Turkic alphabets

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The Turkic alphabets are sets of related alphabets with letters (formerly known as runes), used for writing mostly Turkic languages. Inscriptions in Turkic alphabets were found from Mongolia and Eastern Turkestan in the east to Balkans in the west. Most of the preserved inscriptions were dated to between 8th and 10th centuries AD.

Contents

[edit] Overview

The earliest positively dated and read Turkic inscriptions date from ca. 150, and the alphabets were generally replaced by the Uigur alphabet in the Central Asia, Arabic script in the Middle and Western Asia, Greek-derived Cyrillic in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans, and Latin alphabet in Central Europe. The latest recorded use of Turkic alphabet was recorded in Central Europe's Hungary in 1699 AD.

The Turkic alphabets are divided into four groups, the best known of them is the Orkhon version of the Enisei group.

The Euro Asiatic group is further divided into five related alphabets:

  • Don alphabet, Alans and Khazar Kaganate 8-10th centuries AD, distinct and closely related to
  • Kuban alphabet, N.Pontic Bulgars, 8-13th centuries AD, both alphabets found in the N. Pontic and on the banks of the Kama river, and are related to the South-Yenisei script of South Siberia
  • South-Yenisei alphabet, C.Asia Kök Türks (Göktürks) 8-10th centuries AD
  • Tisza C.Europe Badjanaks 8-10th centuries AD
  • Achiktash C.Asia Sogd Türkuts 7-10th centuries AD
  • Isfar C.Asia Sogd unidentified ethnicity 7-10th centuries AD

The Asiatic group is further divided into three related alphabets:

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 Eastern Turkestan[2].

During the last two centuries the number of specialists knowledgeable of the Türkic scripts never exceeded low single digits. The last quarter of the 20es century brought about most of the paleographical and textual discoveries.

[edit] Origins

The origins of the Türkic scripts are uncertain. The initial guesses were based on visual, external resemblances of the Türkic runiform letters with the Gothic runes or with Greek, Etruscan and Anatolian letters, suggesting an Indo-European alphabet resembling Semitic Phoenician, Gothic, Phoenician-based Greek, etc. letters. Another suggestion, made after W.Thomsen deciphered Orhon inscriptions in 1893, about independent origin of the script from tamgas, in essence, equates two unknowns[3].

Four theories were proposed, but non of them gained universal acceptance.

The decipherer of the Türkic alphabet V.Thomsen tentatively linked the Orkhon alphabet to the Aramaic-Pehlevi and Aramaic-Sogdian alphabets, versions of semitic Aramaic. This hypothesis was construed on remote analogies of about half of the Orkhon alphabet letters[4], and it is widely diffused in the general scientific community.

A.Amanjolov advocates that Türkic runes have much better likeness with the ancient Phoenician-Aramaic letters, versus the Pehlevi and Sogdian[5]. .

A third theory linked the ancient Turkic writing with Chinese hieroglyphs for phonetic transcription. The Chinese sources say that the Huns (Chinese "Hsiong-nu", "Hsiung-nu", "Xiongnu", etc.), did not have ideographic form of writing like Chinese, but in the 2nd century B.C. a renegade Chinese dignitary Yue "taught the Shanyu 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 Huns noted down something or transmitted a message, they made cuts on a piece of wood ('k'o-mu'), and they also mention a "Hu script". At Noin-Ula and other Hun burial sites in Mongolia and region north of Lake Baikal among the artifacts were discovered over twenty carved characters. Most of these characters are either identical or very similar to the letters of the Turkic Orkhon-Yenisey script of the Early Middle Ages found in the Eurasian steppes. From this, some specialists hold that Huns had a script similar to the ancient Eurasian runiform, and that this alphabet was a base for later ancient Turkic writing.[6]

A fourth theory linked the ancient Turkic writing with another version of Aramaic, the Karosthi script, based on historical proximity, morphological similarity, and partial graphical resemblance.

2nd century BC - 2nd century AD, characters of Hun- Syanbi script (Mongolia and Inner Mongolia), N. 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. 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 Türkic alphaber listings, Rjukoku and Toyok manuscripts. Toyok manuscript transliterates Türkic alphaber into [Uighur|Uigur]] alphabet. Per I.L.Kyzlasov, "Runic Scripts of Eurasian Steppes", Moscow, Eastern Literature, 1994, ISBN 5-02-017741-5.

[edit] Scholars

Among the scholars, who made substantial discoveries and readings in the family of the Turkic alphabets during the last century of the studies, are these prominent scientists.

Altheim F., Amanjolov A.C., Baichorov S.Ya., Batmanov I.A., Bernshtam A.L., Donner O., Emre A.J., Habichev M.A., Khalikov I, Kh., Klyashtorny S.G., Kochkina A.F., Kondratiev V.G., Kononov A.N., Kyzlasov I.L., Malov S.E., Mukhamadiev A., Orkun H.N., Nemeth J., Radloff W., Ryasyanen M., Shcherbak A.M., Tenishev E.R., Thomsen V.

[edit] References

  • Kyzlasov I.L., "Runic Scripts of Eurasian Steppes", Moscow, Eastern Literature, 1994, ISBN 5-02-017741-5
  • Amanjolov A.S., "History of тhe Ancient Türkic Script", Almaty, "Mektep", 2003, ISBN 9965-16-204-2
  • 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
  • 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)
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