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The Old Turkic script (also Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script; Turkish: Orhun Yazıtları) is the alphabet used by the Göktürk from the 8th century to record the Old Turkic language.
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 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. These Orkhon inscriptions were published by Vasily Radlov
and deciphered by the Danish philologist Vilhelm Thomsen in 1893.
The script is very similar to that on monuments left by Tu-jue in China
during the Tang Dynasty.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.
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 (c.f. 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 who
"taught the Shanyu (rulers of the Xiongnu) to write official
letters to the Chinese court on a wooden tablet 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 Khan, 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 Kagan). 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.
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