the encyclopedic entry of Eastern Turkistan

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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., Issyk inscription).

Alternative possibilities include derivation from tamgas, suggested by W. Thomsen in 1893, from the Chinese script. 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, 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".

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. Most of these characters are either identical or very similar to the letters of the Turkic Orkhon script.

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 [...] of the 3rd - 2nd millennia BC"..

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 Kağan, as well as inscriptions on slabs scattered in the wider area.

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 Kağan). They are carved in a script used also for inscriptions found in Mongolia, Siberia, and Eastern Turkistan and called by Thomsen "Turkish runes". 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 polished style of the writings suggests considerable earlier development of the Turkish language.

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)

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. 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, 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. 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.

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.

Table of characters

Old-Turkic Alphabet (Classic age)
Using			Symbols		Transliteration and transcription
vowels			colspan="2"	colspan="2" \|A	/a/, /e/
			colspan="2"	colspan="2" \|I	/ɯ/, /i/, /j/
			colspan="2"	colspan="2" \|O	/u/, /o/, /w/
			colspan="2"	colspan="2" \|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/
		rowspan="4"
				-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

Notes

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 , 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