn Uyƣurqə/ug-Cyrl Уйғурчә, or / ug-Latn Uyƣur tili/ug-Cyrl Уйғур Per I. L. Kyzlasov, "Runic Scripts of Eurasian Steppes", Moscow, Eastern Literature, 1994, ISBN 5-02-017741-5. |
Table of characters
| Using | Symbols | Transliteration and transcription | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vowels |  | A | /a/, /e/ | |||||
 | I | /ɯ/, /i/, /j/ | ||||||
 | O | /u/, /o/, /w/ | ||||||
 | U | /ø/, /y/, /w/ | ||||||
| consonants | harmonized | with: (¹) — back, (²) — front vowels |  |  | B¹ | /b/ | B² | /b/ |
 |  | D¹ | /d/ | D² | /d/ | |||
 |  | G¹ | /g/ | G² | /g/ | |||
 |  | L¹ | /l/ | L² | /l/ | |||
 |  | N¹ | /n/ | N² | /n/ | |||
 |  | R¹ | /r/ | R² | /r/ | |||
 |  | S¹ | /s/ | S² | /s/ | |||
 |  | T¹ | /t/ | T² | /t/ | |||
 |  | Y¹ | /j/ | Y² | /j/ | |||
| only (¹) — Q only (²) — K |  |  | Q | /q/ | K | /k/ | ||
| with all vowels |  | -Ç | /ʧ/ | |||||
 | -M | /m/ | ||||||
 | -P | /p/ | ||||||
 | -Ş | /ʃ/ | ||||||
 | -Z | /z/ | ||||||
 | -NG | /ŋ/ | ||||||
| clusters | + vowel |  | IÇ, ÇI, Ç | /iʧ/, /ʧi/, /ʧ/ | ||||
 | IQ, QI, Q | /ɯq/, /qɯ/, /q/ | ||||||
 |  | OQ, UQ, QO, QU, Q | /oq/, /uq/, /qo/, /qu/, /q/ | ÖK, ÜK, KÖ, KÜ, K | /øk/, /yk/, /kø/, /ky/, /k/ | |||
| + consonant |  | -NÇ | /nʧ/ | |||||
 | -NY | /nj/ | ||||||
 | -LT | /lt/, /ld/ | ||||||
 | -NT | /nt/, /nd/ | ||||||
| word-divide symbol |  | none | ||||||
| (-) — word endings only | ||||||||
A reading example: 
— inscription (RTL)
- T²NGR²I — transliteration
- /teŋri/ — transcription
- teñri — record with modern Turkic alphabet
- the skygod or the eternal blue sky indicating the highest god — ancient meaning
- God — modern meaning
See also
Notes
- ^ Shiji, vol. Göktürks ( Turkish: Gök Türkler) were a Turkic people of ancient Central Asia. The Old Hungarian script, also known as rovásírás (rovásírás hu ''székely rovásírás'' ( or simply hu ''rovás'' is a type of Writing system used The Khosho Tsaidam Monuments, located in the Tsaidam Valley Lake along the western part of the Orkhon River in Mongolia, are two memorial monuments The Records of the Grand Historian, also known in English by the Chinese name 史記 or Shiji, written from 109 BC to 91 BC 110.
- ^ N. Ishjatms, "Nomads In Eastern Central Asia", in the "History of civilizations of Central Asia", Volume 2, Fig 6, p. 166, UNESCO Publishing, 1996, p. 165
- ^ Amanjolov A. S. , "History of the Ancient Türkic Script", Almaty, "Mektep", 2003, p. 286, p. 308
- ^ a b c Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Kyzlasov I. L. ; “Writings Of Eurasian Steppes”, Eastern Literature", Moscow, 1994, 327 pp. 321-323
- ^ Kyzlasov I. L. ; “Writings Of Eurasian Steppes”, Eastern Literature", Moscow, 1994, pp. 98-100
- ^ Amanjolov A. S. , "History of тhe Ancient Türkic Script", Almaty, "Mektep", 2003 ISBN 9965-16-204-2, p. 6-12
References
- David Diringer, The Alphabet: a Key to the History of Mankind, New York: Philosophical Library, 1948, pp. 313–315
- James G. Février, Histoire de l’écriture, Paris: Payot, 1948, pp. 311–317
- N. Ishjatms, "Nomads In Eastern Central Asia", in the "History of civilizations of Central Asia", Volume 2, UNESCO Publishing, 1996, ISBN 92-3-102846-4
- Jensen, Hans (1970). Sign Symbol and Script. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. ISBN 0-04-400021-9. . Transl. of Jensen, Hans (1958). Die Schrift in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften. , as revised by the author
- György Kara, Aramaic Scripts for Altaic Languages. In Daniels and *Bright, eds. , The World's Writing Systems, 1996.
- Kyzlasov I. L. , "Runic Scripts of Eurasian Steppes", Moscow, Eastern Literature, 1994, ISBN 5-02-017741-5
- A. Mukhamadiev, "Turanian Writing", in "Problems Of Lingo-Ethno-History Of The Tatar People", Kazan, 1995, ISBN 5-201-08300 (Азгар Мухамадиев, "Туранская Письменность", "Проблемы лингвоэтноистории татарского народа", Казань, 1995. с. 38, ISBN 5-201-08300, In Russian)
- Talat Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic. Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 69 (Bloomington/The Hague: Mouton, 1968)
- Vilhelm Thomsen, Inscriptions de l’Orkhon déchiffrées, Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, Helsinki Toimituksia, no. 5 Helsingfors: La société de literature Finnoise
- D. D. Vasil'iev, Korpus tiurkskikh runicheskikh pamyatnikov Bassina Eniseya [Corpus of the Turkic Runic Monuments of the Yenisei Basin], Leningrad: USSR Academy of Science, 1983
External links
- Orkhon Alphabet page from Omniglot
- glyph table (kyrgyz. ru)
- list of inscriptions (tonyukuk. net)
- Bilgitay Orhun Writer (An online converter for Latin alphabet based texts to Orhun Abece. )
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